Preparing for the unprecedented

This Ignite Stage session will highlight the challenge of preparing people for unprecedented hazards, the frequency of which is increasing as the climate changes. Using a selection of the disasters that followed such extreme events in 2021, lessons learnt in the WMO/WWRP HIWeather project and collected together in the new book, “Towards the Perfect Warning” will be highlighted to show that effective early warnings can prepare people to respond to situations beyond their experience.

Professor Brian Golding is Fellow in Weather Impacts at the Met Office, visiting professor at Bristol University and co-chair of the World Meteorological Organisation’s High Impact Weather project. Brian’s research has spanned numerical modelling, data assimilation, nowcasting, flood and ocean wave prediction, interactive forecaster graphics, and weather impacts in aviation, road maintenance and health. From 2005-2012 he was Deputy Director of Weather Science at the Met Office. He was awarded the OBE for services to weather forecasting and the prediction of hazardous weather.