EMS Annual Meeting 2026 – Session organized by COMPASS team members

The upcoming EMS Annual Meeting 2026 will take place in Utrecht, bringing together researchers and practitioners from across the meteorological and climate science communities.

A session titled “Attribution of Extreme Weather Events and Their Impacts” will be convened by COMPASS team members and collaborators. The session focuses on recent advances in extreme event attribution (EEA) and the growing body of research linking extreme weather events — such as heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and hurricanes — to climate change and other human-driven factors.

As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, understanding their drivers and impacts has become increasingly important. In addition to climatic influences, human activities have altered land use, hydrology, and exposure patterns, further shaping the impacts of these events on human health, infrastructure, and ecosystems.

In recent decades, EEA has expanded rapidly, with new methodologies enabling the attribution not only of extreme weather events themselves but also of their impacts, including fatalities, damages, and displacement. Attribution research supports a wide range of societal applications, including awareness-raising, litigation, the Loss and Damage mechanism, decision-making, and adaptation planning.

Session scope

The session welcomes contributions that explore different methods to attribute weather extremes and their impacts to various drivers, including climate change, land-use change, and adaptation. Topics of interest include:

• Comparison of different attribution methods
• Development of new attribution methodologies
• Attribution of extreme weather events
• Attribution of impacts of extreme events
• Applications of attribution studies for societal purposes

Abstract submission opens on 2 February 2026.

Researchers working on attribution science and its societal applications are encouraged to submit their contributions.