Plot of the month for November 2016 is provided by Pier Luigi Vidale, Reinhard Schiemann, Marie-Estelle Demory and Malcolm Roberts, who have created an animated 'snapshot' of present climate.

This animation shows sea surface temperature, clouds and precipitation during the period 1986-1987, simulated in a 25-km atmospheric model (HadGEM3-GA3.0, part of the UPSCALE modelling campaign).

Watch the remarkable animation here, and look out for the following:

• land surface background ("Blue Marble")
• snow cover and sea ice (white texture over land; simulated)
• sea surface temperature (ocean background colours; imposed in these atmosphere-only simulations)
• clouds (white-grey; grey; simulated)
• precipitation (light to intense; blue-red colour scale on top of clouds; simulated)
• location of the Sun at zenith (local noon), showing the diurnal cycle (Sun icon)

(It is interesting to compare clouds and precipitation in this high-resolution output with the low-resolution (N48/~280km) simulation, which may be found on the UPSCALE page.)