Articles | Volume 4, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-4-683-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-4-683-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
08 Aug 2023
Research article |
| 08 Aug 2023
| 08 Aug 2023
Transient anticyclonic eddies and their relationship to atmospheric block persistence
Charlie C. Suitters
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
Oscar Martínez-Alvarado
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
Kevin I. Hodges
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
Reinhard K. H. Schiemann
Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS), University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
Duncan Ackerley
Met Office, Exeter, United Kingdom
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EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2281, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2281, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
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This paper presents a new large ensemble of climate model simulations: The CANARI HadGEM3 Large Ensemble (CANARI LE). The CANARI LE has a comparatively high resolution, provides sub-daily output on atmospheric pressure levels, and boundary conditions for driving regional model simulations. The CANARI LE is thus a community resource that lends itself for the study of physical coupled climate processes, weather systems, and impacts in a changing climate.
Jake Patrick Keller, Oscar Martínez-Alvarado, Ben J. Harvey, Claudio Sanchez, and Benoît Vannière
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-4273, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-4273, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Weather and Climate Dynamics (WCD).
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Storm Daniel led to severe flooding in Greece and Bulgaria, followed by a catastrophic flood in Derna, Libya. We establish that the event was difficult to predict because small errors in the track of Hurricane Franklin over the Atlantic several days earlier grew into large differences in forecasts over Europe. This study highlights the need for improved operational global weather forecasts and raises awareness of the early warning signs that can lead to high-impact weather.
Rafaela Jane Delfino, Gerry Bagtasa, Pier Luigi Vidale, and Kevin Hodges
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 26, 3579–3595, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-26-3579-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-26-3579-2026, 2026
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High-resolution simulations reveal that future warming amplifies tropical cyclone extreme rainfall in the Philippines, with inner-core increases exceeding 30–40 %, indicating a shift toward higher-intensity rainfall events. This response is primarily driven by thermodynamic moisture increases, while dynamical changes generally offset part of the increase. Tropical cyclone (TC) rainfall scaling is therefore largely moisture-driven, with TC-specific dynamics modulating the magnitude of rainfall enhancement.
Stella Bourdin, Kevin Hodges, Yushan Han, Leo Saffin, Alexander Baker, John Methven, and Pier Luigi Vidale
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-403, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-403, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD
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Prince Xavier, Martin Willett, Tim Graham, Paul Earnshaw, Dan Copsey, Nikesh Narayan, Charline Marzin, Alistair Sellar, Duncan Ackerley, Adam Blaker, Ed Blockley, Alejandro Bodas-Salcedo, Andrew Bushell, Nakbin Choi, Xin Rong Chua, Catherine Guiavarc'h, Muhammad Hassim, Julian Heming, Debra Hudson, Sarah Ineson, Anthony Jones, Colin Jones, Richard Keane, Kiwook Kim, Jiyeong Kim, Till Kuhlbrodt, Myong-In Lee, Richard Levine, Chen Li, Gill Martin, Alex Megann, Anne Mccabe, Aurel Moise, Leighton Regayre, Jeff Ridley, Luke Roberts, Sandeep Sahany, Reinhard K. H. Schiemann, David Storkey, Warren Tennant, Lorenzo Tomassini, Yoko Tsushima, Graham P. Weedon, Alex West, Matthew C. Wheeler, Keith Williams, Xiaobing Zhou, and Hongyan Zhu
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-4281, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-4281, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
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GC5 is the Met Office's newest climate and weather model, combining an updated atmosphere/land component with an improved ocean and sea-ice component. Compared to its predecessor GC4, it better simulates global temperatures, winds, monsoons over India and SE Asia, and African weather, and forecasts tropical cyclones more accurately. Southern Ocean errors shrank too. Some tropical patterns and regional biases worsened slightly. A lower-resolution version will underpin the UK's Earth System Model.
Dorothy Heinrich, Erin Coughlan de Perez, Leanne Archer, Nadia Bloemendaal, Kevin I. Hodges, Helen Hooker, Theodore G. Shepherd, Nathan Sparks, Ralf Toumi, and Elisabeth Stephens
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2758, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2758, 2026
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An unprecedented tropical cyclone (TC) can turn into a disaster if it is unforeseen. In this work, we explore different TC datasets to identify simulated events that could be unprecedented. We look at whether these scenarios could be considered be plausible and how different these would be from past records, and illustrate with examples. We highlight that there is a wealth of scenarios that could be used by disaster managers to imagine and prepare for unprecedented events.
Andrea Rivosecchi, Andrea Dittus, Ed Hawkins, Reinhard Schiemann, and Erich Fischer
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1733, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1733, 2026
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We analysed 250-year global temperature trends under zero CO2 emissions in the UK Earth System Model. Stopping emissions while global temperatures remain below +2 °C limits the post-net-zero mean surface warming. Annual hot extremes cool regionally after zero emissions in the midlatitudes, due to the expansion of evergreen vegetation. However, in this framework vegetation change is largely unconstrained by modern land-use changes, highlighting a potential limitation of idealised model protocols.
Paula L. M. Gonzalez, Duncan Ackerley, Eloise Matthews, Dan Suri, Emily Wallace, Matthew Wheeler, Jason A. Lowe, and Daisy Harley-Nyang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-181, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2026-181, 2026
Revised manuscript accepted for ESSD
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The Named Storms Catalogue is the first dataset to systematically evaluate ten years of UK storm naming using carefully designed metrics developed with Met Office meteorologists. It reveals how storms evolved and the hazards they created, enabling unprecedented comparison, ranking, and insight. The work introduces the dataset, showcases three case studies, and explores current and future uses with a view to helping experts and responders better understand and manage storm impacts.
Farrell Morgan, Ben Harvey, Kevin Hodges, and Oscar Martínez-Alvarado
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-289, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-289, 2026
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The socio-economic risk represented by mid-latitude cyclones in Europe is changing in a warming climate, but these changes are not uniform across all cyclones. Here we investigate climate change effects on contrasting historical cyclones that impacted the UK. We show that the changes in likelihood, intensity and causes do depend on each cyclone’s characteristics. This highlights that accounting for cyclone-specific responses is critical for assessing impacts and developing adaptation strategies.
Isabel H. Smith, Paul D. Williams, and Reinhard Schiemann
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2378, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2378, 2025
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Mountain wave turbulence (MWT) has a dangerous and costly impact on the aviation sector. There's a lack of research into future projected MWT with global warming. Overall, MWT trends are seasonally and location dependent. Over several mountain ranges an increase arose particularly over Greenland and regions in Asia. A drop in MWT also developed over the Alps, the Rockys, Atlas and northern and central Andes. Southern Andes and the Himalayas had seasonal differences resulting in a mix of trends.
Alex T. Archibald, Bablu Sinha, Maria R. Russo, Emily Matthews, Freya A. Squires, N. Luke Abraham, Stephane J.-B. Bauguitte, Thomas J. Bannan, Thomas G. Bell, David Berry, Lucy J. Carpenter, Hugh Coe, Andrew Coward, Peter Edwards, Daniel Feltham, Dwayne Heard, Jim Hopkins, James Keeble, Elizabeth C. Kent, Brian A. King, Isobel R. Lawrence, James Lee, Claire R. Macintosh, Alex Megann, Bengamin I. Moat, Katie Read, Chris Reed, Malcolm J. Roberts, Reinhard Schiemann, David Schroeder, Timothy J. Smyth, Loren Temple, Navaneeth Thamban, Lisa Whalley, Simon Williams, Huihui Wu, and Mingxi Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 135–164, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-135-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-135-2025, 2025
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Here, we present an overview of the data generated as part of the North Atlantic Climate System Integrated Study (ACSIS) programme that are available through dedicated repositories at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA; www.ceda.ac.uk) and the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC; bodc.ac.uk). The datasets described here cover the North Atlantic Ocean, the atmosphere above (it including its composition), and Arctic sea ice.
Lorenzo Sangelantoni, Stefano Tibaldi, Leone Cavicchia, Enrico Scoccimarro, Pier Luigi Vidale, Kevin Hodges, Vivien Mavel, Mattia Almansi, Chiara Cagnazzo, and Samuel Almond
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4157, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4157, 2025
Preprint archived
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We introduce a new dataset of European windstorms linked to extratropical cyclones, spanning whole ERA5 reanalysis period (1940–present). Developed under Copernicus Climate Change Service, the dataset provides standardized, high-quality information on windstorm tracks and footprints for industries like insurance and risk management. Preliminary findings show an increase in cold-season windstorms and their impacts in parts of Europe. Tracking methods contribute to uncertainties in key statistics.
Suzanne L. Gray, Ambrogio Volonté, Oscar Martínez-Alvarado, and Ben J. Harvey
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 1523–1544, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1523-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-1523-2024, 2024
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Sting jets occur in some of the most damaging cyclones impacting Europe. We present the first climatology of sting-jet cyclones over the major ocean basins. Cyclones with sting-jet precursors occur over the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Southern Oceans, with implications for wind warnings. Precursor cyclones have distinct characteristics, even in reanalyses that are too coarse to fully resolve sting jets, evidencing the climatological consequences of strong diabatic cloud processes.
Karina von Schuckmann, Lorena Moreira, Mathilde Cancet, Flora Gues, Emmanuelle Autret, Ali Aydogdu, Lluis Castrillo, Daniele Ciani, Andrea Cipollone, Emanuela Clementi, Gianpiero Cossarini, Alvaro de Pascual-Collar, Vincenzo De Toma, Marion Gehlen, Rianne Giesen, Marie Drevillon, Claudia Fanelli, Kevin Hodges, Simon Jandt-Scheelke, Eric Jansen, Melanie Juza, Ioanna Karagali, Priidik Lagemaa, Vidar Lien, Leonardo Lima, Vladyslav Lyubartsev, Ilja Maljutenko, Simona Masina, Ronan McAdam, Pietro Miraglio, Helen Morrison, Tabea Rebekka Panteleit, Andrea Pisano, Marie-Isabelle Pujol, Urmas Raudsepp, Roshin Raj, Ad Stoffelen, Simon Van Gennip, Pierre Veillard, and Chunxue Yang
State Planet, 4-osr8, 2, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-2-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-2-2024, 2024
Karina von Schuckmann, Lorena Moreira, Mathilde Cancet, Flora Gues, Emmanuelle Autret, Jonathan Baker, Clément Bricaud, Romain Bourdalle-Badie, Lluis Castrillo, Lijing Cheng, Frederic Chevallier, Daniele Ciani, Alvaro de Pascual-Collar, Vincenzo De Toma, Marie Drevillon, Claudia Fanelli, Gilles Garric, Marion Gehlen, Rianne Giesen, Kevin Hodges, Doroteaciro Iovino, Simon Jandt-Scheelke, Eric Jansen, Melanie Juza, Ioanna Karagali, Thomas Lavergne, Simona Masina, Ronan McAdam, Audrey Minière, Helen Morrison, Tabea Rebekka Panteleit, Andrea Pisano, Marie-Isabelle Pujol, Ad Stoffelen, Sulian Thual, Simon Van Gennip, Pierre Veillard, Chunxue Yang, and Hao Zuo
State Planet, 4-osr8, 1, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-1-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/sp-4-osr8-1-2024, 2024
Henri Rossi Pinheiro, Kevin Ivan Hodges, and Manoel Alonso Gan
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 881–894, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-881-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-881-2024, 2024
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Cut-off lows (COLs) are weather systems with varied structures and lifecycles, from upper atmospheric to deep vortices. Deep, strong COLs are common around Australia and the southwestern Pacific in autumn and spring, while shallow, weak COLs occur more in summer near the Equator. Jet streams play a crucial role in COL development, with different jets influencing its depth and strength. The study also emphasizes the need for better representation of diabatic processes in reanalysis data.
Alexander Frank Vessey, Kevin I. Hodges, Len C. Shaffrey, and Jonathan J. Day
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 2115–2132, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-2115-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-2115-2024, 2024
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The risk posed to ships by Arctic cyclones has seldom been quantified due to the lack of publicly available historical Arctic ship track data. This study investigates historical Arctic ship tracks, cyclone tracks, and shipping incident reports to determine the number of shipping incidents caused by the passage of Arctic cyclones. Results suggest that Arctic cyclones have not been hazardous to ships and that ships are resilient to the rough sea conditions caused by Arctic cyclones.
Ed Hawkins, Philip Brohan, Samantha N. Burgess, Stephen Burt, Gilbert P. Compo, Suzanne L. Gray, Ivan D. Haigh, Hans Hersbach, Kiki Kuijjer, Oscar Martínez-Alvarado, Chesley McColl, Andrew P. Schurer, Laura Slivinski, and Joanne Williams
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 1465–1482, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1465-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-1465-2023, 2023
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We examine a severe windstorm that occurred in February 1903 and caused significant damage in the UK and Ireland. Using newly digitized weather observations from the time of the storm, combined with a modern weather forecast model, allows us to determine why this storm caused so much damage. We demonstrate that the event is one of the most severe windstorms to affect this region since detailed records began. The approach establishes a new tool to improve assessments of risk from extreme weather.
Elliott Michael Sainsbury, Reinhard K. H. Schiemann, Kevin I. Hodges, Alexander J. Baker, Len C. Shaffrey, Kieran T. Bhatia, and Stella Bourdin
Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 1359–1379, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-1359-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-1359-2022, 2022
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Post-tropical cyclones (PTCs) can bring severe weather to Europe. By tracking and identifying PTCs in five global climate models, we investigate how the frequency and intensity of PTCs may change across Europe by 2100. We find no robust change in the frequency or intensity of Europe-impacting PTCs in the future. This study indicates that large uncertainties surround future Europe-impacting PTCs and provides a framework for evaluating PTCs in future generations of climate models.
Rafaela Jane Delfino, Gerry Bagtasa, Kevin Hodges, and Pier Luigi Vidale
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 3285–3307, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-3285-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-3285-2022, 2022
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We showed the effects of altering the choice of cumulus schemes, surface flux options, and spectral nudging with a high level of sensitivity to cumulus schemes in simulating an intense typhoon. We highlight the advantage of using an ensemble of cumulus parameterizations to take into account the uncertainty in simulating typhoons such as Haiyan in 2013. This study is useful in addressing the growing need to plan and prepare for as well as reduce the impacts of intense typhoons in the Philippines.
Alexander F. Vessey, Kevin I. Hodges, Len C. Shaffrey, and Jonathan J. Day
Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 1097–1112, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-1097-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-1097-2022, 2022
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Understanding the location and intensity of hazardous weather across the Arctic is important for assessing risks to infrastructure, shipping, and coastal communities. This study describes the typical lifetime and structure of intense winter and summer Arctic cyclones. Results show the composite development and structure of intense summer Arctic cyclones are different from intense winter Arctic and North Atlantic Ocean extra-tropical cyclones and from conceptual models.
Ambrogio Volonté, Andrew G. Turner, Reinhard Schiemann, Pier Luigi Vidale, and Nicholas P. Klingaman
Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 575–599, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-575-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-575-2022, 2022
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In this study we analyse the complex seasonal evolution of the East Asian summer monsoon. Using reanalysis data, we show the importance of the interaction between tropical and extratropical air masses converging at the monsoon front, particularly during its northward progression. The upper-level flow pattern (e.g. the westerly jet) controls the balance between the airstreams and thus the associated rainfall. This framework provides a basis for studies of extreme events and climate variability.
Suzanne L. Gray, Kevin I. Hodges, Jonathan L. Vautrey, and John Methven
Weather Clim. Dynam., 2, 1303–1324, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-1303-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2-1303-2021, 2021
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This research demonstrates, using feature identification and tracking, that anticlockwise rotating vortices at about 7 km altitude called tropopause polar vortices frequently interact with storms developing in the Arctic region, affecting their structure and where they occur. This interaction has implications for the predictability of Arctic weather, given the long lifetime but a relatively small spatial scale of these vortices compared with the density of the polar observation network.
Mark R. Muetzelfeldt, Reinhard Schiemann, Andrew G. Turner, Nicholas P. Klingaman, Pier Luigi Vidale, and Malcolm J. Roberts
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 25, 6381–6405, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6381-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-6381-2021, 2021
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Simulating East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) rainfall poses many challenges because of its multi-scale nature. We evaluate three setups of a 14 km global climate model against observations to see if they improve simulated rainfall. We do this over catchment basins of different sizes to estimate how model performance depends on spatial scale. Using explicit convection improves rainfall diurnal cycle, yet more model tuning is needed to improve mean and intensity biases in simulated summer rainfall.
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Short summary
Atmospheric blocking describes large and persistent high surface pressure. In this study, the relationship between block persistence and smaller-scale systems is examined. Persistent blocks result from more interactions with small systems, but a block's persistence does not depend as strongly on the strength of these smaller features. This work is important because it provides more knowledge as to how blocks can be allowed to persist, which is something we still do not fully understand.
Atmospheric blocking describes large and persistent high surface pressure. In this study, the...
