Scotland's Storms Intensify - Worst Storms 72% Stronger Than 40 Yrs Ago

[hatrack]

RAINSTORMS have dramatically increased in intensity over Scotland because of climate change over the past 40 years, according to researchers. Experts predict people living near rivers will experience worsening flooding as a result of a continuing trend which has seen extreme rainfall double over parts of the UK since the 1960s.

The east of Scotland has been particularly badly hit, with the worst storms during the 1990s bringing an average of 72 per cent more rain than those in the three previous decades. The new levels equate to close to a foot of water over ten days.

The research, due to be presented to the British Association Festival of Science in Norwich this week, was revealed as the president of the association, Frances Cairncross, warned in her opening address that more had to be done to prepare for the effects of global warming. She said the emphasis had been on preventing the emission of greenhouse gases, but it was a mistake not to look at ways of dealing with the changes already certain to happen - for example, by constructing flood defences and possibly banning new buildings close to sea level.

Dr Hayley Fowler, a research fellow at Newcastle University, said: "The size of extreme rainfall events has increased two-fold over parts of the UK since the 1960s and intensities previously experienced every 25 years now occur every six years. There has also been a change in the timing of extreme rainfall; most now occurs in autumn months, with implications for flood risk-management."

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http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1302502006