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The Met Office issued a Red Weather Warning due storm EuniceIt is currently affecting the south of England & Wales, bringing extremely strong winds, rain and flooding. Flooding.
The worst gusts are likely to affect coastal areas that are exposed. Extreme weather eventWith a Recorded wind speed of 196kph (122mph).Friday, February 18th 2022 at 8:00 AM on the Isle of Wight
Eunice’s impact on the sea level could cause storm surges, and severe flood warnings have been issued for parts of the country including the Severn Estuary and River Wye in Gloucestershire. More than 50,000 homes have been affected in Cornwall and Devon by power outages. The BBC reports that Ireland is without power at 73,000 homes.
BBC Weather said Eunice “could well be one of the worst storms in three decades”.
The storm is just two days ahead of another storm, Dudley, that battered Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland on 16 February.
Learn more about extreme weather conditions:
An active jet steam can be used to propel the aircraft. #TwoStormsThis week in the UK #StormDudley #StormEuniceExpect disruptive winds on Wednesday afternoon, and possibly snow on Friday⚠️ pic.twitter.com/0b8wqZek9c
— Met Office (@metoffice) February 14, 2022
“After the impacts from storm Dudley for many on Wednesday, storm Eunice will bring damaging gusts in what could be one of the most impactful storms to affect southern and central parts of the UK for a few years,” said the chief meteorologist at the Met Office, Paul Gundersen.
“The red warning areas indicate a significant danger to life as extremely strong winds provide the potential for damage to structures and flying debris.”
Some scientists have suggested that the impact of storm Eunice – and future storms – has been exacerbated by the climate crisis. But how does rising temperatures affect UK weather?
Are climate change and Storm Eunice connected?
“Quite often the question posed is whether an event is because of climate change or not. But it’s just not a yes or no question,” said Dr Friederike Otto, a lecturer at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change.
“Climate change can be one of the causes, and it can make events worse. But it is never the only cause.”
The storm Eunice’s high-speed winds were unlikely to be caused by climate change. However, Otto claims that the rising temperatures will have made the damage to the UK’s shores worse.
“What we do know is that the rainfall and storm surge aspects of these storms is worse because of climate change.”
Climate change could also cause storms to rise higher up the world, according to scientists Professor Dann MitchellClimate scientist at the University of Bristol, Dr.
“We do know that the positioning of these storms might change, and that’s because of climate change’s impact on the jet stream.”
The jet streamAn air current that circles around the Northern Hemisphere and distributes wind and rain, storms, heatwaves. It’s thought that increasing air temperatures will alter the flow of the air, The jet stream is moving further north, causing it to flow further north.
“The jet stream controls the storm tracks, the way the storms travel over the North Atlantic and hit us [in the UK]. So, as climate change is causing a poleward shift in the jet stream, you’d expect a poleward shift in the storm tracks as well,” said Mitchell.
“We’re also expecting to see a deeper penetration of these storm tracks in Europe. So, while it’s true to say that the wind itself is not detectably different [due to climate change] yet, in a sense storm winds will increase somewhere, because they’re affecting places that they normally wouldn’t.”
What causes flooding due to climate change?
Otto explained that the thermodynamic effect is responsible for increased rainfall. “A warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapour and that water vapour needs to get out of the atmosphere, which it does as rainfall.”
Current data shows that a one-degree increase in global warming will result in seven percent more rainfall. “It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a lot,” said Otto.
Storm surges that bring in water at a level higher than normal are also more dangerous. “Storm surges that usually occur with these events are more damaging, because sea levels are higher than they would have been without climate change,” said Otto.
“As long as temperate global temperatures are rising – and they will not stop rising until we have reached net zero CO2 emissions – these events [will get]More frequent and more intense. With the current trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions, we will see more flooding, more intense rainfall and many more hot and long heatwaves.”
What can we do to protect the UK against the climate change impacts?
“We have a lot of an agency in reducing our vulnerability [to these events],” said Otto. “Redesigning our cities so that there are more green spaces means that water can go somewhere. It doesn’t necessarily have to flood the houses.”
These actions can also assist us. Heatwavesbecome more common. “A lot of the things you need to do to be better protected from flooding are the same things that you need to be better protected from heatwaves.
“Green spaces are so important. On the one hand, water can go somewhere and it doesn’t flood houses, but also when you have more green spaces the temperatures in the cities don’t get so high.”
Heatwaves can be dangerous for your health and can also cause fires. This was evident in February 2019, when temperatures reached record levels and set off fires in East Sussex, West Yorkshire, and Edinburgh.
Learn more about climate change
Mitchell is asking whether the climate is changing faster that we are adapting, rather than whether it is.
“At the moment, the answer is almost definitely yes. We do have more things in place, like trying to avoid building on floodplains, because we know they’re going to become worse in the winter. But in terms of the nationwide infrastructure, we need to do better.”
Mitchell said that previous UK storms caused significant damage to infrastructure and rail networks.
About our experts
Professor Friederike OttoShe is an honorary research associate and lecturer at the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute. She is co-lead for World Weather Attribution, an initiative which brings together climate scientists from around the globe to better understand and communicate the effects of climate change on extreme weather events.
Professor Dann MitchellHe is a professor of climate sciences at the University of Bristol. He analyzes data on climate trends over the past 100 years to determine how low emission scenarios such as those in line the Paris Agreement on Climate Change will impact human health.
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