My colleague and friend Manfred Mudelsee has just published a remarkable book on the statistical analysis of climate extremes with Cambridge University Press. It is Manfred’s second book, after his very successful book on climate time series analysis (Springer, 2nd Edition, 2014).
The consequences of global climate change can already be felt everywhere, ranging from long-term changes in temperature, precipitation and wind to events with extreme levels in these climate variables. Manfred’s very relevant work, however, appears on the book shelves just as the global COVID-19 crisis is pushing the topic of climate change into the background.
Even if climate research pauses in public perception, the scientific work at the research institutes continues. The urgency of the problem calls for compact textbooks, with a good overview of methods with application examples that can easily be transferred to other data sets and problems. This is exactly Manfred’s approach, short theoretical introductions, then examples are analyzed. A lot of excellently researched background information on the data sets is provided, which is important in order to understand the character of the data.
There is a lot of “Let us examine …” in the text, many rhetorical questions are asked which readers might have as they work through the examples. The reader is really taken by the hand when working through the examples. At the end of the chapters the reader will find an outlook, the risk analyst is offeredvery clear decision aids and further reading material. On the other hand the text is not overloaded with too much detail, but the basics of climate data and archives as well as statistical and numerical methods are provided in a comprehensive appendix. Manfred’s website offers supplementary material, from data, software and solutions to the exercises in the book.
The 200-page paperback book is printed in black and white, is of good material quality, but reasonably priced at 33 Euros! The bright red book cover is fantastic, fits very well with the book title and will certainly help to find the book in the display of the publisher, for example at conferences – if they take place again sometime! Manfred runs Climate Risk Analysis as a company since 15 years, providing climate time series analysis services. Furthermore, he teaches methods of climate data analysis in commercial courses.
Congratulations, Manfred, on this great book! May it find many readers!
Mudelsee (2020) Statistical Analysis of Climate Extremes, Cambridge University Press, 200 pp, ISBN: 9781108791465.