The Year of the Block Geraint Vaughan 1 This is the footer

This time last year

15 Jan2010

10 February 2010

8 March 2010

2 May 2010: volcanic aerosol

July 2010 – Russian heatwave: mean 500 mb height Jul 2010 NCEP reanalysis - ESRL

Here we go again………

Motivation for workshop Blocking is an important (and long-established) problem for both weather and climate The impacts of blocking for human activities can be far- reaching The dissipation of blocks has been notoriously difficult for NWP models to forecast – but is this still true? Climate models tend to have too little blocking – why? Is this a problem with blocking or another problem showing up as no-blocking – i.e. symptom or cause? Is it time to re-examine the dynamics of blocking? Can we advance the subject?

Outcome of workshop Helps NCAS develop its research programme across Weather and Climate Inform NERC theme leaders – is this an area that needs a directed programme? Consortium? International links