At the European Meteorological Society Annual Meeting 2025, held in Ljubljana from 8 to 12 September, spotlights have been shunned on new ways for climate data to be transformed into information that truly supports regional decision-making. As climate change is causing a steep increase in climate-related risks across all society sectors, better quantification and understanding is crucial for municipalities to cope with the new reality. Within this framework, Friedrik Watterhall from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) introduced the CRA Handbook , the CLIMAAX’s online resource designed to guide European regions in portraying valid climate risk assessments.
Presented during the session “Generating and disseminating actionable climate information” , the CRA Handbook has drawn strong interest. Many of the questions raised by the audience focused on the integration of local data into assessment and how the regions might best share knowledge and experience with one another. This feedback made clear that one low-key value of such a tool lies not only in its technical properties, but also in its potential to tie and foster connections between communities facing similar climate challenges.
The CRA Handbook works through a Jupyter ecosystem: risk workflows are implemented in Jupyter notebooks, and they’re executable in a collaborative JupyterHub cloud environment, as the website runs on a JupyterBook. The entire suit of tools is open-source and freely accessible. Alongside its technical infrastructure, the projects offers tutorials, demonstrations, and drop-in sessions, scourging the creation of a community of practice where users can exchange experiences and learn simultaneously from one another.
Currently, 69 European regions are already working with the Handbook, following a three step process: it begins with the screening of the main climate risks and the analysis of adaptation capability of the stakeholder; then, it provides a more detailed assessment using local data on hazards, vulnerability and exposure; lastly, it culminates with an adaptation plan, where results are translated into concrete actions to mitigate risks for the future.