Class is In

Know the Facts on Extreme Weather and Climate

Fall, 2024 — My biggest course ever

I’m not teaching this fall, which after more than 23 years at the University of Colorado is a bit of a strange feeling. Actually, that is not quite right — I’m not teaching in the classroom this fall, but I am still teaching. With THB approaching 30,000 subscribers in 153 countries, I am aware every day of the responsibility that comes with this amazing platform.

Today, as another experiment in innovation here at THB, I offer a collated reader’s guide to three THB series published in recent years on extreme weather and climate. Think of it as a syllabus. Together, along with associated readings and contrary points of view, these 20 posts would serve as a nice basis for a unique, content-rich college or grad school course.¹ More generally, the collection offers a perspective on weather and climate extremes that I’m pretty sure you will not find anywhere else.

I’ll hold live “office hours” via Substack Chat (which you can find on the header of the THB home page) on Wednesday 4 September — 7am Boulder, 3pm Berlin, 6:30pm Bengaluru, 11pm Brisbane), and will focus on discussing Module 1 below. Look for a prompt from me via Chat opening up the discussion thread on Wednesday. I’ll plan on subsequent chats on the other modules in coming weeks. You are also invited to participate in the comments below, where I’ll be active.

Meantime, please bookmark this post. It is September and class is in!

Module 1: What the IPCC AR6 Really Says About Extreme Weather and Climate?

1. Understanding key concepts and terminology

2. Climate variability and why it matters

3. Detecting changes in climate and “time of emergence”

4. IPCC AR6 on “time of emergence”

5. Climate policy, extremes, and “time of emergence”

6. IPCC on changes in extreme to 2040

Module 2: Making Sense of the Economics of Extreme Weather and Climate

7. What is a “normalization” and why does it matter?

8. Normalization example 1: Extreme Events in Europe, 1995-2019

9. Normalization example 2: U.S. hurricanes: 1900-2021

10. How do we know why disasters are becoming more costly?

11. What the peer-reviewed literature says about normalized losses

12. Making sense of “extreme event attribution”

Module 3: Extreme Event Case Studies

13. U.S. hurricanes

14. Global tropical cyclones

15. U.S. heat waves

16. Global and U.S. floods

17. Africa floods

18. Western and Central Europe drought

19. Global and North American drought

20. U.S. tornadoes

There are many such syllabi that might be collated from THB posts over the past years — including, energy policies, decarbonization policies, climate adaptation, science integrity, the media and climate, the climate wars — and that is just for climate. In the comments below please let me know the collations you’d like down the road. I can envision all sorts of possibilities, such as Zoom lectures/discussions, and of course, I welcome your suggestions — Let’s see how this goes.

A final point for today — I welcome (indeed, invite) experts who think I have gotten things wrong or incomplete in these series to let me and THB readers know, to share your views, and to engage in an exchange of views.² Remember, science is self-correcting and honest brokering is a group effort.

The work here at THB is an experiment in independent research and analysis that depends upon the support of its readers and participants. Please consider subscribing and sharing. If you are already a subscriber, please consider upgrading to join the ranks of paid subscribers who make THB possible. To THB paid subscribers — Thank you!

1. This gives me a good opportunity to extend my usual fall offer — If you teach and you’d like me to beam into your course to guest lecture, just be in touch. This offer is also available as a “break glass in case of emergency” for faculty feeling overwhelmed or just need a day off teaching — I am happy to help.

2. Feel free to enter comments directly on this post, and for those not paid subscribers, just email me and I will be happy to do so on your behalf. With a critical mass of critique, I am happy to do a dedicated post as well.