Climate Data More Accessible to Rail Companies Through New Met Office Portal

Relevant RTS critical priority(ies):
Data driven; Low emissions

The Met Office’s Climate Data Portal, launched in June 2023, provides organisations with improved access to climate data and other resources, helping them to understand and respond to the challenges caused by climate change. The portal, which was built using geospatial technology from Esri UK, makes it easier for transport businesses or government organisations to combine open climate data with their own data to reveal the future impact of extreme conditions, such as heatwaves, floods or droughts, on operations.

The portal presents complex scientific climate projections in easy-to-use formats, ready to visualise and analyse in GIS and non-spatial applications or integrate into business processes for improved decision making. Spatial analysis can be performed at a global, regional or local level enabling location-specific action plans to be developed.

UK stakeholders can investigate their physical climate risks over the next 50 to 100 years. The most detailed climate projections reveal a greater chance of warmer, wetter winters and hotter, drier summers and these help users plan and prepare for extreme weather, climate change and the reporting which new regulations, linked to climate change, will require. Data on temperature extremes can be used to understand the impacts on transport infrastructure and energy demand. For example: days above 25°C can indicate when trains could be disrupted due to overheating of railway infrastructure, and days below 0°C can indicate transport disruption and increased energy demand for heating.

The portal will also help provide insights that help organisations start their response to regulatory climate reporting such as TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures), which is being rolled out across the UK.