whats causing the Uk's "freak" weather?

Question

in my opinion i think ts global warming and to be really honest i hate it when its called freak weather because its not freak.. we caused most of it after all. What do you guys think its being caused by? do you think its natural or provoked?

Answer 1

We can't say for certain that the 'freak' weather is caused by global warming because we don't know what the weather would have been like had there been no global warming.

What we do know for certain is that the weather we've experienced of late isn't unique although it is very unusual and in that sense it's an adverse weather event more than a 'freak'.

In climatic and meteorological circles we talk about something called the 'return event'. This is a calculation of the probability of such weather occuring and is expressed as one in X number of years. When we look at the adverse weather events in the last few years we find that the chances of them happening naturally are in the order of one in 20 million.

Some of the recent adverse events include the flooding of the last few days, the flooding in 2001, the flooding of 2004, the flooding of 2005, the heatwave of 2003, the droughts of 2006, the storms in January, the tornadoes that struck Selly Oak (Birmingham) and Kensal Green (London), the hottest year on record a couple of years ago etc.

Flooding used to be a rare occurence, hence the term 'once a flood'. There's been extensive flooding in the UK every year now for several consecutive years combined with other adverse weather including those mentioned above.

We know how global warming affects the climate and one of the things it does is to increase rainfall. This is because warmer air evapourates more water from the seas and oceans. Throughout much of the world rainfall levels have been increasing (snowfall in cold places).

Another thing that we do is to look at the number of adverse weather events. These are compared to events over which we have no control - earthquakes and volcanoes. The number of storms, floods, droughts, wildfires, heatwaves are all increasing whereas the number of earthquakes and volcanoes in remaining steady.

Without a doubt climate change is impacting on global weather systems but whether any one particular event is the result of climate change is impossible to say. What we can say is that both the frequency and intensity of adverse weather events is increasing.

Answer 2

Actually the weather being experienced by the UK is not freak. Such rainfall has happened in the past. It is unusual to have such rainfall in June and usually the Atlantic depressions are driven further North by the building of a static high pressure zone over the Azores. When this high pressure zone doesnt build or builds late in the summer you get less of a summer in the UK. On top of the rainfall which has been high the past weeks, you have to consider that increased building and development over the years tends to increase the relative amount of hard surface to absorbent surface in any river catchment and the more hard surface you have the more you get immediate rainwater run off and sudden peak river flows. Rain is a natural phenomenon and of course we all need it. Extreme rain events are also natural but we make matters worse for ourselves by increasing hard surface area and in my opinion we have also made matter worse for ourselves by increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which results in higher energy input into the global weather mechanism and the risk of more frequent and more intense extreme weather events.

Answer 3

Certainly global warming , by pollution , over underground water usage , destruction of natural resources like forest , water etc , so naturally a imbalance is created that leads to abnormal weather conditions , quite scary to think how situation would be in another 10 years if we still go on like this.

Answer 4

Like maximum English human beings i moan bearing directly to the climate, so specific, i for my section do hate this heat temperature, Thats why English people who bypass to stay in ounces., are in lots of cases decrease back indoors 18 months, the warmth temperature & those bugs