The WEXICOM team took part in the Extremwetterkongress from 24-25 September 2025 in Hamburg. This year’s congress brought together more than 700 participants from science, politics, media, and public administration, making it one of Germany’s largest and most visible platforms for dialogue on extreme weather, climate impacts, and risk communication. The event is aimed not only at researchers but also at practitioners, journalists, and decision-makers who deal with the growing challenges of climate extremes in their daily work.

Henning Rust gave a presentation titled “Alle 100 Jahre? Da baue ich doch wieder auf” focusing on the problems resulting from communicating stationary and particularly low probabilities in terms of return periods in a non-stationary climate (see photo below). Nico Becker presented a poster on “Gewitter und Feuerwehreinsätze: Ein Co-Design Ansatz zur Vorhersage von Wetterauswirkungen” highlighting collaborative approaches to improve forecasts of weather-related emergency operations.

Beyond presenting scientific results, participation in the Extremwetterkongress offered valuable opportunities for networking and exchange between researchers, practitioners, and communication experts. Discussions throughout the event emphasized the need for interdisciplinary collaboration and the translation of scientific insights into actionable strategies for crisis preparedness and risk communication.

In addition, Henning, together with colleagues from the EMF partner project ForMed (Daniel Kruppke-Hansen), the Disaster Research Center, the Berlin Senate, and the German Alliance on Climate Change and Health (KLUG) organized a workshop at the Climate Management Conference on “Heat Warnings – Advancing Interdisciplinary Collaboration”. The session brought together experts from meteorology, health, and governance to discuss how to make heat warnings more effective and user-oriented.

For more information about the Extremwetterkongress 2025, click here.

Henning Rust during his presentation. Photo: Extremwetterkongress