iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Mike Berners-Lee @mikebernerslee.bsky.social · 18h

Delighted to welcome Scotland’s First Minister, @johnswinney.bsky.social to deliver a keynote at a screening of the People’s Emergency Briefing at Holyrood yesterday. He committed in his address to working collaboratively to ensure the film is “𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝”.

Mike Berners-Lee shaking hands with John Swinney, First Minister for Scotland.

Mike Berners-Lee speaking with a microphone, behind him is a slide showing a map of the UK colour coded in shades of red.

A panel with Mike Berners-Lee, David Barratt MSP, Claire Baker MSP, Dr Kate Donovan as panel Chair, Ariane Burgess MSP and Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP.

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Matt Patterson @mattpattclimate.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Having recently moved to Scotland, I am struck by how many towns have road names referencing curling ponds. It is a clear sign of how our climate has changed because it’s rarely cold enough now for a pond to freeze over sufficiently to safely walk on.

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Nick Lutsko @nick-lutsko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I agree that trust comes from verification, in the absence of which we need auditable steps, but the rest is somewhat one-sided (and unfair to end-to-end ML models). CliMA is set up to address one source of model uncertainty. Bjorn Stevens could write a similar essay about…

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Mika Rantanen @mikarantane.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Composites of winter (DJF) temperature anomalies of moderate-to-strong ENSO events (RONI threshold ±1.0 °C) in Europe. Note, these are detrended temperature anomalies. The pattern is cold for northeastern Europe but closer inspection reveals that two winters (1987 and 2010) push the average down.

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Matt Patterson @mattpattclimate.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I learned a lot from paper discussions in my phd. Everyone brought a different perspective and learning from each other was valuable in critically evaluating new work. Better than reading one vanilla summary and delegating our thinking to an LLM.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 14/09/2026

I've received 3 paper review requests and 1 reminder to do a review *just this morning* 🤯🤷‍♂️ This could be ameliorated if review requests were managed through a central system assigned to the individual (something like ORCiD) rather than by individual journals.

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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

I wrote this quickly at a bus stop and didn't realize it would go viral, or else I would have worded it better. But the point is that the media is too credulous about AI killing everyone in 10 years (how?) when climate change is killing people now and will only get worse (we know exactly how).

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 11/09/2026

"...solving problems is only a tool and proxy for achieving the primary goal of conceptual understanding and insight. Forgetting this in the world of AI may turn the tool against the primary goal."

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AGU (American Geophysical Union) @agu.org · 09/09/2026

BREAKING: The Arctic Report Card, after the loss of core support from NOAA, will continue under its independent editorial team, led by researchers at @cires.colorado.edu and @uafairbanks.bsky.social, with new support from AGU. Read our news release: spklr.io/63320ETBFs

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Matt Luongo @luongomatt.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Hiatus v2?? Check it out! Our recent work, led by Shang-Ping Xie & Ayumu Miyamoto, suggests that internal variability has strongly influenced satellite-era (~1980-present) tropical Pacific SST trends. www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

pnas.org

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

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Prof Ian Hall @ianhall.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

A few thoughts after reading this Guardian piece: 1. Europe has had a brutal summer: extreme heat, wildfires, record temperatures and deaths linked to the heat. ...and yet you barely hear many political leaders talking about climate change. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

theguardian.com

Why are European leaders staying silent after our summer of climate shock?

Lethal temperatures and wildfires have exposed a widening gulf between voters demanding action and politicians unwilling to confront the long-term choices global heating requires

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 25/08/2026

Interannual variability in global mean temperature is most strongly related to temperatures in the tropics, here shown by correlating detrended global and gridpoint temperatures. There is very little relationship with temperatures over Europe and many parts of Asia.

A map of the correlation between local and global annual-mean 2 m temperature from ERA5 over 1979–2025, with the linear trends removed.

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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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James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

It’s just unanswerable, isn’t it? We know what the right thing to do is and yet we’re allowing people to present the objectively wrong thing to do as the rational choice.

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Robert Rohde @rarohde.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

With record-breaking heatwaves, France just had both its warmest June and July on record. Systematic collection of weather data basically began in Western Europe, giving Europe the longest thermometer-based histories in the world. After more than 250 years, we have changed the climate. 🧪

Time series graph of June-July average temperature in France relative to the 1850-1900 baseline. Data from Berkeley Earth.

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Guy Shrubsole @guyshrubsole.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Why is Burnham so reluctant to talk about the climate crisis? Good piece by Sandra Laville I hope the PM breaks his climate silence soon and levels with the country about how bad things are, & what his plan is to tackle climate impacts and fossil fuels www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

theguardian.com

Hot topic: why is Burnham so reluctant to talk about the climate crisis?

Extreme heat is harming wellbeing of ordinary people the PM champions, yet little has been said on the topic

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National Centre for Atmospheric Science @ncas-uk.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Even though hot weather and drought can make it seem as though an area is becoming drier, climate change can also increase the likelihood of heavy rainfall and flooding. ncas.ac.uk/why-is-clima... _ #earth-science #SciComm 🧪

ncas.ac.uk

Why is climate change causing drought and heavy rainfall? - NCAS

Climate change is increasing weather extremes, so a location can experience both severe drought and severe flooding within the same month, season, or year.

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Matt Patterson @mattpattclimate.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Was talking to a journalist about the recent heat waves in Europe and the role of atmospheric circulation. They said heat waves were becoming difficult to cover because of the lack of novelty! No wonder we struggle to deal with long-term problems as a society.

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

I wrote about a reason not to use generative AI in your writing that I haven't seen anyone talking about. Once I realized this, banning GenAI in our lab's writing became a no-brainer. Feel free to share, I think this is probably useful especially for trainees: www.carlsonlab.bio/thoughts/the...

carlsonlab.bio

The only reason you’ll ever need not to write with AI — The Carlson Lab

Over the last year, our lab has been developing a policy on AI use. To do this, we did three main things: We read a lot of academic publications and tech news. We set up an #ai channel on our la...

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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 10/08/2026

With all August model runs now in (except for SINTEX-F), we now expect this year's El Niño event to peak sometime between October and December at a stunning 4C in the Niño3.4 region. To see all the latest numbers, check out the Climate Dashboard: dashboard.theclimate...

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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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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 10/08/2026

"It always rains in the UK" Except it doesn't, and we really need to stop thinking it does. We've been extremely lucky to avoid catastrophic droughts several times in recent years. We must be far better prepared for those extremes, even before considering any climate change-related impacts.

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Daniel Swain @weatherwest.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Aug update from ECMWF predictive ensemble is genuinely extraordinary from extreme #ElNiño perspective. One implication: it is now indicating not only 70-100% odds of above avg winter precip California-wide, but also 70-100% odds of DJF 26-27 being among the top 20% of wettest CA winters (!).

Map showing ECMWF ensemble DJF 2026-7 predicted precipitation by tercile status (i.e., most likely well above, well below, or near-average). All of the CA coast is painted the brightest color, indicating 70-100% odds of a winter among the wettest third of all historical winters.

Map showing ECMWF ensemble DJF 2026-7 predicted precipitation. All of the CA coast is painted the bluest color, indicating well below average odds of a winter in the driest 20% of all winters.

Map showing ECMWF ensemble DJF 2026-7 predicted precipitation. All of the CA coast is painted the brightest orange color, indicating well above average odds of a winter in the wettest 20% of all CA winters.

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 03/08/2026

Meanwhile, north of the border: "Scotland has recorded 69% of its average rainfall and is the only nation not to come close to breaking records." "Scotland has not seen mean temperatures within its top 10 on record."

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Matt Patterson @mattpattclimate.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Interesting regional differences in perceptions of summer heat especially the ‘v unhappy‘ group - we all experience climate change differently (a baking hot day in SE England but pleasant conditions in Scotland) and this makes comms harder. We’re all impacted, just not in the same way.

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National Centre for Atmospheric Science @ncas-uk.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

With prolonged hot weather, and wildfires burning across the UK and Europe, what does this mean for air quality in the affected areas or places downwind? ncas.ac.uk/what-do-wild... #earth-science #SciComm 🧪

ncas.ac.uk

What do wildfires mean for air quality? - NCAS

Wildfires can have significant impacts on air quality, as wildfire smoke contains a mixture of hazardous air pollutants.

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Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 28/07/2026

Wednesday sees the peak of the heat this week, with temperatures likely reaching 35 Celsius in eastern England📈 This would mark the 7th day of 2026 when the UK has recorded 35°C or higher. Prior to this year, the record was 5 days of ≥35°C, set in 1976 and 2020🌡️

A map of the UK showing expected maximum temperatures on Wednesday 29 July 2026. These range from 35 Celsius in southeast and eastern England to 15 Celsius in northern Scotland

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Dr Ned Williams @nedcwilliams.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Pleased to say that I've published my research from my previous role at MPI: We used a large ensemble decadal prediction system and found evidence of atmospheric circulation skill relating to Atlantic Multidecadal Variability, although model deficiencies that limit skill persist:

esd.copernicus.org

Predictability of European summer climate: the influence of competing mechanisms related to Atlantic Multidecadal Variability

Abstract. Skilful predictions of European summer climate are increasingly relevant due to an increasing probability of temperature extremes, but prediction skill beyond the forced trend has so far pro...

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Matt Patterson @mattpattclimate.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

This looks like a super-interesting paper - Carvalho-Oliveira et al use ML to identify weather regimes linked to European summer circulation and argue that 70% of Europe's 'excess warming' (wrt global mean) occurs because of changes to atmospheric circulation (more southerly flow events).

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21/07/2026

1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.

arxiv.org

The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science

As a labor-augmenting technology, large language models (LLMs) have the potential to accelerate scientific activity across the research pipeline. But even if LLMs perform on par with human experts at ...

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Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 21/07/2026

Have you noticed an opaqueness to the blue sky this morning? Wildfire smoke from North America is drifting south across the UK, meaning the clear skies may not be as blue as you might expect 🌤️

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ECIU @eciu.net · 17/07/2026

𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘁𝘀: climate change “unequivocally to blame” for extreme heat 𝗨𝗞 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮: no reference to climate change in almost 3/4 of articles referring to the 'heatwave' or 'extreme heat' during last month’s record high temps 🧵 👇

Bar graph shows UK media articles linking "heatwave" or "extreme heat" with climate change and net zero strategies across various publications.

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Dr Pete Knapp @peteknapp.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Wildfires in Europe so far this summer have led to Spain's deadliest in decades, with temperature anomalies peaking around +9°C in France and Germany and a high of 45.1°C in southern Spain. But how is the UK 'fire wave' after its first 'megafire' that burnt for four days in Dava Moor in May? 1/n

Copernicus map of Europe showing France and UK under 'very extreme' fire danger forecast

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MetJam @metjam.co.uk · 15/07/2026

"The average hottest day of the year has warmed by over 4.5°C in a swathe from Kent to Lincolnshire for the most recent decade, 2016-2025, compared to 1961-1990" From the State of the UK Climate in 2025, first published yesterday.

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Zeke Hausfather @zekehausfather.com · 13/07/2026

With all the July model runs now in, it is very likely that 2026 will see the largest El Niño event since records began in the late 1800s – and potentially by a truly mind-blowing margin. The median estimate is now 3.6C, roughly 0.8C hotter than the prior record (2.75C). www.theclimatebrink....

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Simon Lee @simonleewx.com · 10/07/2026

In the 20th century, there were many years where the temperature never exceeded 30°C *anywhere* in the UK. In 1974, the highest temperature was a mere 28.0°C, which really underscores how extreme 1976 was for the time. That climate no longer exists.

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John Morales @johnmoralestv.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Recent Belgian Heatwave Declared Deadliest on Record: “the situation during the peak weekend was so severe that excess mortality surpassed even the worst weekend of the COVID-19 pandemic. Between June 22nd and June 27th, a staggering 1,747 excess deaths were recorded.” #Belgium #heatwave #europe

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Nick Lutsko @nick-lutsko.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Wrote about the ways people have implemented physical constraints in ML-driven weather forecast systems: notesonclimate.substack.com/p/physical-c... Physics still matters! But there are also a lot of open questions, and, as an outsider, I think this would benefit from a more systematic approach

notesonclimate.substack.com

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James Murray @james-bg.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

A sad and not a little shameful day for a once serious party. www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/202...

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Met Office - weather and climate @metoffice.gov.uk · 09/07/2026

Temperatures have exceeded 34°C today for the 8th day this year 🌡️ That makes it a record for the most number of 34°C or higher in a calendar year 👇 The record was previously set in 1976 and 2020 for 7 days

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London & Southeast🔅 @thesnowdreamer.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

🥵 Expecting 35C even something a bit hotter tomorrow. Never in history of London meteorological history or indeed also true countrywide have we seen 35C (95F) in 3 consecutive months. Even non-consecutively it never happened... (1/2)

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Richard Dixon @catinsight.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Striking! The range of solutions tightening up - note how the lower bound of, for example, Sept 2026 is up from 1.9ish to about 2.5...

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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 04/07/2026

1. A bit of evolutionary biology. I'm really intrigued by a new perspective piece from Steve Frank that explores connections between how natural selection creates systems that generalize and recent work in machine learning about the surprising capabilities of massively overparameterized systems.

academic.oup.com

Generalization as the great leap in evolvability: insights from machine learning

Abstract. Natural selection encodes learned information in the genome. Learned solutions may be tuned specifically to past challenges, failing in altered e

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Harriett Richardson @harriettrichardson.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I've just reached my own personal milestone of 10 years at NCAS and am deeply proud to be part of our 25 year history!

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Mika Rantanen @mikarantane.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I've been wondering about the role of El Niño too. The recurring heatwaves in western Europe, while cooler in E/NE-Europe seem to match with the El Niño correlations, at least qualitatively. (Maps from erikwkolstad.com/blog/)

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Matt Patterson @mattpattclimate.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

With new monthly temperature records set in May and June, 9 out of 12 months have now set their record since 2003. For lowest daily minimum, none of the monthly records were set in the 21st C. A sure sign of our rapidly warming climate. www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/cli...

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