2nd Workshop on the
Dynamics of Rossby waves,
compound extremes and their impacts

19 - 21 January 2026, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands

The co-occurrence of heatwaves and other extreme events across the Northern Hemisphere is often linked to persistent Rossby wave patterns that affect several regions at once. Such  spatially compounded events can negatively impact, for example, crop yields or human and ecosystem health across multiple regions. Compound weather extremes pose a growing threat to our increasingly interconnected world: to properly address them, we must deepen our understanding of their underlying drivers, improve their representation in numerical models, and assess their impacts to enhance preparedness and resilience. This workshop aims to present the current state of knowledge on this topic and to identify key research gaps and future directions. We welcome contributions on the atmospheric dynamics driving compound events, such as recurrent Rossby waves packets and blocking, as well as studies on the physical and statistical characteristics of these extremes and on their associated impacts.

This workshop aims to present the current state of knowledge on the topic of Rossby waves, compound extremes and their impacts and to identify key research gaps and future directions. The workshop will consist of a mixture of invited and contributed talks and posters. Additionally, it will contain brainstorming and discussion sessions about open challenges and research questions for the  community, possible collaborations and finding ways to share tools and datasets. Given the emphasis on scientific interactions,we strongly encourage in-person attendance, but infrastructure for limited online participation will also be arranged.  A few years after the 2023 workshop on “Rossby waves, heatwaves and compound extreme events” in Bologna, the time is right to consolidate and expand the community. It is also the right moment to take concrete steps toward the goals outlined in Bologna – fostering the exchange of knowledge, tools, and datasets.

Keynote Speakers (alphabetical order):

• Emanuele Bevacqua (UFZ Leipzig)

• Dim Comou (VU Amsterdam)

• Giorgia di Capua (PIK Potsdam)

• Erich Fischer (ETH Zürich)

• Hayley Fowler (Newcastle University)

• Olivia Martius (University of Bern)

• Gabriele Messori (Uppsala University)

• Vikki Thompson (University of Edinburgh)

• Sander Veraverbeke (VU Amsterdam)

• Rachel White (University of British Columbia)

• Tim Woollings (University of Oxford)

Organising committe: 

Simona Bordoni (University of Trento), Daniela Domeisen (University of Lausanne, ETH Zürich),
Vera Melinda Galfi (VU Amsterdam), Valerio Lembo (CNR-ISAC), Jacopo Riboldi (ETH Zürich)