There is an acknowledged relationship between climate change and weather, and much effort is being put into predicting how climate change will affect our future weather, here in the UK.
Just a few years ago we were looking at impacts like a rapidly eroding coastline, wetter winters, more storms, increases in tropical diseases, and hotter, drier summers. Yay! Let’s plant olive groves!
Well, we now better appreciate the complexities of climate and meteorology modelling and can accept that maybe the idea of hotter and drier summers needs to be revised. Indeed, a lot of Dorset is now soggier than I have ever seen it (see the photos above including from Sturminster Newton – a month’s worth of rain fell in just 24 hours with water swamping homes, businesses, towns and villages in South and West Dorset). Many rivers have flooded, road surfaces have been washed away, and water laps at the rail line to Dorchester. The havoc is more widespread than in August last summer, when we last had flash flooding.
Will this work as a wake-up call? Will people make the connection between rising C02 emissions and deteriorating planetary-wide weather patterns? Let us know what you think!