Science for the Public: Contemporary Science Issues & Innovations
January 07, 2025 Belmont Media Center

Mathew Barlow, Ph.D., Professor of Climate Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Jeffrey Basara, Ph.D., Professor of Meteorology; Chair of the Department of Environmental, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

The record-breaking heat of the last few years is, climate scientists say, “not just summer.”Two distinguished researchers, Mathew Barlow and Jeffrey Basara, discuss their recent important article about the sudden uptick in global temperature, why it is worrying climate experts, how they analyze the global heat patterns, and what must be done to address the problem.

Extreme Heat Is Breaking Global Records: Why This Isn’t ‘Just Summer,’ And What Climate Change Has To Do With It (The Conversation, July 2024 by Mathew Barlow & Jeffrey Basara)

BIO: Mathew Barlow, Ph.D:Dr. Barlow’s expertise is in climate variability and change, particularly the influence of large-scale climate variability and change on local conditions of importance to society. His research areas include climate change, droughts, floods, and heat waves, with particular geographic interest in the Northeast U.S., North America, Southwest Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Dr. Barlow has served as an editor for the Journal of Climate, a US CLIVAR Extremes Working Group co-chair, on the AMS Applied Climatology Committee, and on the AMS Board of Higher Education. He is a Lead Author in Working Group I for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, the extreme precipitation team leader for the 2022 greater Boston climate assessment, and a member of NOAA’s Fourth Drought Task Force (DTF4).

BIO: Jeffrey Basara, Ph.D. Dr. Basara is a professor of meteorology and the chair of the Department of Environmental, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. His research is focused on the complex, integrated processes across weather, climate, water, and ecosystems with specific attention directed toward precipitation extremes and associated impacts.
Dr. Basara is a Kavli Fellow of the United States National Academy of Sciences and has received multiple research awards including the Research, Education, and Economics (REE) Under Secretary’s Award in 2019 from the USDA.He is a Lead Author in Working Group I for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, the extreme precipitation team leader for the 2022 greater Boston climate assessment, and a member of NOAA’s Fourth Drought Task Force (DTF4).