UK climate extremes becoming 'new normal', says Met Office | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:00The UK's climate of the 20th century has
2. 0:03now gone, according to experts who say
3. 0:05once extreme conditions are increasingly
4. 0:07seen as normal.
5. 0:09A new report from the Met Office says
6. 0:11that in the warmest areas, the hottest
7. 0:13day of the year is typically 4 and 1/2°
8. 0:16warmer than in the 30-year period to
9. 0:181990.
10. 0:20And the report warns that British
11. 0:22infrastructure, housing, agriculture,
12. 0:24and health systems are based on a on a
13. 0:26climate that no longer exists. The
14. 0:28report's lead author says it shows
15. 0:30climate change is upon us right now.
16. 0:34>> For many people, um
17. 0:36climate change has perhaps previously
18. 0:38seemed something that's talked about
19. 0:40scientists, but they maybe don't
20. 0:42necessarily expect to see the impacts so
21. 0:46much in their day-to-day lives. I think
22. 0:48that is very much increasingly, you
23. 0:50know, people are experiencing climate
24. 0:52change. And I think, you know, this is
25. 0:54because the way we experience this is
26. 0:56through these extremes.
27. 0:58>> Well, I'm now joined by our weather
28. 1:00presenter Sarah Keith Lucas. So, Sarah,
29. 1:02what's the main takeaway from this
30. 1:04report?
31. 1:05>> Well, I think that line that we just
32. 1:06heard, that the climate of the 20th
33. 1:08century has now gone, is a really
34. 1:10shocking thing to hear because it was
35. 1:11the climate that most of us grew up with
36. 1:13remembering from when we were children
37. 1:14as well. And what we would consider as
38. 1:17really extreme back then is now really
39. 1:19the norm happening
40. 1:21so much more regularly now. So, in that
41. 1:23previous climate from 1961 to 1990, in
42. 1:27one in five years, we didn't see
43. 1:28temperatures of 30° at all, but this
44. 1:30year, for instance, we've already had 25
45. 1:33days above 30°, 10 of them the past 10
46. 1:36consecutive days. So, this is really an
47. 1:38annual stocktake of where we are right
48. 1:40now in terms of a how our climate is
49. 1:42changing, let alone the forecast of how
50. 1:44things are going to progress into the
51. 1:45future.
52. 1:46>> And just how quickly are things changing
53. 1:48with our climate in the UK?
54. 1:50>> Well, they are changing fast, certainly,
55. 1:52especially in terms of the temperatures
56. 1:54and the extremes. I've got a temperature
57. 1:56map to show you, which shows just how
58. 1:58much things have changed in that 30-year
59. 2:00period. Um we had temperatures across
60. 2:03the UK very rarely above an average of
61. 2:0611° but now they've shifted much much
62. 2:09further north. So,
63. 2:11you have think we've got a graphic we
64. 2:13can show you perhaps it's not Well, here
65. 2:14we go. There we go. Yes.
66. 2:16>> [laughter]
67. 2:16>> Um so, an average temperature of 11°
68. 2:18back between 1961 to 1990, it was just
69. 2:21confined really to the far southeast,
70. 2:22the London area. But now it's pushed its
71. 2:25a much further north. So, if you think
72. 2:27about somewhere like Lancashire or the
73. 2:29Vale of York, they've got the same sort
74. 2:31of temperatures you we would have seen
75. 2:32in greater London um in that that
76. 2:3430-year period between 1961 and 1990.
77. 2:37So, it's been a rapid increase in
78. 2:40temperature and what we're really seeing
79. 2:41here is that those higher temperatures
80. 2:43have pushed not only further north
81. 2:45across the UK but also uphill as well.
82. 2:47So, the very cold places like the the
83. 2:49cold climates in the north of Scotland
84. 2:51in the mountains, they are disappearing.
85. 2:53The cold spells are disappearing as
86. 2:55well. So, it's not just the heat that's
87. 2:56an issue but when we don't see that the
88. 2:58cold weather and the cold frosty
89. 3:00conditions, it doesn't kill off the
90. 3:02insects and the bugs that we'd uh
91. 3:04traditionally seen when we get those
92. 3:05colder spells happening through the year
93. 3:06as well. So, climate change really um
94. 3:08affecting all um times of the year.
95. 3:11>> Indeed and it's not just the air that's
96. 3:13warmer, it's also the waters around the
97. 3:15UK as well. What does the report say
98. 3:17about our oceans?
99. 3:18>> Yeah, so this report also looked at our
100. 3:20oceans and our rivers um as well as just
101. 3:22what's happening in terms of the the
102. 3:23weather and the climate um in the skies.
103. 3:26And what they found that actually we've
104. 3:27seen more marine heat wave conditions in
105. 3:302025, 297 days of heat wave conditions.
106. 3:33That's more than we've ever seen before.
107. 3:35Um and of course, it's not just the
108. 3:37temperature of the sea that's continuing
109. 3:38to push the air temperature up as well
110. 3:40but it is also sea level rise. Now, we
111. 3:42hear about sea level rise in terms of
112. 3:44climate change. Now, that's really
113. 3:46accelerating. I can show you another
114. 3:48graphic which um tells us about how
115. 3:49quickly the sea level has been rising.
116. 3:51Um we haven't got that one, don't worry,
117. 3:53but it's basically the past 30 years
118. 3:55that we've seen a huge increase.
119. 3:57Sea levels are now 20 cm higher than
120. 4:00they were back in 1901. And it means
121. 4:03that when we see storms affecting the UK
122. 4:05with those higher sea levels, when we
123. 4:07see high tides, we could see some more
124. 4:09catastrophic coastal flooding down to
125. 4:12the higher sea levels combined with our
126. 4:13our changing climate.
127. 4:15>> Sarah, thank you. That's our weather
128. 4:16presenter Sarah Keith-Lucas there.