Mike Byrne
@drmichaelbyrne.bsky.social
750 followers 380 following 42 posts
climate scientist | extreme temperatures, atmospheric dynamics, water cycle | Reader @ U. St Andrews, PhD from MIT | he/him | 🇮🇪 in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 https://sites.google.com/view/climate-dynamics-lab
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
drmichaelbyrne.bsky.social
Nice piece in @uk.theconversation.com by Nadir Jeevanjee about early models and their visionary predictions of climate change fingerprints (incl polar amp, land-ocean contrast, strato cooling). Also a timely homage to GFDL, driver of these early predictions 🌍

theconversation.com/5-forecasts-...
5 forecasts early climate models got right – the evidence is all around you
From rising global temperatures to the fast-warming Arctic, early climate models predicted the changes half a century ago.
theconversation.com
drmichaelbyrne.bsky.social
We had a fantastic research 'away day' at East Sands in St Andrews, where we discussed the future of extreme temperatures as part of GLOBAL-EX project. A lunchtime swim + cheese toasties on the beach was an added bonus! @erc.europa.eu @ukri.org @earthscista.bsky.social @uniofstandrews.bsky.social
Reposted by Mike Byrne
thierryaaron.bsky.social
“Human health can be seriously affected by high heat and humidity. Such a dramatic increase in the occurrence of these humid-heat events is bringing more societies into challenging, potentially life-threatening, situations.” - Dr. Kate Willett @metoffice.gov.uk

#ClimateEmergency 🥵
Global humidity reached record levels in 2024, says latest climate report
The latest report on global climate change highlights the impact of higher global temperatures on the water cycle, with atmospheric water vapour levels reaching record levels during 2024.
www.metoffice.gov.uk
drmichaelbyrne.bsky.social
Scotland is under a wildfire warning 🔥🌡️, fuelled by a very dry spring. I talked to BBC World at One about wildfires in Scotland which involve humans behaving badly, grouse shooting, and more than a hint of climate change. From 27min 25sec: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... @earthscista.bsky.social
World at One - Zelensky lands in Berlin for calls with European leaders - BBC Sounds
Leaders discuss Ukraine ahead of US-Russia summit. Plus, Scottish wildfire warning issued.
www.bbc.co.uk
Reposted by Mike Byrne
simonleewx.com
Worth pointing out that thunderstorms and hail are very much not “unseasonal” in summer as reported here (hail isn’t wintry weather!) but quite dramatic scenes in Dundee and environs today www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Shopping centre evacuated after heavy rain and hail hit Dundee
A Dundee shopping centre is evacuated as water pours in and a road in Aberdeenshire is closed by a mudslide
www.bbc.co.uk
Reposted by Mike Byrne
richardabetts.bsky.social
"The Climate Change Committee, the government’s statutory adviser, has repeatedly highlighted a lack of urgent effort to adapt critical infrastructure, from water, transport and communication networks, to the fabric of our buildings"

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Overheated homes: why UK housing is dangerously unprepared for impact of climate crisis
Building rules have been focused on keeping warm in winter and saving on energy bills, not cooling down
www.theguardian.com
drmichaelbyrne.bsky.social
Deeply honoured that our research has been cited in the new DOE climate report
climateofgavin.bsky.social
AI in the DOE report? This ref (p29) is fake:

Lee, S., Byrne, M. P., Loikith, P. C., & O’Dell, C. W. (2024). Zonal contrasts of the tropical Pacific climate predicted by a global constraint. Climate Dynamics, 62(1–2), 229–246. doi:10.1007/s00382-023-06741-7

www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar...
RealClimate: The Endangerment of the Endangerment Finding?
RealClimate: The EPA, along with the "Climate Working Group" (CWG) of usual suspects (plus Judith Curry and Ross McKitrick) at DOE, have just put out a document for public comment their attempt to res...
www.realclimate.org
drmichaelbyrne.bsky.social
I am deeply honoured 😆
Reposted by Mike Byrne
Reposted by Mike Byrne
vikkithompson.bsky.social
📣 New paper:
💧💧💧 In July 2021 record breaking rainfall hit western Europe, we use ensemble boosting to explore different plausible storylines. These show it could have rained for longer, or over a larger area, or in a different place. Are we prepared?

doi.org/10.1038/s432...
Showing the rainfall of 14th July 2021 (upper left) and 5 alternative scenarios derived from a climate model, conditioned to the atmospheric circulation patterns of the observed event.
Similar to fig.6 of https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02386-y
Reposted by Mike Byrne
rarohde.bsky.social
The Western Mediterranean has been record warm recently, shown here for the June averages from ERA5.

This much warmth in the Mediterranean may predict a brutally hot summer for Europe.

1/ 🧵🧪🌊
Map of sea surface temperature anomalies for June 2025 in the vicinity of Europe, showing exceptional warmth in the Western Mediterranean.
Reposted by Mike Byrne
edhawkins.org
1°C of global warming does NOT mean that heatwaves 'just' get hotter by 1°C.

Over large parts of the UK, global warming means that heatwaves are 3-4°C warmer, with worse consequences for people and ecosystems.
UK maps showing changes in temperatures for typical summer days and hot summer days.
Reposted by Mike Byrne
rarohde.bsky.social
Western Europe summer high temperatures have increased ~2.6 °C (4.7 °F) during just the last 50 years.

That's in a world with only 1.4 °C of global warming.
Time series of average daily high temperatures in Western Europe during June to August from 1850 to 2024.
Reposted by Mike Byrne
simonleewx.com
Some forecast models are showing the potential for record-breaking heat in the UK later in June 🌡️

Ensemble forecasts can help us better understand the extremes of the current climate. @hayleyjfowler.bsky.social, Paul Davies and I wrote about this last year theconversation.com/the-climate-...
The climate is changing so fast that we haven’t seen how bad extreme weather could get
Record heat, storms and floods reveal new extremes made possible by climate change.
theconversation.com
drmichaelbyrne.bsky.social
Not a bad backdrop for pondering science at the Simons Symposium for Multi-Scale Physics ⚛️ I will be talking today about "Large-scale and local-scale influences on tropical land climate"
www.simonsfoundation.org/event/multi-...
drmichaelbyrne.bsky.social
Great to be visiting beautiful @ethz.ch for a few days of science! I will be presenting a seminar on elevation-dependent warming followed by examining a PhD on the water cycle in a changing climate 💦🌡️🌤️
Reposted by Mike Byrne
nbcnews.com
Harvard president receives standing ovation during commencement.
Reposted by Mike Byrne
drmichaelbyrne.bsky.social
Wonderful to be back (at a very soggy) @harvard.edu for the Continental Climate Workshop, where I gave a talk about elevation-dependent warming over land. It has been a bittersweet visit, given the unsettling and escalating situation at Harvard. Thinking about all those affected 🌍
drmichaelbyrne.bsky.social
Attending the amazing 'Philosophy of Climate Science' workshop @uniofstandrews.bsky.social this week! Today I gave a talk on 'Theory and the future of (land-)climate science'. Want to know more? Checkout the paper: rdcu.be/dWEZI
@earthscista.bsky.social @standrewsphil.bsky.social