Destinations of Climate Monitoring information: State of the Climate reports

One of the goals of climate monitoring is to ensure that the ongoing changes in the Earth's climate system are placed in context against longer-term changes and are clearly and widely communicated. There are a number of reports produced on an annual basis which collate and synthesise the outputs from climate monitoring products for a range of essential climate variables (ECVs) and extreme climate events. Among the most highly regarded peer-reviewed global-scale publications, a provisional version of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) State of the Global Climate report feeds into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (UNFCCC COP) process each year, directly informing policy makers and stakeholders about the current state of several key climate metrics. The more comprehensive BAMS State of the Climate report is an almanac of the major events of each year and an assessment of more than three-dozen ECVs that encompass Earth's land, oceans, cryosphere, and atmosphere, which provides a useful reference document for a wide range of stakeholders, from the general public to educators to private and public decision makers. In this presentation we outline the process behind each report, the wide range of information they contain, and give pointers on how to get more involved.