Prof Friederike Otto

a map of Southern Africa highlighting the area of heavy rain

Quadruple whammy: High exposure, vulnerability, La Niña and human-induced climate change turned very heavy rainfall into a disastrous deluge around the Limpopo, Umbeluzi, Maputo, Incomati, Save and Buzi rivers. - new @wwattribution.bsky.social study www.worldweatherattribution.org/la-nina-clim...

A map of southeastern Australia showing the temperature anomalies during the heatwave.

While Australian heatwaves were some of the very first extreme events attributed to climate change, people still underestimate how much worse they got - killing more people than all other natural hazards combined. New @wwattribution.bsky.social study. www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-chan...

a world map with locations of extreme weather event studies by WWA in pink & yellow dots

Looking back to @wwattribution.bsky.social studies in 2025 showed again, in stark terms, how unfairly the consequences of human-induced climate change are distributed. The world does not have to be like this, we have a lot of agency to make it better. www.worldweatherattribution.org/unequal-evid...

map of Sri Lanka with heavy rainfall

map of Sumatra and Malaysia showing heavy rainfall between November 23rd and 27th

In the world we live in today, that is 1.3C warmer due to our continued burning of fossil fuels, the extreme rainfall leading to disastrous flooding in many parts of Asia is up to 50 to 160% more intense - new @wwattribution.bsky.social study www.worldweatherattribution.org/increasing-h...

Die Dezember-Ausgabe der »Blätter«

📬 Ab heute im Briefkasten: Die Dezember-»Blätter«!

Mit Texten von: @frediotto.bsky.social, @meronmendel.bsky.social, @lisalandenberger.bsky.social, @kristinhelberg.bsky.social, @bickel.bsky.social, @tobiaslambert.bsky.social u.v.m.

👉 www.blaetter.de/ausgabe/2025...

screenshot of podcast recording with cat

Watch, @fisherdanar.bsky.social , @davidho.bsky.social and me talk about corporate capture, cat capture and where we think things climate could be in 5 years. cece.american.edu/copout-episo...

COPOut Episode 4: On Measurement and Attribution - Center for Environment, Community, & Equity (CECE) In our fourth episode of the COPOut Podcast, Dr. Dana R. Fisher talks with guest experts who help us understand where we are in measuring carbon and attributing the effects that climate change is havi...

🎙️ Episode 4 of the COPOut Podcast is LIVE! Tune in to hear from @davidho.bsky.social and @frediotto.bsky.social as they discuss what we know and what we still need to understand (as well as what makes them angry with the climate regime).
cece.american.edu/copout-episo...

maps of rainfall deficit & agricultural drought for the last 5 years over Iran and the Euphrates and Tigris basin.

Two years ago, we did a study on a devastating drought in the Fertil Crescent. Due to climate change and water governance disputes the drought is still ongoing. Teheran might be running out of water, if it doesn't start raining soon. Our update: www.worldweatherattribution.org/human-induce...

I might have failed at my assignment from @fisherdanar.bsky.social to say what makes me hopeful about climate, but I think @frediotto.bsky.social and her team's work that would enable us to hold polluters responsible should be a source of hope.

Tune in to Episode 4 of the #COPOut Podcast tomorrow!

maps of rainfall in Mexico during the rainy season and the flood inducing event

Shortly before hurricane Melissa hit the Caribbean, capturing global media attention, Mexico suffered from severed flooding, killing more than 78 people and destroying infrastructure; disproportionally affecting indigenous communities.
www.worldweatherattribution.org/heavy-rainfa...

Thank you so much! 😍

Many congratulations to the amazing @frediotto.bsky.social for receiving the Hans Oeschger Medal! This career award from the @egu.eu Climate Division underlines the ground-breaking research Fredi did on many fronts, most notably on near-realtime extreme event attribution @wwattribution.bsky.social

Thank you! Stepping in big shoes 😊

Well, they don’t have pedestrian crossings in Kensington either… so, people are definitely unwelcome.

A six-panel comic. In panel 1, text says "People often wonder, why don't I see baby pigeons? Here's where they're hiding:" and there's an egg with an arrow pointing to a question mark, then an arrow pointing to an adult pigeon. Panel 2 says "Pigeons don't nest in trees. They nest in sheltered spaces on or in buildings. This keeps their babies safe from weather and predators." There's a pigeon nesting in a sheltered cavity in the side of a building. Panel 3 says "The hidden babies look like this: like moldy potatoes, but cute" and there are two baby pigeons looking, well, like moldy pink and gray potatoes with yellow fuzz. Panel 4 says "Older baby pigeons hide in plain sight. When they leave the nest, they're adult-sized, but they're still young and learning" and a fledgling pigeon is flying out of a building saying "aaaaaa". Panel 5 says "Here's how to identify these young pigeons" and shows a fledgling pigeon with arrows pointing to these features: eyes may be gray-brown, pale-edged feathers, smaller "nose" (cere), subdued hues, and looks worried. Panel 6 says "Scientifically speaking, though, all pigeons are sweet babies" and there are three very cute round pigeons, a gray, white, and red one, with arrows pointing to them to make things look scientific.

Baby pigeon mystery.
My pigeon book is here: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/rosem...

I've got a medal! And not just any, but the Hans Oeschger Medal from the EGU, for outstanding contributions to research on climatic changes. www.egu.eu/news/1551/eg...

The wettest 5-day period in each location between 19-29 October 2025, which is related to the passage of Melissa. The track of Hurricane Melissa at 12 hour intervals is shown as a series of pink points. Data from MSWX

If we do not seriously move away from burning fossil fuels, hurricanes like Melissa will only become worse. Already today Melissa tested the limits of what preparedness and adaptation can do. These limits are very real for everyone in the Caribbean. www.worldweatherattribution.org/climate-chan...

Vorschieben, Frauen & Mädchen schützen zu wollen, als würde sexualisierte Gewalt vor allem von Migranten ausgehen, ist so hanebüchen wie perfide. Es ist rassistisch und misogyn zugleich - und eine klassische Erzählung von Rechtsextremen, die im Übrigen nicht auf "Schutz", sondern Besitzanspruch fußt

BBC World Service - Science In Action, Paris agreement impacts and drought realities 10 years on from the Paris climate agreement, has it helped at all?

The sharp rise in hot days since the 2015 Paris climate accord, + alarming future risks lead Science in Action this week with @wwattribution.bsky.social's @frediotto.bsky.social.
Also the Int'l Drought Expt's Mendy Smith on devastating multiyear droughts on grasslands.

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

frequency of extreme heat in Mali & Burkina Faso under different warming scenarios

The Paris Agreement offers a powerful framework for a fairer, healthier world. But as extreme heat shows, every tenth of a degree matters. We need higher ambition to stop violating the rights of ever more people. - new @wwattribution.bsky.social study
www.worldweatherattribution.org/ten-years-of...

Very exciting “job” I’ll have over the coming months. Can’t wait to see how & where this dearly needed field of fiction is moving. 📕📗⚖️🔥

How the world’s taste for soya is eating Brazil’s Amazon Cultivation of the crop has made a few wealthy but at a huge cost to untouched forest as it spreads across vast areas of former wilderness

Terrible headline on a good article. It’s the world’s taste for MEAT that’s fuelling Amazon destruction. The soya is cattle feed.

Planetary boundaries sound very abstract & high level, this year, for the first time @eraju.bsky.social & I contributed a chapter how breaching these boundaries has affected people around the world: losing lives, livelihoods, health… & for whom the limits of adaptation have been reached.

I was wrong! @eraju.bsky.social is here!

After almost a decadal hiatus, back at KMD in Nairobi, running a @wwattribution.bsky.social workshop with three superstars: @clairbarnes.bsky.social, Joyce Kimutai & Emmanuel Raju (who somehow didn't make it to blue sky yet).

Just quoting the final key point, which very few leaders seem to be acting on:
"While policies are needed to protect people from heat, a rapid shift away from fossil fuels is the most effective way to avoid hotter and deadlier summers."

The summer is over - and for about 16,600 people across 854 European cities that doesn't mean autumn comes, but death. People who would still be alive if it wasn't for our burning of fossil fuels. - New study with @lshtm.bsky.social www.imperial.ac.uk/grantham/pub...

Out now: our new study shows that climate change caused nearly 1,700 heat-related deaths in Zürich over 50 years.

We assessed the effects of changing vulnerability to heat, heat-mortality within and outside of heatwaves, and the contribution of individual companies' emissions to heat deaths.

a graph of high temperatures, daily severity rating and radiative power, showing how heat and DSR built up before fires broke out

Heat & very dry air that used to be rare, now very common in Spain & Portugal, putting huge strain on EU firefighting resources - at 1.3C global warming. Every additional ton of fossil fuels burnt will make European summers even more deadly & dangerous www.worldweatherattribution.org/extreme-fire...

Hosted by @meteoleipzig.bsky.social @unileipzig.bsky.social @tropos-de.bsky.social , ECO-N research training group funded by @dfg.de
Great lectures by @sebastian-sippel.bsky.social @frediotto.bsky.social @mdebrito.bsky.social @zscheischlerjak.bsky.social and more!