Anticipating unseen Climate Extremes
Anticipating unseen Climate Extremes (ACE) is a research project led by Dr Tom Matthews, a climate scientist at King’s College London and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, and his team of researchers.
The project seeks to understand and reduce global catastrophic risks from extreme weather events that fall outside the bounds of observed history. As climate change pushes the Earth into uncharted territory, these ‘unseen’ extremes – such as unprecedented heatwaves, storms, and novel compound weather events – pose serious and poorly understood threats to lives, communities, and global stability.
By working across disciplines, combining physical and social science, the ACE team is building new frameworks to anticipate and assess events that may lack precedent but carry catastrophic risk potential. Focused case studies, such as extreme heat in South Asia, are paired with global-scale investigations into plausible unseen future threats.
This research aims to reduce the risk that society is surprised by major extreme events by understanding what is plausible in the climate system and supporting more informed, adaptive preparations and responses in a rapidly changing world.