Climate change 'driving UK's extreme weather'

Climate change driven by industrial society is having an increasing impact on the UKs weather, the Met Office has said.

Its annual State of the UK Climate report, published by the Royal Meteorological Society yesterday, confirmed that 2019 was the 12th warmest year in a series from 1884, reports the BBC.

It showed that UK temperatures in 2019 were 1.1 degrees Celsius above the 1961-1990 long-term average.

Although it does not make the top 10, the report said that 2019 was remarkable for high temperature records in the UK.

There was also a severe swing in weather from the soaking winter to the sunny spring.

"Our report shows climate change is exerting an increasing impact on the UK," the BBC quoted Mike Kendon, lead author of the report, as saying.

"This year was warmer than any other year in the UK between 1884 and 1990, and to find a year in the coldest 10 we have to go back to 1963."

The Central England Temperature series is the longest instrumental record of temperature in the world, stretching back to 1659.

Mark McCarthy, from the Met Office, added it was a particularly wet year across parts of central and northern England.

He said Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Cheshire received between a quarter to one third more rainfall than normal. For northern England this was the ninth wettest year in a series from 1862.

"It's worth noting that since 2009 the UK has now had its wettest February, April, June, November and December on record – five out of 12 months," he was quoted as saying by the BBC..