Congratulations!Laura Sánchez Guarnizo successfully presented her MSc thesis

24 February 2022

Photo: Laura Sánchez

We are proud to announce the successful MSc thesis presentation of our SICSS member Laura Alejandra Sánchez Guarnizo

Her thesis "Predictability and Variability of Summer Maximum Surface Temperature in Europe" was supervised by Prof. Dr. Johanna Baehr and Goratz Beobide Arsuaga.

Laura investigated the sensitivity of retrospective forecasts of summer maximum surface temperature in Europe to ongoing warming and cooling periods throughout the 20th century. She evaluated 15-year trends to identify these warming and cooling periods, including the so-called global warming hiatus by the end of the 20th century. In her thesis, she also identified a northwest-southeast gradient with warming in southeastern and cooling in northwestern Europe. Further, she found that the retrospective forecasts had high skill during significant warming periods and low skill during significant cooling periods. Yet, her results showed regional dependencies, and the influence of ongoing warming and cooling periods on the skill of retrospective forecasts is difficult to generalize. Nevertheless, she demonstrated that the skill of retrospective forecasts is sensitive to prevailing climate conditions, which must be considered when forecasting European summers.

Laura was a member of the Institute of Oceanography (Climate Modelling Group) at Universität Hamburg.

Laura's future plans?

Her future plans are to continue building her career as a climate expert. She is highly interested in climate extreme events, climate risk, climate predictions, and climate change.