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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

I'm as depressed as anyone about the US dropping all climate ambition but more important for global climate is which path countries like 🇮🇳 take en route to energy abundance. This @ember-energy.org analysis shows India is skipping the "fossil detour". ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

It's always refreshing to read analysis of a real risk that few are talking about. A new report from Ortec is more clear-eyed than most about institutional investors' dangerous exposure to climate risk. "A failed low-carbon transition could wipe 33% off pension fund returns worldwide by 2050".

Chart showing 33% pension losses by 2050 under "high-warming" scenario

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Interesting! Thanks for clarifying @kellyhereid.bsky.social - that does feel like it is often mis-represented. I feel like I frequently see Cat models described as forecasting future events. Like Moody's does here. How near-to-present are we talking?

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

What hundreds of millions have experienced even if they live nowhere near these fires is the smoke 💨 Smoky air has real health effects. It also hints at a vicious cycle where climate change causes wildfires, and wildfires then emit enormous quantities of CO2 which contribute to climate change.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Hot and dry conditions have pushed risk to new levels and new parts of Canada 🥵 I'm particularly worried about worsening conditions in more densely populated areas like southern parts of BC, Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

Fire risk map of Canada showing FWI anomaly at mid-July point

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

This may be very millennial of me. But a magazine feels like "real news" in a way that online articles still don't. So it was a bit shocking to see my research cited in TIME Magazine the other day.

TIME magazine article citing Deep Sky Research's hurricane report

Front cover of the TIME magazine edition

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Great article from @pilitaclark.bsky.social out today on the potential for climate financial shock. www.ft.com/content/9e5d...

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

The Trout and Buck fires burning in New Mexico right now are precisely in the darkest red part of Western NM that our report identified. Evacuations have been ordered and a state of emergency declared. Thinking of all affected. www.deepskyclimate.com/blog/insurer...

Map showing spring fire risk across the US. Highest risk parts are US Southwest - especially southwestern NM - and parts of Midwest.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

How insurance markets respond to this kind of risk tells us a lot about how financial markets broadly are going to react to the climate crisis. And insurers are simply exiting the riskiest markets.

Chart showing that insurers are leaving wildfire prone areas of California. There are 19% fewer policies in extreme fire risk areas than there were in 2015.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Canada also faces elevated risk across Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba. Manitoba fires have already evacuated thousands, killed 2, and have filled our air with dangerous levels of smoke. These underlying risk conditions show this is only the start.

Map showing fire risk in Canada. Fire weather index anomaly is the metric used.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

We have not seen this levels of spring fire risk in the last 10 years. This does not bode well for the coming summer.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Severe drought in the US Southwest is driving record fire risk across large swathes of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Southern California as well as Midwestern states: Nebraska, South Dakota, and others.

Map showing spring fire risk across US. Metric is Fire Weather Index Anomaly.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Working on a wildfire report right now and this smoke concentration data explains the haziness out my window 💨 Smoky conditions are going to be hanging around for a while. Wildfire report coming soon 👀

Map of smoke concentrations across North America. Wildfires in western Canada are spreading smoke across the US and Canada.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

The latest satellite data tracking global sea levels came online today from CNES/AVISO 🌊 144 mm may not sound like a lot but climate scientists have shown -- and you can see for yourself if you look closely -- the rise it's accelerating 📈 www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...

Two charts side by side: one showing Arctic Sea Ice Extent decrease over time, the other showing Global Sea Level rise increase over time.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

This means no more updates to this chart. Devastating

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Another record daily temperature on Friday: 1.61 degrees above the pre-industrial average. 2025 global temps remain worryingly high.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

We’re back in record daily temperature territory. Thursday was the hottest April 24th in modern decades. It reached 1.56°C above the pre-industrial average. The previous record holder was 2020. www.deepskyclimate.com/research

Daily global temperature chart showing 2025 hit a new record for that date on April 24th

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

We just hit a new global temperature record. Thursday was the hottest April 10th in modern decades. It was 1.67°C above the pre-industrial average. (The second highest was 2024 at 1.65°C.) www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...

Daily global temperature anomaly chart showing new record reached on Thursday, April 10th at 1.67°C above the pre-industrial average.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Always channeling his calmness in the face of climate crisis. Such resilience, bravery despite the terrifying data on the monitor next to him.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

Last year was the hottest on record 📈🫠 www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...

Annual temperature anomaly chart. 2024 was 1.6 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

If you thought I was going to be left out of the posting scary line charts bonanza on here today... And hot take: this is scarier. www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 04/04/2025

The @climate.noaa.gov data on billion dollar weather disasters is critical for understanding climate change. Really hope we don't lose this dataset. www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...

Chart showing billion dollar weather disasters increasing over time. Data provided by NOAA/NCEI.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Global oceans continue to be very, very warm. So far 2025 is in second place only to last year. The direction of that little red line will tell us a lot about the health of our oceans and where we're headed. www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...

Daily sea surface temperature anomaly data visualization.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

🚨 Tuesday hit a new temperature record for that date. 🚨 It was the hottest March 20th in modern decades. 2025 is off to a worryingly hot start. Have a look for yourself: www.deepskyclimate.com/data-dashboa...

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 30/03/2025

These two side-by-side really tell the whole story. Check out our Climate Dashboard! It runs daily to track the data of climate change: deepskyclimate.com/research And please let me know what you think!

CO2 PPM chart next to an annual global temperature anomaly chart. Both increasing.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Our atmosphere has an ~18%~ higher CO2 concentration today than when I was born. It takes quite a leap of faith to think that would have no impact. And emissions are still increasing. www.deepskyclimate.com/research

Chart tracking CO2 atmospheric concentration using data from Scripps/ NOAA. Chart made and updated regularly by Deep Sky

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Check out this thing I've been working on the past few weeks. It's a dashboard tracking the data on climate change, updated daily. Closing your eyes doesn’t make a problem go away. www.deepskyclimate.com/research

Chart showing daily global temperature anomaly data. Saturday March 15 was 1.69°C above the preindustrial average.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Fire Weather Index hitting record high levels in parts of West Texas this week. Read our Wildfire report for more on increasing risk: www.deepskyclimate.com/blog/where-w...

Chart showing West Texas Fire Risk (Fire Weather Index) has hit record levels this week.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

More climate weather disasters means more of my face on the news so it's a real double whammy. I talked to CBS News in Texas about growing wildfire threat. Climate change causes hydroclimate whiplash which fuels out of control wildfires. www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/c...

Max Dugan-Knight, climate data scientist at Deep Sky interviewed by CBS News Texas about wildfires.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

Thanks to @drtomharris.bsky.social for clueing me into this. This + the Hansen paper + *gestures at everything* does not have me in a good mood this beautiful Toronto Friday.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

~Another~ new paper suggesting climate sensitivity is higher than we thought. When climate scientists are "stunned" / "mystified" by rates of warming, maybe it's because we've had a crucial input wrong: climate sensitivity. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Chart showing climate sensitivity S (also known as ECS) may be higher than we thought.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

The new Hansen paper argues climate sensitivity is actually 4.5°C - at the very high end of current estimates. If he's right, warming will accelerate very quickly from here. Whether you agree or not it's much safer to act like he's right than to hope he's wrong.

Chart showing climate sensitivity estimates over time

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

Quick shoutout to researchers who make their data and code publicly available. I get fired up when see this in a table of contents 🤌 It takes work to make your research open source but it's huge for trust and transparency. We need more of it, especially in climate research!

Screenshot of paper table of contents with Data availability and Code availability sections.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

Storm Éowyn broke the all time gust speed record in Ireland last night. This storm is no joke.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Storm Éowyn will hit the UK and Ireland this weekend and bring extremely high winds and rainfall. Storms like this did happen before we changed the composition of the atmosphere with our emissions, but they are becoming much more common.

Chart showing extreme rainfall occurrences over time in Europe. These events are increasing.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Each new paper that finds a way to more rigorously include elements of climate risk in its economic analysis projects deeper economic losses.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 09/01/2025

Had a chance to improve my LA fire risk data vis for my coworker Phil's Forbes article. Fire weather usually drops at some point in December but that didn't happen this year. High fire risk + Santa Ana winds is wreaking havoc. It is so hard to watch. www.forbes.com/sites/philde...

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 08/01/2025

There is no end to wildfire season in places like LA anymore. I just pulled the latest Fire Weather Index Data and what's striking is risky conditions have not let up in Dec, Jan as they usually do. Extreme dryness is overlapping with high wind speeds which are literally ~fanning the flames~.

Chart showing Fire Weather Index data over past couple years in LA area.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

This sentence. My goodness. @afreedma.bsky.social in Axios Generate has me ready to close my computer at 9:20am on a Monday morning.

Snippet reads: However, human-caused Arctic climate change is making the Far North more accessible for development and shipping routes and could entice companies to explore for fossil fuel resources in coming years.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 19/12/2024

We found that some counties have seen huge jumps in fire risk while some (but way fewer) have seen drops. But nation-wide the frequency of extreme fire weather has grown 20X. 🔥 Link to our report: www.deepskyclimate.com/blog/where-w...

Map of Western US showing county-level wildfire risk. Created by Deep Sky Research.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

@bsky.app algo so good it knows when I'm about to have a meltdown

Two consecutive skeets on my feed one showing projected climate disaster and the next of a flower saying "And breathe..."

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Record north Atlantic sea surface temperatures are part of the story here. Just as record Mediterranean temps impacted the storms that hit Spain. These lines are very worrying.

Chart showing sea surface temperature anomalies by year in the north east Atlantic.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Wow. #StormBert has hammered southern England and Wales. Just like Spain last month, Europe is not prepared for this level of extreme precipitation - incidents of which are only climbing. 🧵

Chart made by Deep Sky Research showing increasing incidents of extreme rainfall in Europe.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Did everybody but me already know you can put emojis in your python scripts for better output? Cursor just recommended it to me and 🤯 #python #cursor

Screenshot of python output with emojis.

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Max Dugan-Knight @maxduganknight.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

There is massive uncertainty and disagreement between climate scientists on this. I plotted climate scientists’ estimates of Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS) over time. You can see that the band has narrowed somewhat in the past 20 years, meaning we have more certainty than we did...

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