Vol. 70, No. 3 * Pages 134–188 * July 2025

Changes in the atmosphere, including the amount of greenhouse gases, play a crucial role in the Earth's current rapid climate change. This paper describes in detail the functioning of the atmospheric greenhouse effect and the main associated feedback processes in the climate system. With the intention of informing the reader, it addresses some of the common misconceptions, by illustrating the processes that actually take place.

Nowadays, it is particularly important to provide a realistic picture of meteorological extremes to the public, but unfortunately most of the time the media focuses on meteorological record breakings or using clickbait titles. To improve science communication in Hungary, we have created a web-based platform where users can evaluate past weather using a complex set of tools. The focus of our approach is on periods that are considered unusual at a given time of year, but not necessarily extremes in an absolute sense. Users can analyse all past weather periods in great depth, using simplified categories, at 70 locations across Hungary, for 9 unusual weather phenomena. The science communication tool presented here can be beneficial for both meteorologists and people interested in meteorology.

The aim of this study was to analyse climate change in the Carpathian Mountains between 1951 and 2100. Temperature increased in every month in the recent decades, while in the case of precipitation a greater increase occurred in autumn. Projected future changes of temperature and precipitation were also analysed, using three regional climate model simulations (HadGEM-RACMO22E, MPI-REMO2009-r1, IPSL-RCA4) under two different scenarios (RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). The results show a consistent temperature increase in all months, with the most pronounced changes projected for winter and summer. Precipitation patterns show strong spatial and temporal variability: winter is generally expected to become wetter, while summer may become drier.