Urban heat is measurable. Whether it is manageable depends entirely on the quality of the data and models you trust to describe it. On 28 April 2026, meteoblue and the University of Bern are hosting a free, 60-minute webinar that puts urban climate modelling under serious scrutiny – examining what different approaches get right, what they miss, and why measurement networks are the missing link between model output and real-world decision-making.
Four Models, One City, Many Questions
The session centres on a study conducted in Bern, in which four high-resolution urban climate modelling approaches (ranging from physics-based methods to data-driven techniques) were applied to the same environment and compared. The results, as Dr. Moritz Burger of the University of Bern will show, are striking: model choice, spatial resolution, and underlying assumptions can produce meaningfully different pictures of the same urban climate.
This is not a flaw to be embarrassed about. It is a reality that urban planners, climate adaptation specialists, and anyone relying on these tools needs to understand clearly.
Validation Is the Missing Piece
A central argument of the webinar is that dense, high-quality measurement networks are not supplementary to modelling – they are what make model outputs interpretable in the first place. Without ground-truth data, even sophisticated models can mislead. At this session, Nico Bader from meteoblue will present how operational urban climate monitoring bridges that gap, translating modelling outputs into reliable, actionable insights at the city scale.
The session's aim is not to declare a winning model but to equip participants with a clearer understanding of where uncertainty lies and how to work with it – rather than around it.
Agenda (60 minutes)
- Welcome & Introduction – Dr. Sebastian Schlögl, meteoblue
- Challenges in Urban Climate Modelling – Dr. Sebastian Schlögl, meteoblue
- Comparison of High-Resolution Urban Climate Models – Dr. Moritz Burger, University of Bern
- From Models to Insights: Operational Urban Climate Monitoring – Nico Bader, meteoblue
- Q&A Session
- Closing Remarks – Dr. Sebastian Schlögl, meteoblue
Who Should Attend
The webinar is aimed at urban planners, climate and sustainability professionals, researchers, and anyone working at the intersection of data and city-scale climate resilience. No charge, no prerequisites – just a willingness to look at urban climate modelling with fresh eyes.
Click here to register for the webinar.
The webinar will be conducted in English.
