Atmospheric wind and temperature are essential for understanding weather and atmospheric dynamics. We developed a new lidar receiver that measures both quantities from the same atmospheric backscatter signal without frequency scanning. Field experiments demonstrated wind measurements from 2 to 20 km and simultaneous wind and temperature measurements from 5.3 to 20 km, with good agreement with radiosondes.

We examined how winter rain falling on snow may change across northwestern Eurasia as the climate warms. Using projections from nine climate models, we found more winter precipitation and a larger portion falling as rain. Rain-on-snow events become less concentrated in spring and occur over more of the winter, while some southern areas lose spring events as snow cover becomes less persistent. These changes could affect snow conditions, reindeer herding, ecosystems, transport and infrastructure.

This study investigates how the extratropical transition (ET) of tropical cyclones influences downstream weather in the Southern Hemisphere. Two main ET downstream developments are identified: a propagating Rossby wave train along a strong, straight jet, and a more localised downstream ridge associated with a weaker, poleward-oriented jet. The strong ET events in the southwest Indian Ocean can increase the occurrence of high-impact weather over Australia.

Since 1977, Earth has become increasingly less effective in re-radiating the large energy imbalance at the top of the atmosphere. Global surface temperatures and effective radiative forcing estimates through 2025 show that the relationship between these two key parameters is not constant; increased forcing now causes a power-law increase in surface temperature. If forcing keeps rising at the current rate, Earth’s temperature anomaly compared to 1850–1900 will reach 2.8 ± 0.3 °C by 2050.