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Tornadoes,
blizzards, hurricanes and thunderstorms are either rare or
non-existent in the UK so we don’t really need to worry about
these X-rated types of weather - or do we?
Our
climate is changing. It has never remained the same. Ice ages
come and go as the continents move around, as solar activity
changes and as the Earth wobbles on its axis. The only area
of doubt is how much we are adding to those changes through
the burning of fossil fuels and the production of CFCs and
other ozone-destroying gases.
There no doubting the change in our climate when you consider
that the 1990s was the warmest decade in the last 1000 years
and that the six warmest years in the UK since 1659 have happened
since 1990. And if you put more energy - in the form of heat
- into the climate system you will tend to get more out.
In theory, whilst we may not see hurricanes in the West in
the next century, there a good chance that our depressions
will become more vigorous. Tornadoes may still be rare, but
they will become a slightly more frequent occurrence.
What could be a bigger problem for us is the risk of inundation
from the sea. Melting glaciers and the thermal expansion of
sea water will cause sea levels to rise by maybe half a metre
- enough to make the flooding problems around the Somerset
Levels and Severn Estuary even worse than they are at present
- a scary thought isn’t it?
There
is no doubt that our weather will get wilder as global warming
continues apace through the next century. X-rated weather
indeed.
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