Most people will have noticed that it’s definitely getting hotter in the UK. Summer heatwaves, and sometimes February or April heatwaves, are far more common now than in previous decades. That’s because the average temperature over the last decade in the UK has been 0.8°C warmer than the 1961–1990 average. This warming has disrupted our normal climate patterns.
Climate change isn’t just hotter weather. Warmer temperatures also mean there’s more moisture in the air, which means more severe storms and flooding. And even extremely cold snaps are now thought to be down to climate change.
Some of us have already experienced the effects of climate change in the form of extreme weather. Relentless summer heatwaves, however welcome they seem, are a key effect of climate change in the UK. They’re even leading to more and more wildfires across the country.
Storms and flooding are getting worse and happening more often – costing people their homes and lives.
More storms, plus sea level rises, are gradually eroding coastlines around the British Isles. And all of these changes aren’t good for plant and animal species.
Most of the UK now knows what it’s like to live through an extreme heatwave. In the UK, heat waves are considered extreme beyond the 30ºC mark.
A record high of 38.7ºC was recorded on 25 July 2019, in Cambridge, and the longest stretch of extreme heatwave temperatures was recorded in August 2020.
Extreme heat can be a serious health risk for those with heart and lung conditions, and more deaths are recorded in the UK during heatwave days. Heatwave deaths now reach into the many thousands in the UK.
Heatwaves in cities can also cause [spikes in toxic air pollution](https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2019/07/uk-s-heatwave-and-air-quality/#:~:text=Research suggests that as temperatures,mix of nitrogen-oxide emissions.), causing breathing difficulties and developmental problems in children.
The UK is now facing frequent record-breaking winter floods. People sometimes die in these floods, and they do untold damage to homes and livelihoods, sometimes year after year.
February 2020 was the wettest February on record. That month, Storms Dennis, Ciara and George left thousands of homes flooded and many more without power.
While UK wildfires are small in comparison to those in California in the US, Australia and the Amazon, they are on the rise.
From less than 100 fires across the country altogether from 2011–17, the UK had 79 fires larger than 25 hectares in 2018, and a massive 137 fires in 2019 alone, according to the according to the European Forest Fire Information System. In 2018, temperatures reached over 30ºC in June leading to large fires across the country. A key fire that year, at Saddleworth Moor in Greater Manchester, ignited again in 2019. [The UK’s 2019 fires](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_United_Kingdom_wildfires#:~:text=The causes of most of,record of 79 from 2018.) were considered particularly unusual because they took place early in the year, from February to May.
Large wildfires create air pollution, and can come at a cost to local economies. They may damage important habitats for UK wildlife, including national parks, ancient woodland and peatlands.
Climate change’s overall global effect on sea levels, plus the increase in rainfall and storm surges, and the ability of waves to wash away land is already affecting a few parts of the UK.