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Ed Hawkins

@edhawkins.org
30K followers 662 following 1.1K posts

Climate scientist at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Reading | IPCC AR6 Lead Author | MBE | Views own | edhawkins.org Warming Stripes: www.ShowYourStripes.info

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Reposted by Ed Hawkins
Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 25/09/2026
How hot & dry was your UK summer? Excellent interactive tool to explore how hot this summer was: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
UK summer 2026: BBC postcode lookup shows how hot and dry it was
Most of us experienced drought and heatwaves - but temperatures and rainfall were not the same everywhere.
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 25/09/2026
Everyday weather in a warmer world Imagine the weather patterns that happened in 1903 occurred again in a warmer world - how would that weather be experienced differently? Thomas et al. answer this question, highlighting the thermodynamic response of the climate: esd.copernicus.org/articles/17/...
esd.copernicus.org
Everyday weather in a warmer world
Abstract. How would the weather of a year from history be experienced in a warmer world? We reconstruct the weather of 1903 using a reanalysis system that assimilates only surface pressure observation...
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 25/09/2026
How hot & dry was your UK summer? Excellent interactive tool to explore how hot this summer was: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
UK summer 2026: BBC postcode lookup shows how hot and dry it was
Most of us experienced drought and heatwaves - but temperatures and rainfall were not the same everywhere.
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Reposted by Ed Hawkins
Tim Osborn @timosbornclim.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
New version of the HadCRUT global temperature dataset released @colinmorice.bsky.social HadCRUT5.2 uses HadSST4.2 (with improved adjustments for SST biases during 1933-1961) and CRUTEM5.2 (with updates to stations in China, USA and Canada). Here is the difference from the previous version 5.1
Alt text: Timeseries from 1850 to 2026 of global average temperature from HadCRUT versions 5.1 and 5.2 and their difference.
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Covering Climate Now @coveringclimatenow.org · 17/09/2026
📣 CCNow is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2026 CCNow Journalism Awards! Our awards program honors excellent reporting on many critical dimensions of the climate story. Together, their work constitutes the leading edge of climate storytelling. ...🧵↓
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Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 14/09/2026
🌍 54 million historical weather observations from 95 countries have been unlocked & made freely available online. 📚 With records dating back to 1837, the project enabled the discovery of an HMS Terror logbook & an international weather station network Read ⤵️ www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2026/ho...
metoffice.gov.uk
How 54 million historical weather records are being made globally accessible
For more than a century, the Met Office's National Meteorological Archive has held a treasure trove of historical weather data, some of it dating back to 1837. Now, thanks to a major project, tens of ...
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Reposted by Ed Hawkins
Kimberly Nicholas @kimberlynicholas.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
22 feet (almost 7m). 2,000 years. One scarf. 99% blue, then the last little bit turns red. That's climate change, knitted, based on @edhawkins.org climate stripes. climateactually.com for the full story. #ClimateAction #Knitting #ClimateActually
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Sam Burgess @oceanterra.org · 10/09/2026
August 2026 was the warmest August ever recorded globally and the warmest month on record El Niño is pushing temperatures higher, but these records are occurring in a climate that has already been fundamentally altered by decades of burning fossil fuels heating our planet #Climate 🧪⚒️🌊
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 09/09/2026
How much warmer was summer 2026 than 1976 for the UK? Interesting differences between daytime (Tmax) and nighttime (Tmin). 2026 was much warmer than 1976, including in rural areas. (The only exception is daytime temperatures in Scotland.)
Temperatures in 2026 were much warmer than 1976 except for daytime temperatures in Scotland.
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 07/09/2026
We haven’t just changed our weather. We’ve changed the climate in which our weather happens. climatelabbook.substack.com/p/learning-f...
climatelabbook.substack.com
Learning from the summers of 1976 and 2026
We have changed the climate in which our weather happens
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 04/09/2026
War drama Pressure depicts D‑day’s weather forecast – what we found when we recreated the challenge using modern systems theconversation.com/war-drama-pr...
theconversation.com
War drama Pressure depicts D-day’s weather forecast – what we found when we recreated the challenge using modern systems
Even with today’s forecasting technology, D-Day would not have been an easy call as portrayed in the new movie, Pressure.
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Reposted by Ed Hawkins
Berkeley Earth @berkeleyearth.org · 02/09/2026
News we could not be more excited to share: the description paper of our high-resolution dataset is now available for review and comment at ESSD. The record provides global coverage at 0.25° resolution, built from 58,311 weather stations extending back to 1750. Pre-print: tinyurl.com/9dw7jbnf
tinyurl.com
Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature – High-Resolution (BEST-HR): a 0.25° Global Gridded Temperature Data Set for Climate Monitoring
Abstract. We present version 2 of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature dataset, a global observational temperature record that now features enhanced spatial resolution (0.25° × 0.25°) and a new regr...
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 02/09/2026
How does an AI forecast model handle the uncertainty of the most important weather forecast in history? It is June 1944: Stagg & Eisenhower have a critical decision to make under pressure Reimagining the D-Day forecast through machine learning: rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Pressure: reimagining the D‐Day forecast through machine learning
We reproduce the D-Day forecasts, one of the most iconic and famous forecasts ever made and the subject of the new film ‘Pressure’ using a machine-learning model, AIFS-ENS. While James Stagg and the ...
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Reposted by Ed Hawkins
UN Environment Programme @unep.org · 02/09/2026
Global warming is set to cross 1.5°C, pushing climate risks and impacts to increasingly dangerous heights, a new UNEP report warns.   Predicted impacts include extreme weather and threats to human health and economies.
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 01/09/2026
Think it’s time for a new extended temperature colour scale…
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Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 01/09/2026
Summer 2026 is provisionally the UK’s warmest summer on record with the season’s mean temperature made around 130 times more likely due to human-induced climate change. Here, we delve into the numbers 🧵
Mean temperature for 2026 in the UK. The map shows widely above average temperature, particularly in the south. Rainfall amounts in summer 2026 in the UK compared to average. The maps shows widely dry conditions, though the west of Scotland is slightly wetter than averageSunshine duration in summer 2026 compared to average. The map shows widely sunny conditions in the season, with the south of the country particularly sunny.
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 29/08/2026
Reconstructed Satellite Images Show How Close D-Day Came to Disaster gizmodo.com/reconstructe...
gizmodo.com
Reconstructed Satellite Images Show How Close D-Day Came to Disaster
Built off historic weather records, the new images show the surprisingly small break in the clouds that made the landings possible.
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Reposted by Ed Hawkins
University of Reading @uniofreading.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
A break in the clouds helped make D-Day possible. Ahead of the release of new film Pressure, University of Reading's Prof Ed Hawkins and ECMWF reconstructed the weather conditions of 6 June 1944, showing how a few hours either way could have changed history. Read more: rdg.ac/4hT1fQh
Satellite image showing Earth's cloud cover on June 6, 1944, representing weather conditions during D-Day, created 82 years later. The University of Reading logo is in the bottom right corner.Satellite image showing Earth's cloud cover on June 6, 1944, representing weather conditions during D-Day, created 82 years later. Weather observation imaging of cloud cover with a quote from climate scientist Professor Ed Hawkins which reads:

"Images like this help us understand what troops, sailors and pilots actually faced that day, in a way written reports alone cannot."
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 27/08/2026
A new Hollywood film (Pressure) is to be released shortly to tell the story of the infamous weather forecast that enabled D-Day to be a success. We produced a new reanalysis for D-Day, and processed it to look a bit like a satellite image. climatelabbook.substack.com/p/pressure-t...
Mean sea level pressure map for the morning of D-DayTotal cloud cover map for the morning of D-Day
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Andrew Dessler @andrewdessler.com · 24/08/2026
this is very cool
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Vikki Thompson @vikkithompson.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Climate change is increasing the intensity of extreme rain, and using multiple methods can increase our confidence in this. We've been working on a new storyline technique:
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 24/08/2026
Over the weekend, a storm in the Baltic states caused significant disruption to power supplies and at least 2 deaths. An experimental reanalysis-based attribution approach suggests that ~20% more rain fell than if the same weather pattern had occurred in a world that was 1°C cooler.
A Baltic storm caused significant damage on 22nd August 2026, but more rain fell than would have done had the world been cooler.
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Erich Fischer @erichfischer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Projection has become reality 22 years ago, Christoph Schär et al. published a landmark paper in Nature explaining that the 2003 heatwave was a harbinger of things to come. The study featured an iconic figure - shown in countless lectures - illustrating how outlandish the event was at the time
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 21/08/2026
With the looming El Nino, what does this mean for UK weather? Likely wet? The major El Nino events of the last 50 years have all been coincident with a wet UK in late autumn into winter. The wetter winter part did not occur during the 1877-78 El Nino, which we think was the largest event on record.
Rainfall in the UK during autumn and winter in past El Nino events
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 18/08/2026
Daily rainfall sheet for Mile End in London in 1893 - dry from 4th March to 15th May - 73 days - the longest such dry period on record, for now.
Mile End daily rainfall in 1893
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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 18/08/2026
I've stared at (and sometimes help produce) these climate graphics for some 3 decades by now, and still, it's always striking to see: "Observed changes in climate over the last 2025 years" from @edhawkins.org's github.com/ed-hawkins/c...
Observed changes in climate over the last 2025 years
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John Kennedy @micefearboggis.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
All else being equal even a simple increase in the mean of the temperature distribution will lead to extreme heat above a particular threshold that's more frequent, more intense, lasts longer and covers a wider area (you'll have to imagine that third dimension).
Schematic titled "warming increases the intensity, frequency, and duration of extreme heat" which shows a temperature trace as a red line in three different climates (COLD climate, CURRENT climate and HOT climate) which only differ in that each one is warmer than the last by a constant offset. A fixed baseline and heatwave threshold are also shown as horizontal lines and these do not change. Areas that exceed the heatwave threshold are shaded pink. The pink shaded area is larger in the current climate than in the cold climate and smaller than in the hot climate. In the cold climate an annotation points to a single isolated pink-shaded heatwave and says "isolated heatwave". In the current climate an annotation points to three distinct heatwaves and says "more frequent, long heatwaves". Finally in the hot climate an annotation says "duration and frequency continue to increase" and "isolated cooler period" for there is only one short period that is not now classified as a heatwave.
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 14/08/2026
Earlier in the summer I presented a figure showing how a comparable weather event to the summer of 1976 would be experienced in a warmer current climate. It would be 3-4°C hotter, with London hitting 38°C. Yesterday, that is exactly what happened.
Weather of 1976, and a version for the current climate
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Prof Richard Betts @richardabetts.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Nope, it’s the weeks of hot, dry weather made more severe by global heating due to fossil fuel burning that has increased the risk of wildfires. The landscape is so dry that any ignition can start a fire that becomes uncontrollable. Fields of crops and grasses are not “rewilded” but have burned
Front page of the Daily Mail newspaper “eclipse special” with headline “Rewilding link to record fires”, beneath a photograph of people watching the near-total eclipse of the sun with the title “Britain finally gets a break from the sun (for a few minutes!)”
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MetJam @metjam.co.uk · 13/08/2026
38.0ºC at Pershore was an all-time record for the station by 0.9ºC (37.1ºC, 19th July 2022) and a new August record by OVER 3ºC (34.9ºC, 4th August 1990). Station records go back to 1957.
Spaghetti chart showing Pershore daily maximum temperatures for every day of the year from 1957 to 2026. Faint grey lines trace 68 years of historical data, forming a seasonal cycle from around 5°C in winter to a summer peak of roughly 28°C. A dashed red horizontal line marks the previous all-time maximum temperature record of 37.1°C, set on 19 July 2022. A dashed amber horizontal line marks the previous August maximum temperature record of 34.9°C, set on 4 August 1990. A thick red line shows 2026's observed temperatures climbing through an exceptional summer, with multiple spikes above 30°C across May, June, July and August, before peaking on 13 August 2026. A large bold '38.0°C' sits near the top of the chart, connected by an arrow to a glowing red dot on 13 August 2026, which sits above both dashed reference lines. A bold subtitle states this is a new all-time Pershore record, beating the previous record by 0.9°C. A small UK map inset in the lower half of the chart marks Pershore's location in Worcestershire.
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 13/08/2026
Horrific scenes in Stourbridge & Stoke-on-Trent today with several houses devastated by wildfires. The Fire Service are saying that the hot and dry conditions helped the fires to spread from grasslands to residential areas.
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 13/08/2026
A temperature above 37°C has only been recorded on nine days in the UK since records began – three of those occasions have now been in 2026, including today. Reading University has recorded its warmest August day on record (since 1908), and second warmest day overall.
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 13/08/2026
Past greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from burning fossil fuels, means that peak temperatures in the UK today are hotter (by around 3°C) than they would otherwise have been. Future burning of fossil fuels means heatwave temperatures will get hotter and hotter until we reach net-zero emissions.
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Sam Burgess @oceanterra.org · 13/08/2026
A solar eclipse. The Perseids. Two reminders that some of nature's most extraordinary moments happen when we take time to look up. But the highlight may have been discovering this little chap/ette in our garden while perseid watching! With @edhawkins.org
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 13/08/2026
We are so fortunate that the geometry of our solar system is aligned to give us the wonderful spectacle of the #eclipse. Although it wasn't a total eclipse in the UK, it was fantastic to see so many people out watching!
Eclipse with bird
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MetJam @metjam.co.uk · 12/08/2026
It very well could be the hottest August day on record at some stations tomorrow - the record for Reading, for example, is 36.4ºC, and AROME has a rounded 37ºC, so it'll be very close. Records further west are more like 35-36ºC - will be an interesting day, that's for sure.
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Mike Byrne @drmichaelbyrne.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Warming temperatures + decreasing relative humidity = more water being sucked from soil / reservoirs = DROUGHT. Simple physics. Europe + UK are on the frontline because they are warming so rapidly – it will get worse until 'net zero' is reached. That's my TED talk 🌍 www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cw...
bbc.co.uk
UK weather: More than two-thirds of England now in drought with conditions set to worsen
The National Drought Agency adds the East Midlands, Kent, East Sussex, and other parts of England to the areas officially in drought conditions.
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Dr. Aaron Thierry @thierryaaron.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
2003 was once exceptional. Now it's average. 2024's record will be average by the mid-2040s. The extreme summers of the 2040s don't bear thinking about! 🌡🥵😬 #ClimateEmergency After @edhawkins.org & @stottpeter.bsky.social using ERA5 + CMIP6.
European summer temperature, June to August, over 10°W-40°E, 30-50°N, the region Stott et al. used for the 2003 heatwave, relative to 1961-1990. The black line shows ERA5 observations from 1950 to 2025, rising from about zero in the mid-twentieth century to 2.75°C in 2024. Grey shading is the 5-95% range of 34 CMIP6 models over the historical period, blue shading the same models under SSP2-4.5 to 2100, with the running median in white. Two dotted lines mark the 2003 summer at 2.06°C and the 2024 summer at 2.75°C, each dropping to the year the model median reaches that level: 2027 and 2045. Model region approximated by the IPCC AR6 Mediterranean and West & Central Europe regions, weighted 0.75 to 0.25.
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Sam Burgess @oceanterra.org · 10/08/2026
Western Europe recorded its hottest June-July on record, enduring the fourth heatwave since May with severe drought conditions that contributed to exceptional wildfire activity. Climate signals are becoming increasingly interconnected and increasingly difficult to ignore.
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MetJam @metjam.co.uk · 05/08/2026
It was the driest July on record at Kew since 1800 [caveat of likely a variety of different station placements since then], which also recorded no measurable rainfall - very impressive for the area. Local records go back to 1697.
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IPCC @ipcc.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
📣 Registration is now open for experts to review the First Order Draft of the Working Group I contribution to IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Report. Interested experts can register until 25 Sept 2026 🔗 bit.ly/4vi25cq The review starts 10 August until 2 October. More 🔗 bit.ly/WGI7Fod
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Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 03/08/2026
July 2026 was an exceptional month for the UK's climate statistics, with records challenged or broken for rainfall, temperature and sunshine. Read more in our press release ⤵️ www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/new...
Met Office graphic with the text “July’s weather was…” alongside an illustration of a three-scoop ice cream cone, introducing a summary of July weather statistics.Graphic titled “Dry”. Text states: “Driest July on record for England and Wales” and “Southern England’s driest month ever recorded.”Graphic titled “Sunny”. Text states: “UK’s sunniest July on record” and “Sunniest month ever recorded for England and Wales.”Graphic titled “Hot”. Text states: “Southern England’s warmest July on record”, “UK’s 2nd warmest” and “Wales’s joint warmest.”
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Dr. Aaron Thierry @thierryaaron.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
"The #climate we live in today is the least extreme climate you will experience in your lifetimes because of ongoing fossil fuel emissions."
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 31/07/2026
The missing words in the climate conversation are not human-caused climate change, but fossil fuel emissions. By Hayley Fowler and myself: theconversation.com/was-this-hea...
theconversation.com
‘Was this heatwave caused by climate change?’ – we’re asking the wrong question
Instead of asking whether climate change caused a heatwave, we should ask how much hotter it became because of fossil fuel emissions.
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Scott Wahlstrom @scottwahlstrom.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Heat waves come, and heat waves go, but burning fossil fuels make them hotter, more frequent, and longer.
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 31/07/2026
The missing words in the climate conversation are not human-caused climate change, but fossil fuel emissions. By Hayley Fowler and myself: theconversation.com/was-this-hea...
theconversation.com
‘Was this heatwave caused by climate change?’ – we’re asking the wrong question
Instead of asking whether climate change caused a heatwave, we should ask how much hotter it became because of fossil fuel emissions.
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Ed Hawkins @edhawkins.org · 30/07/2026
UK drought now extends across Wales with headlines about the driest July in records that stretch back 190 years. How do we know how much it rained in Wales in each July back to 1836? Answer - a volunteer army: www.bbc.co.uk/news/science...
bbc.co.uk
UK's rainfall records rescued by volunteer army
We now have a clearer idea of when these islands were sodden or parched going back almost 200 years.
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Helen Czerski @helenczerski.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Plug-in solar panels are coming to the UK from August 27th! It's been in the pipeline for a while & it's already common in Germany. But it's BRILLIANT because it opens up these technologies to renters & ppl w/o their own roof. Plugs into a normal socket & supplies ~ 10-20% of household needs. ☀️🎉
theguardian.com
UK households free to install plug-in balcony solar panels from end of August
Law change means renters and flat owners may be able to cut bills as energy costs soar amid Iran war
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Chris Lintott @chrislintott.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Short-sighted, stupid cuts to the UKRI budget include shutting down Jodrell Bank, the icon of British astronomy. (Many other cuts too, including 20% to our brand new @vrubinobs.bsky.social). Interesting politically to shut down a major facility in...um..Manchester 🔭 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands
Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.
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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans @astroroyalscot.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I'm absolutely devastated for colleagues at Jodrell Bank who found out this morning that funding for the UK's e-MERLIN radio telescope array will be terminated. This is a short-sighted move, to save a tiny fraction of the overall UK science budget. #SaveJodrellBank 🔭🧪 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Jodrell Bank's Lovell telescope faces axe in science cuts, BBC understands
Astronomers warn it would tear the heart out of UK science, and leave a generation untrained.
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