I have been a meteorologist for over 40 years, first at the Met. Office and since 1986 at the British Antarctic Survey. I have a B.Sc in Meteorology and Physics and a Ph.D in Antarctic Climate Variability. At the Met. Office I was involved in the development of numerical weather prediction models, satellite meteorology and operational weather forecasting, while at BAS I have carried out research into high-latitude precipitation, polar lows, teleconnections between the Antarctic and lower latitudes and weather forecasting in the Antarctic.

I have had a long involvement with the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and have been active in several SCAR committees. I’m currently a member of the Antarctic Climate 2100 (AntClim21) Steering Committee and chair the Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment Advisory Group.

I’ve also been heavily involved with the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) and was President of the IAMAS International Commission on Polar Meteorology from 1995 to 2003. I’m currently the President of IAMAS.

I have been awarded the International Journal of Climatology Prize of the Royal Meteorological Society and the SCAR Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research.

Research interests

Tropical – high latitude climate linkages

Sea ice variability and change

Antarctic climate change

High latitude weather systems

• Murphy, E., Dunn, M., Turner, J., Clarke, A., & Abram, N. (2022). South Orkney Fast-Ice Series (SOFI) – Version 2.0 (Version 2.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/0313090c-373e-4e2e-97f2-6cd0d4138e75

• Phillips, T. (2020). Cyclone tracks for the region south of 60S for 1979 – 2018 derived from 6-hourly ERA-Interim reanalysis mean sea level pressure (MSLP) fields (Version 1.0) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/d3b5d87d-c882-4fed-9d47-14c73be43bca

• van de Berg, W., van Wessem, M., van de Broeke, M., Turner, J., & Phillips, T. (2019). Antarctic daily precipitation amounts for January 1979 – July 2017 from the RACMO version 3p2 limited area atmospheric model, along with flags that indicate extreme precipitation events (Version 1) [Data set]. UK Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation. https://doi.org/10.5285/bbf12a6f-7d97-4951-9bd1-e4224e2abac9

• Deb, P., Orr, A., & Turner, J. (2018). Polar Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) simulation of West Antarctic climate, summer 1980-2015 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK. https://doi.org/10.5285/9536f22e-37dd-4f37-948b-e19c70e15292

• Murphy, E. (2014). South Orkney Fast-Ice series (SOFI) (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/f9e983e6-d2d8-4988-9c56-ca040b51ee39

• Murphy, E. (2014). South Orkney Fast-Ice Series – 2004 Signy Island camera images (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/0fdd7778-8563-49c0-b42d-85d9a599a56d

• Marshall, G., Miles, G., Turner, J., Lachlan-Cope, T., & Mulvaney, R. (2007). Automatic Weather Station (AWS) data collected from Rothschild, Latady and Smyley Islands, Antarctic Peninsula, 2005 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00293

• Marshall, G., Miles, G., Turner, J., Lachlan-Cope, T., & Mulvaney, R. (2007). Analysis of snow/ice cores collected from Rothschild, Latady and Smyley Islands, Antarctic Peninsula, 2006 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://data.bas.ac.uk/full-record.php?id=GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/00294

1. Tracking Antarctica’s Ice Fluctuations

   The recent extreme swings in Antarctic sea ice extent emphasise the need to increase our knowledge of the drivers and climate implications of Antarctic sea ice loss.

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2. Climate Code

   This collaborative project is born from exploring novel ways of visualising environment​al data and telling the climate change story. Read more about the project and the science behind it through the project page.

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3. Long-term Antarctic weather records

   READER (REference Antarctic Data for Environmental Research) is a project of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR http://www.scar.org/) and has the goal of creating a high quality, long term dataset of mean surface and upper air meteorological measurements from in-situ Antarctic observing systems.

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4. Cambridge Centre for Climate Science

   The Cambridge Centre for Climate Science has been established to promote research and other activities in Climate Science.

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1. Tropical storms trigger Antarctic ice melt

   New factors are contributing to record-high temperatures and ice melt over the eastern Antarctic Peninsula and Larsen C Ice Shelf.

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2. Study underway as Antarctic sea ice extent at record level

   A £5m project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) to investigate the complex changes seen in sea ice around the Antarctic begins this month (March 2022) as the […]

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3. Record warming at the South Pole

   The South Pole has warmed at over three times the global rate since 1989, according to a paper published in Nature Climate Change today (29 June 2020). This warming period was […]

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4. Antarctic sea ice loss explained in new study

   Scientists have discovered that summer sea ice in the Weddell Sea area of Antarctica has decreased by one million square kilometres – an area twice the size of Spain – […]

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5. Antarctic snowfall dominated by a few extreme snowstorms

   A new study reveals the importance of a small number of intense storms around Antarctica in controlling the amount of snow falling across the continent.

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6. State of the Polar Oceans report published

   Report published July 2018

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7. Storms caused massive Antarctic sea ice loss in 2016

   A series of unprecedented storms over the Southern Ocean likely caused the most dramatic decline in Antarctic sea ice seen to date, a new study finds. Antarctic sea ice – […]

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8. A recent pause in Antarctic Peninsula warming

   The rapid warming of the Antarctic Peninsula, which occurred from the early-1950s to the late 1990s, has paused. Stabilisation of the ozone hole along with natural climate variability were significant in bringing about the change. Together these influences have now caused the northern part of the peninsula to enter a temporary cooling phase. Temperatures remain higher than measured during the middle of the 20th Century and glacial retreat is still taking place. However, scientists predict that if greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise at the current rate, temperatures will increase across the Antarctic Peninsula by several degrees Centigrade by the end of this century.

   Read more of: A recent pause in Antarctic Peninsula warming

   

9. NEWS STORY: World’s coldest place identified

   Scientists working at the United States National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said this week they have identified the coldest place on Earth using satellite observations of surface temperature. […]

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10. NEWS STORY: Climate records from ice cores

    New ice core record shows climate variability in West Antarctica A 308-year ice core record provides new data on climate variability in coastal West Antarctica and shows that a clear […]

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11. NEWS STORY: Antarctic Treaty System

    ATCM XXXVI Press Communique From 20th to 29th May 2013, Belgium hosted the XXXVI Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting and the XVI meeting of the Committee for Environmental Protection (CEP). The […]

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12. Dr. John Turner awarded SCAR Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research

    During the SCAR Open Science Conference in Buenos Aires from 30th July to 11th August this year, the SCAR Medal for Excellence in Antarctic Research will be awarded to Dr. […]

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13. PRESS RELEASE: Air flows explain record low

    New research sheds light on Earth”s coldest temperatures Results from the first detailed analysis of the lowest ever temperature recorded on the Earth’s surface can explain why it got so […]

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14. First comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica’s climate – Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment

    The first comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica’s climate and its relationship to the global climate system is published this week (Tuesday 1 December) by the Scientific Committee on […]

    Read more of: First comprehensive review of the state of Antarctica’s climate – Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment

    

15. PRESS RELEASE: Ozone hole link to sea ice extent

    Increasing Antarctic sea ice extent linked to the ozone hole Increased growth in Antarctic sea ice during the past 30 years is a result of changing weather patterns caused by […]

    Read more of: PRESS RELEASE: Ozone hole link to sea ice extent