Britain’s weather is becoming ever more extreme. Why are we failing to prepare?
Arwen, Barra, Malik, Corrie, Dudley, Eunice, Franklin. The storms that have hit the UK since late November 2021 have caused huge disruption. We are just two months into 2022, and before the end of the year we may have to endure one or more storms Gladys, Herman, Imani and Jack, the next few names on the Met Office list.
This season is by no means unique. In the winter of 2019-2020, storms Ciara, Dennis and Jorge cost the insurance and reinsurance industries nearly £800m, largely as a result of disastrous flooding. During the past decade, winter storms and floods, as well as heat and drought, seem to have become the new normal. Back in 2012, for instance, there was a winter drought, followed by the wettest early June for 150 years and widespread flooding and wind damage in the autumn.
Are these recent extremes of weather a temporary blip or are they part of a long-term pattern – and if so are we doing enough to make us more resilient for future weather? The answer to these two questions is “almost certainly yes” and “certainly not”.
The “almost certainly yes” comes from climate modelling. Although climate scientists are pushing the limits of their models when they try to attribute individual weather events to global heating, there is general agreement that extreme weather is likely to become more common as the air warms. Put simply, this is because warmer air holds more energy and more moisture: two key ingredients of severe storms. But the extremes in the UK weather will not only include storms and floods, but also heatwaves and periods of drought.
Last June, British Columbia suffered a heatwave with record-breaking temperatures of up to 49.6C, followed by catastrophic floods in November that cut all transport routes into
Read more on theguardian.com
