What if climate models are wrong?

Climate models are based on historical data documenting heatwaves, cold air outbreaks, and more. But what happens when other factors cause climate events to deviate from predictive models?

Radley Horton, associate research professor at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, studies the possibility that the models used to predict climate behavior may be missing crucial influences that could alter the outcomes, possibly for the worse.

Small increases in temperature and rises in sea level can create big changes in the frequency of major weather events such as flooding and dangerous heat waves. Floods that used to occur once every hundred years could happen every 10 or 20 years, given a drastic rise in sea levels. Horton’s work aims to make such events easier to predict and prepare for to mitigate damage to our ecosystems and infrastructure. Learn more.

Watch Horton discuss his commitment to climate response.