Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly deployed for climate-related applications, where understanding internal climatological knowledge is crucial for reliability and misinformation risk assessment. Despite growing adoption, the capacity of LLMs to recall climate normals from parametric knowledge remains largely uncharacterized. We investigate the capacity of contemporary LLMs to recall climate normals without external retrieval, focusing on a prototypical query: mean July 2-m air temperature 1991-2020 at specified locations. We construct a global grid of queries at 1° resolution land points, providing coordinates and location descriptors, and validate responses against ERA5 reanalysis. Results show that LLMs encode non-trivial climate structure, capturing latitudinal and topographic patterns, with root-mean-square errors of 3-6 °C and biases of $\pm$1 °C. However, spatially coherent errors remain, particularly in mountains and high latitudes. Performance degrades sharply above 1500 m, where RMSE reaches 5-13 °C compared to 2-4 °C at lower elevations. We find that including geographic context (country, city, region) reduces errors by 27% on average, with larger models being most sensitive to location descriptors. While models capture the global mean magnitude of observed warming between 1950-1974 and 2000-2024, they fail to reproduce spatial patterns of temperature change, which directly relate to assessing climate change. This limitation highlights that while LLMs may capture present-day climate distributions, they struggle to represent the regional and local expression of long-term shifts in temperature essential for understanding climate dynamics. Our evaluation framework provides a reproducible benchmark for quantifying parametric climate knowledge in LLMs and complements existing climate communication assessments.

Understanding how climate change affects us and learning about available solutions are key steps toward empowering individuals and communities to mitigate and adapt to it. As Large Language Models (LLMs) rise in popularity, it is necessary to assess their capability in this domain. In this study, we present a comprehensive evaluation framework, grounded in science communication principles, to analyze LLM responses to climate change topics. Our framework emphasizes both the presentational and epistemological adequacy of answers, offering a fine-grained analysis of LLM generations. Spanning 8 dimensions, our framework discerns up to 30 distinct issues in model outputs. The task is a real-world example of a growing number of challenging problems where AI can complement and lift human performance. We introduce a novel and practical protocol for scalable oversight that uses AI Assistance and relies on raters with relevant educational backgrounds. We evaluate several recent LLMs and conduct a comprehensive analysis of the results, shedding light on both the potential and the limitations of LLMs in the realm of climate communication.

The tongue of the Malaspina Glacier, the largest glacier in Alaska, fills most of this image. Interdisciplinary climate studies reflect agreement that systems and integrative analyses contain the keys to protecting the earth from climate catastrophe. Big Data tools improve knowledge integration, providing enhanced insight into both what is occurring and what will occur. As predictive analytics models improve, innovators in this space are advocating for better access and ways to interpret climate data, which has historically been scattered and expensive. There are few sectors left untouched by the power of artificial intelligence (AI).