The cold blue dot - Winter of 2023 - 24 in Scandinavia

Global temperatures have reached record high levels for 10 months in a row (Copernicus Monthly Climate Bulletin March 2024). At the same time the 2023-2024 cold season in the Nordic region had negative temperature anomalies from October to January, and the region therefore stood out from the rest of the world as a cold blue dot in a red hot world. 

 

A period of 5 days during January with particularly low temperatures, was classified as a severe cold spell by the World Weather Attribution group and therefore an attribution study of the event was performed. The Norwegian Meteorological Institute together with other institutes from the Nordic countries participated in the study. The results showed that the event would have been even colder had it not been for human made climate change. The rarity of the event was also described, which is an important perspective to provide within our climate services. We will present the findings, and will in addition give an overview on the experience from public outreach and communication of this study. 

 

Furthermore, we will present an analysis of the atmospheric characteristics that led to the persistent below normal temperatures in the region for the season overall. During the winter we gained experience on public outreach in a contrasting situation between the cold Nordic region and the rest of the globe. 

 

In addition to low temperatures, several places sat new records for snow depth during the winter. Recurring heavy snowfall events caused difficulties for public transportation systems and also led to school closures. These events got a lot of media attention since a large part of the population was affected, and we will present the researchers work together with the communication department at MET Norway on handling the media attention, as well as our services to municipalities and public transportation companies. 

 

We will highlight our experiences, including how the researchers within the climate services, forecasters and communication group  at MET Norway organized the work on public outreach in cooperation. There will be an emphasis in the presentation on the duality of communicating about a warm world and Europe at the same time as we had a severe cold wave in Scandinavia.