Objective of this web site

The objective of the present web site is to provide information on meteorological and climatologically issues of general and specific interest. The purpose is not to provide a forum for discussions. Many fine web sites take care of this. Some recent debates, books and other initiatives relating to global climatic changes, however, apparently are frustrated by a certain lack of knowledge on real meteorological conditions and their variations in time and space. Such information is generally not suitable for publishing using normal scientific outlets (journals) for a number of reasons (need for running updates, space, costs, etc.), but the Internet provides an efficient means for this. The present web site therefore aims to provide simple matter-of-fact information on a range of meteorological and climatic issues, useful for those who wish to understand the bigger pattern of ongoing climatic changes.

The focus on climate research over the last 15-20 years have resulted in an increased awareness that climate is not as constant as it may have appeared previously. In this context, even the most extreme and divergent forecasts of future climate may have done some good. This is, however, a situation that should not continue much longer, as it tends to confuse and disillusionate political decision-makers and the general public about the value of so-called ‘climate experts’.

The difficulty of recognition of a new climatic trend or a lasting change is real and constitutes an important difficulty for both scientist and policy-makers. The immediate need for climate scientists is to improve empirical knowledge on climate change, past and present, and to understand the limitations of the different types of approach to forecasting climate. For the decision-makers the lesson presumably is to allow wider margins for future climatic change; cooler as well as warmer, wetter as well as drier, windier as well as less windy, etc. Preparing for warming only may not be entirely prudent. Climate science remains a highly complex issue where simplification tends to lead to confusion, and where understanding requires knowledge, openness to new hypotheses, thought and effort. Reasoned and critical thinking should now as always have first priority.

The present website is not yet fully developed, and updates and additional material will be added in the future. Notwithstanding this, you will hopefully be able to find useful bits and pieces of information in the existing version of the web site. Unless otherwise stated, all figures directly related to meteorology and climate are produced by the webmaster, and can be freely downloaded.

Yours sincerely, Ole Humlum

Click here for bibliography.