Weather

In the last few years the UK has been battered by floods and storms from the North to the South. Very few of us can say that there has been no local effect. Is this global warming taking effect or are ther more pertinent issues to do with the husbandry of our countryside.

Personally I can see that there is a dramatic change in the main weather systems, a slightly warmer ocean means less energy is used to evaporate moisture. This, in turn, means more rain storms hitting the areas where cool air meets warm air.

However I also believe that the countryside in the last 50 years has been changed beyond recognition, and this is the heart of our current crisis. Factories and houses built on old flood plains, the plains themselves being carved up by road systems not allowing the full plain to be used. intensive farming methods allowing more water to flow off the fields and into the road drainage systems. There are so many factors, each in its own right not very serious, but put them all together and disasters on the scale of Worcester and Bewdley become regular.

What I find remarkable this time was the scale of the flooding and storms. From East Yorkshire, Lancashire, the Midlands to the South Coast all badly hit. We have to find a way to protect our countryside from the damage and destruction that is all to common these days.