The British are notorious for talking about the weather. It’s little wonder given that we live on an island which is subject to constantly changing weather systems. In last month’s column I talked about how ready the UK is for a changing climate, and how we are already experiencing hotter, drier summers but also more intense summer rainfall.
No sooner had I emailed my article to en than the world experienced a series of weather extremes which perfectly illustrated this point, so I make no apologies for returning to the subject.
Record-breaking heatwave
First, there was the heatwave in western Canada and the US at the end of June. A new high temperature record of 49.6°C was set in Canada, beating the previous high not by a few fractions of a degree but by more than 4°C in one go. It’s hard to imagine what living in such heat is like, especially for a country better known for its winter sports than its beach holidays. Hundreds of people died from heat-related illnesses, and there were also reports of mass die-offs of marine wildlife.
