Tourist bodies and places in a changing climate: Extreme weather as lively data

We live in a world increasingly shaped by extreme weather events. Drawing on non-representational theory and ethnography, this conceptual chapter establishes a sensory and material approach to studying the relationships between people and the more-than-representational forces of extreme weather within the empirical context of tourism. The chapter begins with a vivid vignette of two recent weather events that negatively affected bodies and places. Building on these vignettes, we outline our non-representational perspective on extreme weather and introduce the novel concept of weather ethnography, which involves conducting more-than-human sensory research in and about the dynamic and vibrant nature of weather. We then explore how this approach can be applied to studying extreme weather in tourist locations. Finally, we conclude by framing extreme weather as a form of wild data.