External resources

General links / resources

IPCC reports:

• Summary for Policymakers, IPCC AR WG2: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

• Full report, IPCC AR WG2: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

• Guidance note – The concept of risk in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report: a summary of cross Working Group discussions — IPCC

• Guidance Note on Uncertainty for IPCC Authors

Climate policy:

• Climate Action Tracker

Books:

• Quantifying Climate Risk and Building Resilience in the UK (Open Access)

Learning python:

Here are my favorites resources for Python beginers in STEM:

• There is an excellent Python tutorial provided by the Software Carpentry. It’s based on a real data analysis and I strongly recommend it.

• Chapter 1 from the Scientific Python lectures is also excellent.

• Finally, my own classes provide some resources as well, but they are more adapted to a classroom than self-study: beginner, advanced.

Learning climate analysis with python:

The excellent resources by Climatematch inspired some of my notes:

• comptools.climatematch.io

Project Pythia contains fantastic resources:

• Foundations

• CookBooks

Interactive climate dashboards:

• PROVIDE Climate Risk Dashboard

• Met Office Climate Data Portal (see local authority risk assessment)

• IPCC Interactive Atlas

• Climate Impact Explorer

Further lecture notes by Fabien:

• 💻 Introduction to Python Programming (undergraduate level)

• 🧑‍💻 Scientific Programming in Python (postgraduate level)

• 🌍 Physics of the Climate System Practicals

Miscellanea

• The excellent episode of “Cautionary Tales” about how risk mitigation measures can go wrong: BBC iPlayer, youtube

• Art: Landscape Of Change by Jill Pelto

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By Week

Lecture 1 (Introduction)

• Summary for Policymakers, IPCC AR WG2: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability

• Guidance note – The concept of risk in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report: a summary of cross Working Group discussions — IPCC

• Guidance Note on Uncertainty for IPCC Authors

Lecture 2 (Climate data)

• Videos

  • “Data Assimilation: The secret to better weather Forecasts”

  • “Reanalysis - from local measurements to global weather reconstructions”

  • “What is reanalysis? ECMWF”

• Web resource about climate datasets, their strengths and limitations: Cimate Data Guide, in particular:

  • Reanalysis data

  • Global temperature from stations datasets: CRU, BEST, GISTEMP

Lecture 3 (Statistical methods)

• Book: Statistical Methods for Climate Scientists, Cambridge University Press
  🔗 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108659055
  Recommended for their broad coverage, the code examples (need to be translated to Python – easy enough with AI), and the excellent introductions before the heavy statistics. 📘 PDF available from Uni Bristol.

• Book: Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences, Daniel S. Wilks
  🔗 https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/9780128158234/statistical-methods-in-the-atmospheric-sciences
  Recommended as “the” reference textbook — more complete but also a bit more complex than the above. 📘 PDF available from Uni Bristol.

• Report: Bristol Local Flood Risk Management Strategy
  🔗 https://democracy.bristol.gov.uk/documents/s82208/Bristol%20Local%20Flood%20Risk%20Management%20Strategy%202023.pdf
  A real-world policy view on flood risk management.

Lecture 4 (Attribution)

• Explainer: Why scientists think 100% of global warming is due to humans
  🔗 https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-scientists-think-100-of-global-warming-is-due-to-humans/
  A clear and accessible summary of how scientists know that essentially all observed global warming since the mid-20th century is due to human influence.

• Q&A: The evolving science of ‘extreme weather attribution’
  🔗 https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-the-evolving-science-of-extreme-weather-attribution/
  An excellent introduction to how scientists determine whether extreme events like floods or heatwaves were influenced by climate change.

• Paper: Attributing Extreme Events to Climate Change: A New Frontier in a Warming World
  📄 Swain, D. L., Singh, D., Touma, D., & Diffenbaugh, N. S. (2020), One Earth, 2(6), 522–527
  🔗 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.05.011
  A short but impactful peer-reviewed paper summarising advances in the science and communication of event attribution.

• Report Chapter: IPCC AR6 WG1 – Chapter 12: Climate Change Information for Regional Impact and for Risk Assessment
  🔗 https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/chapter/chapter-12/
  Essential reading for understanding how global climate projections are used in regional risk assessments and adaptation planning.

• Case Study: Pakistan 2022 Floods – Attribution Report
  🔗 https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/wp-content/uploads/Pakistan-floods-scientific-report.pdf
  A real-world application of attribution science, assessing the role of climate change in one of the most devastating flood events in recent history.

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(this list will be updated when the notes get written further)