Climate Update 2103: wettest December, sunniest November, 2nd warmest July

SCOTTISH CLIMATE UPDATE – one of a series of Climate Updates from Friends of the Earth Scotland based on data from the Met Office

CLIMATE UPDATE – 2013

TOP LINES FOR SCOTLAND:

July 2013 was the 2nd warmest July (15.2 °C) and 3rd sunniest (203.8hr) ever recorded in figures going back to 1910 and 1929 respectivelyNovember 2013 was the sunniest November ever recorded (63.6hr) in figures going back to 1929. December 2013 was the wettest December ever recorded (296.1mm) in figures going back to 1910.

Dr Richard Dixon, Director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, said,

“November and December were record breakers in Scotland with storm after storm hitting around Christmas. Around the world we saw the most powerful typhoon ever to make landfall hit the Philippines, heavy flooding across central Europe, massive floods in Sudan and the warmest year ever in Australia.

“Climate change is bringing chaos to our weather, not just increasing global temperatures but affecting ocean currents and global air currents. Scotland is caught between the changing influences of disappearing Arctic ice, the shifting jet stream and a weakening Gulf Stream. It is no wonder our weather is becoming less and less predictable. The consequences for us are more extreme weather including more flooding.

“We should heed the warnings the weather is giving us because things will get much worse if the world continues to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Scotland has great ambitions on reducing climate emissions, but we need the world’s other big polluters to get serious about climate change.”

The Met Office are predicting that 2014 will be one of the warmest years very recorded globally.

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. Data from the Met Office http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/datasets with further analysis by Friends of the Earth Scotland.

2. The five warmest years in Scotland since records began in 1910 are 2006, 2003, 2007, 2004, 2005 (warmest first).

3. FoE Scotland is part of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, an alliance of development, environment and civil society groups aiming for tougher action to reduce emissions
http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/scotland