Climate Change in Scotland?

According to the Met Office this Autumn has been the warmest ever in Scotland and the rest of the UK. This continues the trend for the first months of the year, making a record year very likely.

"The provisional mean temperature this year was 12.6 °C. The previous highest figure for the equivalent period was 11.8 °C, recorded in 1730 and 1731."

There has also been heavy precipitation. Due to the mild weather this has almost entirely been constituted of rain rather than snow. Scotland usually has it's heaviest precipitation in the winter but as snow, the fact that the heaviest precipitation has been rain this year has lead to flooding and dangerously high river levels and widespread flooding.

Weather historian Philip Eden said:

"Although this month began with a week of cold and frosty weather, temperatures have once again risen well above the seasonal average during the last three weeks. Weather forecasters say it would take a prolonged cold spell through December to prevent 2006 being the warmest year on record in Britain."

Perth has been flooded, despite newly built flood defences, meanwhile Loch Lomand is at it's level ever recorded and they aren't sure exactly what level it is at now, as...the measuring station is flooded.

This is all as expected according to the UK climate impacts program but about 50 years early! As mentioned in a previous post, wetter in the Cairngorms where I live doesn't mean a kind winter for wildlife it means a damp, exposed winter without the snow which protects native flora and is a much needed resource for highland birds.

Clearly a single mild autumn cannot be conclusively attributed to climate change but this is not a single isolated autumn, this is part of a trend, both a local trend over the last few years and a global trend which sees this as yet another abnormally warm year.

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