An external view of the Met Office building at night.

Tim Hinton

Areas of expertise

  • Climate model development and evaluation.

  • Mid-latitude atmospheric blocking.

  • Stratospheric modelling.

  • Mid-latitude storm tracks.

Current activities

A particular focus of Tim's work is on mid-latitude weather phenomena such as blocking in the Unified Model.  These weather phenomena are a large component of the natural variability of the climate in the mid-latitudes (the area between the low-latitude tropics and the high-latitude polar regions) in which the British Isles are located. Tim's work has included looking at the effect that biases in the model's simulation of tropical climate have on atmospheric blocking in the mid-latitudes.

Tim is also in charge of the model configuration for the vertically extended version of Met Office climate prediction model: HadGEM2 family, which includes all of the stratosphere. Such models are being used to investigate the role of the stratosphere on tropospheric climate and climate variability. The intention is for this model to contribute climate predictions for the next report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  

Career background

Tim joined the Met Office Hadley Centre in 2002. He graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2001, and completed an MSc in Weather and Climate modelling at the University of Reading in 2004.