University of Exeter hosts extreme weather festival

The day-long event exploring extreme weather is being held on Saturday March 5 on Streatham campus in Exeter in collaboration with the Met Office and Weather Art and Music (WAM), an award winning special interest group of the Royal Meteorological Society. 

Throughout the day a series of talks, workshops, art and music under the title Extreme Weather and You will consider the role of weather in our lives and science behind it.  Participants will be able to build their own rain gauge as part of the Weather Fairground or make their own artwork inspired by their feelings about climate change at a print workshop run by Double Elephant. 

In the evening session A Question of Extremes, How is our Climate Changing? Dr Helen Czerski, an oceanographer from University College London and well known science presenter for the BBC will talk with Met Office climate scientist Peter Stott about the science behind climate change and how it relates to Devon. 

They will be then be joined by Dame Julia Slingo,  Professor Peter Cox, Professor of Climate System Dynamics at the University of Exeter, and Professor Neil Adger, from Exeter’s Geography department, from  for a Question Time- style session chaired by Professor Paul Hardaker Chief Executive of the Institute of Physics, which will invite questions from the audience.

“We live in the weather, and here in Britain we’re in a fantastic position on the globe to appreciate the richness that the atmosphere has to offer,” said Dr Czerski.  “I’m really excited about the WAM festival, because every perspective has something to add to our experience of the weather, and giving art and music a place alongside the scientific discussions shows us those connections.”

The festival will take place in the Forum Alumni Auditorium and Forum Seminar rooms between 11am and 9pm on Saturday March 5. Tickets for the evening event are on sale from the Exeter Phoenix Box Office: 01392 667080

A full programme of events is available here.