EMS Webinar: Rapidly attributing extreme weather events to climate change

Dr Friederike (Fredi) Otto and Dr Ben Clarke

• Date and time:
  Wednesday, 16 April 2025, at 4pm (CEST)
• Location:
  online @Zoom Webinar: Register here

Abstract

The World Weather attribution project uses combinations of climate modelling and observational analyses to estimate how human influence has changed the likelihood and severity of recent extreme events. Many analyses are carried out just days or a few weeks after an extreme weather event has occurred to deliver timely scientific evidence to the public. Founded in 2014, the group has carried out more than 90 attribution studies on a range of weather extremes around the world. On Wednesday 16 April at 4pmCEST, Dr Friederike (Fredi) Otto and Dr Ben Clarke will discuss the group’s work using the 2024 Central Europe floods analysis as a case study.

Bios

Friederike (Fredi) Otto is a physicist by training and is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London. She is co-founder and lead of World Weather Attribution (WWA), an international effort to analyse and communicate the influence of climate change on extreme weather events. Fredi was a lead on two reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) sixth Assessment Cycle (AR6) that were published in March 2023.

Ben Clarke is a physicist by training and is a Research Associate at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London. Since joining WWA in 2023, he has led several studies on major extreme weather events around the world, and developed a protocol for rapid attribution of tropical cyclones in collaboration with colleagues at the Grantham Institute and Climate Central.