Anastasios Tsonis

Anastasios Tsonis is an American atmospheric scientist and distinguished professor at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

Tsonis was born in the Greek city of Elefsis. He received his BS from Aristotelian University in 1976 and his PhD from McGill University in 1982.

After receiving his PhD, Tsonis became a postdoctoral fellow at the Atmospheric Environmental Service in Canada from 1982–1985. He then joined the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where he has remained ever since.

Tsonis's career began focusing on mathematical models of atmospheric processes, such as vertical wind speeds.

More recently, Tsonis has become known for his research pertaining to global warming, especially natural influences on global temperatures. In 2009, Tsonis, with Kyle Swanson, published a paper reporting that natural climate shifts are superimposed on the warming trend observed during the 20th century. They concluded that "a break in the global mean temperature trend from the consistent warming over the 1976/77–2001/02 period may have occurred." The authors also argued that "there are times when different types of natural variation in the climate synchronize, which shifts the climate to a new state", and that this may explain the cessation of warming beginning in 2001 or 2002. They contend that this shift changed the climate state from "warming" to "cooling". Tsonis has argued that natural factors, especially ocean currents, may contribute more to climate change than human activity, and that the Earth is "now in a period of cooling that could last up to fifty years." In 2013, he reiterated his view that this cooling trend was occurring, and might continue for the next 15 years. That year, shortly after the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report was released, he also criticized the reliability of climate models, saying that they "don’t agree with each other – and they don’t agree with reality."