Why is the weather so bad inthe UK this year?

Answer 1

Just lucky, I guess.

It always rains during Glastonbury and Wimbledon - didn't you know?

Answer 2

We naturally have wet periods and dry periods. In the UK, these are sporadic, and always have been. Glastonbury has been the only regulatory of this. On the other side of the world, there is a set trend to this - it is known as the monsoon climate.

I believe the persistent spells of rain have been the result of a sequence of strong depressions passing over the UK. Sequences of several depressions are not, contrary to current perception, rare. They happen all the time, and always have done. These have followed several dry weeks around April/May, where anti-cyclones were prevailent.

Flooding is normal. All rivers flood. Floods happen in cycles. The stronger the flood, the less often it is expected. But the point is, it IS expected. I would welcome corrections, but the last major flood I can find that severely affected Sheffield was in 1864 - 143 years ago. Certainly, I have never known Sheffield to flood in my lifetime. Carlisle had a major flood in 2005, and prior to that had not had a flood for a very long time. This time, AFAIK, Carlisle has not experienced any flooding.

It is worth noting that on Monday, Northampton (just 2 hours down the M1 from Sheffield) saw only a few very short showers. There is, therefore, some dry weather going round too. But obviously broken clouds in Northampton are not headline grabbers.

Finally, some points on global warming:
1. Global warming. Why have I been wearing a winter coat consistently for the last three weeks (i.e. almost the whole of June) if it if temperatures are rising? I cannot remember ever wearing a winter coat in June before!!

2. People keep banging on about global warming/the greenhouse effect. This perceives that a layer of gases let the heat in and trap it in. However, the alternative (known as global cooling) is that some of the heat is also being kept out.

3. The world has a cycle of ice ages and emergences from ice ages. The 1940-70's period is sometimes perceived as a mini-ice age. This period has been linked to the emergence both from this mini-ice age and the last major ice age.

Answer 3

I remember 1976 with its roasting hot weather for nearly 6 months. Then I also remember 1977 where it was so wet that all the crops lay green and flat in the fields because it rained so much. So the UK weather is so occasionally terrible, but its hard to see a clear trend.

Evidence shows we are warming up, the records tell us that. I think that unless something is done, (i.e. make it uneconomic to have 40mpg cars and to have anything else but efficient homes and manufacturing), we are going to really have something to moan about.

The trouble is in the post, lets hope its been sent second class. If the US and European military budget was spend on research into alternative energy we might still have a chance yet.

Maybe if we stopped being a market for Chinese goods, the Chinese would stop demanding all the oil and steel to make stuff we don't really need and lots of pollution.

The next time you think of buying a cheap item from China, or food from the other side of the world - just think of the impact.

If the theory is wrong about global warming, so what, we smarten up our act and environment. If its right, we are in trouble. Which do you choose?

Answer 4

In school I was told that unlike Spain, India, Australia etc we didn't have a climate in the UK and Ireland, we just had weather.
It's warm when we expect it to be cold, wet when it should be dry and no one can truly predict what next week will bring. We still manage to discuss the weather more than any other subject when we should just let it happen.
Just don't bother planning barbecues, your summer wardrobe or trips to an open air concert if you're afraid it'll be spoilt by a drop of rain.
In this region of the world treat the weather like a daily surprise from Mother Nature instead of stressing about it or move somewhere where there's a more predictable climate.

Answer 5

Global warming and climate change will no doubt be at the forefront of everyone’s minds following this latest onslaught of rain. We must take into account that media coverage of extreme weather is more graphic, dramatic and all-encompassing than ever before, but even so, there is no getting away from the fact that our lives are now being affected regularly by freak weather. Maybe we should see this as a wake-up call. With droughts, floods, heat waves, hurricanes and tornadoes part of the English weather landscape these days, it’s hard to avoid the issue

Answer 6

I believe that weather is no worse than it used to be. I think, as has been previously mentioned, that weather patterns are cyclic.

Also, there are three factors that contribute to the impression that flooding is more problamatic than it used to be;
1) Increased population
2) Increased media coverage
3) Changes to the landscape

With the increased population more people move to areas that have previously been flood plains - I myself now live about 30 metres from a river becasue the view is nice : )

Also, changes in landscape can have a huge effect on flooding, for example-
If rain falls on a large area of forest, the forest lanscape is very good at absorbing the water and the detritus on the ground slows the movement of the water helping the ground to absorb it. So 3 inches of rainfall on a 100 acre piece of woodland would have a minor impact.
However, if a 100 acre area of woodland is converted into a townscape or retail park etc then 3 inches of rain falling on that 100 acre area of concrete will result in 40 million litres of rainfall that can not be absorbed and has little to slow its movement into the nearest river or lakebed etc in a very short period of time resulting in flash flooding.

I do not believe that climate change or global warming are to be blamed although they do make nice slogans to pin the blame on.

Answer 7

Its NOT due to climate change as all the tree hunger's would have you know, sometime the weather just doesn't follow the patterns we associate with the time of the year, this weather is due to what is happening in the pacific at the moment, the last time foods were this bad was in the 1950's, and for the record climate change hadn't been invented as the new stealth tax then

Answer 8

Is nothing to do with global warming.. England always has crap summers. pretty much have 11 months of cold then a month of mixed weather. you guys get excited if its sunny for a few days straight, it makes the front page of the news papers..!

As for the flooding.. its because of your third world living conditions. it rains a lot more and harder in other parts of the world and more often, but it does not flood..! look at London, it only has to rain a little and the whole city comes to a stand still.

these are just further examples of why the UK is the worst place on earth to live...

Answer 9

The weather isn't particually bad. The global warming nutters would like to blame it on our cars, but these same jerks predicted in January this year that this would be the hottest, dryest year ever, and that we should be all REALLY worried. This planet is 4,000,000,000 years old. What on earth could a couple of years of old weather records tell us about ANYTHING? It is also an el nino year this year. That seems to have being conveniently forgotten. This global warming stuff is the biggest con of the century which will only result in higher taxes and a more humble living for the poorest of people. Watch this space.

Answer 10

I would say it was global warming, but it seems that things are going round in cycles - 2003 was a scorcher of a summer and 2004 was an absolute wash out - 2006 we had another scorcher so this year we'll get another wash out - kinda make sense? Roll on summer 2009!

It also seems like the seasons have shifted round slightly - i seem to remember it was still quite warm in september/october last year and even november was still quite warm for the time of year. Whereas this year we were still getting snow in March, and a really cold snap in April. So everything seems to be happening about 2 months later.

Answer 11

People seem to be under the impression that Climate change and Global warming is a 'new' thing. The Industrial Revolution caused massive rips into our ozone layer, as did the Victorian age of steam, coal, tin, lead mining, shipping industries & mills. Add to that an ever rising population, transport, two mammoth world wars, vietnam, and Iraq and you can see just why our weather is so ****** up. Of course Grandmothers & great Grandmothers can remember floods and 10 foot snow drifts; they can also remember deadly London smog choking scores of people every year!! Wev'e been destroying our planet for two hundred years.......global warming is not an 80's thing!
Only today are we beginning to think about the consequences of past actions, its about 150 years too late.