freak weather; not so freaky

"Global warming?! But it's snowing?!" - I don't know how many times people have said something along these lines to me, denying that we are making our planet warmer based on some extreme events that suggest the opposite. This is a theory (...a very bad one) that I wish to dispel with this post.  I mentioned in the EEA blog that there are certain natural variabilities in the climate system that can influence extreme weather, so when this  article  popped up yesterday I couldn't resist sharing it  with you for a recent example. I don't want to go into this in too much detail as when I discussed the blog's key question with Dr Brierley, he suggested it would be more important to focus specifically on the science behind extreme event attribution and climate change's role in weather patterns, but that these natural variations are something he "keeps an eye on". So, this is what this post aims to do! The article mentions the ...

These were shown to me in a Global-Environmental-Change lecture (thank you to Prof.Anson for always making lectures relevant), and I think they are pretty powerful tools to show how we are changing our climate (...and so the setting that produces our weather!)...mostly from Ed Hawkins (twitter-users you must follow him!):  Kevin Pluck - mostly interested in sea ice!