News
Weatherwatch: The ‘eclipse wind’ – help solve the mystery
The Guardian, 16 March 2015
www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/16/solar-eclipse-wind-uk-friday-experiment-weather
Kate Ravilious on why meteorologists are asking people throughout the UK to take part in an experiment during Friday’s solar eclipse
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Terrawatch: The wells will run dry
The Guardian, 1 March 2015
www.theguardian.com/science/2015/mar/01/terrawatch-oil-energy
Oil is millions of years in the making: we consume it at a rate of 30 billion barrels per year. We have to accept that it is going to run out.
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: Hay bale city is finding way to a healthier environment indoors
The Guardian, 23 February 2015
www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/23/weatherwatchuk-environment
Hay bale city is finding way to a healthier environment
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Weatherwatch: The ups and downs of North Atlantic storms
The Guardian, 16 February 2015
www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/16/weatherwatch-north-atlantic-storms-historical-research
Kate Ravilious on research that tracks the historical intensity of storms
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Terrawatch: The rain that fell in the light of the faint young sun
The Guardian, 1 February 2015
www.theguardian.com/science/2015/feb/01/terrawatch-fossil-raindrops-atmosphere
Kate Ravilious on a project using fossil raindrop craters to study Earth’s early atmosphere

fossil raindrops
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Looking for microbes on Mars
Cosmos, 29 January 2015
cosmosmagazine.com/physical-sciences/looking-microbes-mars
Scientists are fossicking in our planet’s most unearthly places to practise searching for life on Mars. Kate Ravilious investigates.
READ ARTICLE AT Cosmos
Weatherwatch: Juno storm switches tack barrelled along by jet stream
The Guardian, 28 January 2015
www.theguardian.com/news/2015/jan/28/weatherwatch-us-juno-storm-jetstream-alberta-clipper
Kate Ravilious New Yorkers braced for severe blizzard receive milder Alberta Clipper storm
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: Too hot for take-off
The Guardian, 18 January 2015
www.theguardian.com/news/2015/jan/18/weatherwatch-aviation-take-off-speed
Kate Ravilious on a study showing that higher temperatures could lead to increased numbers of aircraft carrying reduced cargo or fewer passengers to achieve take-off speed.
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
When Earth was a frozen Snowball
BBC Earth, 12 January 2015
www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150112-did-snowball-earth-make-animals
715 million years ago the entire planet was encased in snow and ice. This frozen wasteland may have been the birthplace of complex animals
READ ARTICLE AT BBC Earth
Weatherwatch: A real icy blast
The Guardian, 12 January 2015
www.theguardian.com/news/2015/jan/12/weatherwatch-real-icy-blast
Kate Ravilious explains the ‘weather bomb’ phenomenon that was responsible for the unusually strong winds that have been pounding Scotland and northern England
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Terrawatch: Taking a closer look at Ben Nevis
The Guardian, 31 December 2014
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/dec/31/terrawatch-a-closer-look-at-ben-nevis
Taking a closer look at Ben Nevis
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Under Stonehenge
Archaeology, 15 December 2014
www.archaeology.org/issues/161-1501/features/2782-england-stonehenge-neolithic-ceremonial-landscape
Remote-sensing technologies reveal that Stonehenge is surrounded by thousands of yet-to-be-interpreted Neolithic archaeological features.
READ ARTICLE AT Archaeology
Weatherwatch: If it’s snow you want – head for the heights
The Guardian, 14 December 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/dec/14/weatherwatch-snowfall-britain-altitude
Kate Ravilious compares the statistics for snowfall in the UK, and finds that your chances of getting out the toboggan this winter depend on where exactly you live
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: Why a chilly morning was good news for Oxfordshire slatters
The Guardian, 8 December 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/dec/08/weatherwatch-slatters-stonesfield-slate-oxford-quarry
Stonesfield slate, which covers many Oxford colleges’ roofs, needs a frost – a cold snap meant plenty of work for quarrymen
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Terrawatch: Fire and ice creators of Yosemite’s plains and canyons
The Guardian, 3 December 2014
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/dec/03/terrawatch-ravilious-yosemite-fire-ice-granite-canyons
How did fire and ice create Yosemite’s plains and canyons?
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Transport pollution killed nearly quarter of a million in 2005
Environmental Research Web, 25 November 2014
environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/59309
Particulate matter from vehicles caused 242,000 premature deaths
READ ARTICLE AT Environmental Research Web
Climate change could cut West African sorghum yields by a fifth
Environmental Research Web, 24 November 2014
environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/59308
Rising temperatures, rainfall changes and shifting monsoon set to harm crop output
READ ARTICLE AT Environmental Research Web
Sun’s magnetic field alters lightning strikes on Earth
Environmental Research Web, 19 November 2014
environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/59305
READ ARTICLE AT Environmental Research Web
Weatherwatch: ‘No flowers, no birds – November!’
The Guardian, 16 November 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/nov/16/weatherwatch-no-flowers-no-birds-november
Kate Ravilious finds Thomas Hood’s poem describes a different month to the ones we experience today
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Weatherwatch: All eyes on the sun
The Guardian, 10 November 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/nov/10/country-diary-all-eyes-sun
Kate Ravilious on why astronomers are keeping an anxious watch on AR 12192, the biggest sunspot to appear since 1990
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Terrawatch: Tibetan plateau shifting and stretching over time
The Guardian, 5 November 2014
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/nov/05/terrawatch-tibetan-plateau-shift-height-zhada-basin-shells
Kate Ravilious on the Tibetan Plateau shift
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Weatherwatch: The greatest droughts in a thousand years
The Guardian, 19 October 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/oct/19/california-drought-dust-bowl
Kate Ravilious on a study showing that California’s current crippling three-year drought may be caused by the same atmospheric conditions as triggered the “Dust Bowl” of the 1930s
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Clothes that recharge your laptop – the near-endless possibilities of artificial leaves
Horizon - The EU research and innovation magazine, 16 October 2014
Clothes that recharge your laptop – the near-endless possibilities of artificial leaves
Using a protein taken from nature, scientists have made artificial leaves that can harvest energy faster than natural ones, and the ultra-lightweight material opens up the possibility of wearable technology and paint-on solar cells.
READ ARTICLE AT Horizon - The EU research and innovation magazine
Weatherwatch: Clouds are weighty wonders, but how do they stay up?
The Guardian, 13 October 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/oct/13/weatherwatch-clouds-environment
Kate Ravilious explains why clouds don’t fall to earth – until it rains
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Terrawatch: Mount Ontake eruption
The Guardian, 1 October 2014
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/01/terrawatch-mount-ontake-eruption-japan-steam
Kate Ravilious on why the eruption of the Japanese volcano may have been almost impossible to predict.
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: Every leaf tells a story
The Guardian, 14 September 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/sep/14/weatherwatch-leaves-shape-climate
Kate Ravilious on how the shape of a tree’s leaf is influenced by the climate that the tree prefers
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Weatherwatch: Prediction impossible
The Guardian, 8 September 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/sep/08/weatherwatch-prediction-impossible
Kate Ravilious on why those alluring ‘super precise’ forecasts of summer showers are so frequently inaccurate
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Terrawatch: Bárðabunga plays the waiting game
The Guardian, 5 September 2014
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/sep/05/terrawatch-iceland-volcano-bardabunga
Kate Ravilious reports on the stirrings of a volcano that has erupted more lava than any other on Earth in the last 10,000 years.
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: Every drop counts
The Guardian, 29 August 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/aug/29/weatherwatch-rainfall-data-school-children
Kate Ravilious on how a project involving primary school children with the collection of rainfall data could significantly improve weather forecasts
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Weatherwatch: Every flash – as it happens
The Guardian, 17 August 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/aug/17/weatherwatch-lightning-map-live
Kate Ravilious on how a network of enthusiasts with lightning detectors has created a live online map of the world’s electrical storms
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Weatherwatch: Boomerang Bertha
The Guardian, 11 August 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/aug/11/weatherwatch-storm-bertha-boomerang
Kate Ravilious on how it may become more common in the future for tropical storms to bounce back across the Atlantic and batter western Europe
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Terrawatch: The everlasting fire
The Guardian, 1 August 2014
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/aug/01/terrawatch-everlasting-fire
Kate Ravilious describes what happens when a coal seam catches alight deep beneath the ground.
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Kathmandu’s earthquake nightmare
Cosmos, 28 July 2014
beta.cosmosmagazine.com/earth-sciences/kathmandus-earthquake-nightmare
By analysing fault lines in Nepal scientists hope better to predict the next big one. The problem is finding them, as
Kate Ravilious discovers.
READ ARTICLE AT Cosmos
Weatherwatch: Cold, colder, coldest
The Guardian, 20 July 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/jul/20/weatherwatch-temperature-coldest-antarctica
Kate Ravilious on the coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth – 31 years ago today, at a Russian research station in Antarctica
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: Riding into the wind
The Guardian, 7 July 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/jul/07/weatherwatch-riding-into-wind
Kate Ravilious assesses some of the meteorological challenges facing riders in the Tour de France
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Terrawatch: The crash that splintered Earth’s crust
The Guardian, 4 July 2014
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jul/04/terrawatch-asteroid-impact-plate-tectonics
Kate Ravilious on how Earth’s surface jigsaw of tectonic plates may have been triggered by a cataclysmic asteroid impact
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: Wheat stressed out in the sunshine
The Guardian, 15 June 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/jun/15/weatherwatch-wheat-heat-stress
Kate Ravilious explains how too much sun at this time of year, as the wheat comes into flower, can reduce crop yield by over a fifth
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: Why the sky is blue
The Guardian, 9 June 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/jun/09/weatherwatch-why-sky-blue
Kate Ravilious explains why what you see when you look up depends on the invisible molecules above your head
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Terrawatch: Where plates collide
The Guardian, 6 June 2014
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/jun/06/terrawatch-indonesia-volcano-tectonic-plates
Kate Ravilious explains why the Indonesian archipelago is one of the most explosive places on Earth
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: A bad winter for California’s cherries…
The Guardian, 30 May 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/may/30/weatherwatch-california-cherry-harvest-winter-fog
Kate Ravilious explains that the California cherry orchards missed their fog requirement last winter – and the harvest has suffered
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: Wildfire Weather
The Guardian, 18 May 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/may/18/weatherwatch-wildfires-darkness-mini-tornado
Kate Ravilious on how wildfires can effect places far from the fires, generate their own weather – and be beneficial too
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Art takes a shot at the moon
New Scientist, 15 May 2014
www.newscientist.com/article/dn25564-art-takes-a-shot-at-the-moon.html#.U3SFbl7XnFI
Visions of a new space race dominate a group show at the BALTIC 39 gallery in the UK, but sometimes the wonder of space is lost amid the practicalities
READ ARTICLE AT New Scientist
Weatherwatch: All the world’s a map
The Guardian, 12 May 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/may/12/weatherwatch-all-world-map
Kate Ravilious finds the perfect way for weatherholics to while away a rainy afternoon
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Terrawatch: Iron from the sky
The Guardian, 2 May 2014
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/may/02/terrawatch-ancient-egypt-iron-meteorite
Kate Ravilious on the source of the iron used in artefacts discovered in Egyptian tombs dating from hundreds of years before the start of the Egyptian iron age
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: Did warm weather cause the Titanic disaster?
The Guardian, 27 April 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/apr/27/weatherwatch-icebergs-greenland-titanic
Kate Ravilious on how warm, wet weather in Greenland in 1908 may have caused excess iceberg calving over the following years
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Weatherwatch: Like it or not, the future is hot
The Guardian, 20 April 2014
www.theguardian.com/news/2014/apr/20/weatherwatch-global-warming-ocean-heat-trade-winds
Kate Ravilious reports on research that suggests that, when it comes to assessing global warming, we’ve been measuring the wrong thing
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardian
Terrawatch: In the shadow of Eyjafjallajökull
The Guardain, 4 April 2014
www.theguardian.com/science/2014/apr/04/earthwatch-shadow-eyjafjallajokull
Four years after an Icelandic volcano grounded Europe’s air traffic, Kate Ravilious wonders if the worst is yet to happen
READ ARTICLE AT The Guardain