To ask what is up with all these storms? Is it climate change or something?

[Blueexpress]

The weather seems to be getting extreme. Storm after storm.

There have always been storms.

The recent change to name them has made them much easier to turn into stories by the media.

It’s winter

@pastabest
That’s an interesting point. I just don’t remember it being so extreme.

Have a read up and you will see it's to do with the climate change and hit us due to the Gulf Stream, this has been made worse by the changes to where this runs. amp.theguardian.com/science/2022/feb/18/storm-eunice-climate-breakdown-crisis-extreme-weather

it was like this in the 70's

No it wasn't

Extreme events are becoming more common

I am wondering the same, OP. I keep hearing that it's just Britain and its winter, but I am 35 and I have never known anything like this. My fence has come down, neighbours' tiles coming off roofs, enormous numbers of trees down across the country. It definitely isn't normal. IMO, it's climate change and there is a large proportion of the UK in denial!

It's a mixture of both media availability, climate change and natural weather rhythms.

[quote Blueexpress]@pastabest
That’s an interesting point. I just don’t remember it being so extreme.[/quote]
There were many storms like this in the 70's and 80's

We've had worse storms than this. The difference now is that we are more likely to hear about things that have happened in different parts of the country making it seem as though they are more frequent/worse.
If I hadn't been told it was a storm, I would have assumed it was just a bit blustery and we were in the red zone.

One bad storm every 20 years is not the sane as 2 bad storms in one year

@yupyupyup

I am wondering the same, OP. I keep hearing that it's just Britain and its winter, but I am 35 and I have never known anything like this. My fence has come down, neighbours' tiles coming off roofs, enormous numbers of trees down across the country. It definitely isn't normal. IMO, it's climate change and there is a large proportion of the UK in denial!

I'm a similar age and I've known plenty of storms like this.

There's more energy in the system due to global warming - most of the engine for storms is sea temperatures, and they're up.

More energy, more extreme faster moving weather.

1987 was a huge storm in England.

@GirlInACountrySong

it was like this in the 70's

I don't think it was.

@Iflyaway

1987 was a huge storm in England.

Yes and it was extremely unusual. Not one of several Storms that year.

Iflyaway

1987 was a huge storm in England

Yes and it was extremely unusual. Not one of several Storms that year

Exactly, the fact that we still all reference that one storm all those years ago just shows how unusual huge storms really are.

People who blithely declare that's it's just normal British winter are wilfully ignoring the trends of more frequent, dangerous storms that are occuring now.

Old person here. (18 in 1987 - yes, I remember it well....)

While I certainly approve of improving our environmental impact, I have to say that in the UK there have been periods of far more extreme weather recorded in history.....in Elizabethan and Victorian times skating on the Thames was not uncommon. The world has various cycles, and part of the reason we are now so focused on it as unusual is because of media, better record keeping and scientific advance.

There is a certain amount of hubris at play to suggest that we five minute evolutionary blippers on the planet are wholly responsible for its demise or survival. Nature's gonna do what nature's gonna do, and our best bet is to do the best we can to live harmoniously with it.

@Iflyaway

1987 was a huge storm in England.

I was a year old and I have always known about this - it's a historically significant event. Doubt storms Corrie, Dudley, Arwen etc will even be talked about in years to come. It will become so normal.

Due to climate change.

We all need to make actual real world changes to our lives to limit these effects. But we don't wanna
Fair enough!

We understand the natural cycles and variability / how at times huge numbers of people died due to poor weather

We also understand that humans are affecting that natural variability and making human life harder over and above any natural changes

Throughout history there have been climate shifts and well documented periods of extreme weather. I agree the weather is certainly changing but whether it's down to us I don't know, maybe it's just a natural phenomenon and being arrogant beings we think we have control over it. Perhaps we don't? There were periods of extreme weather in the 70s and 80s. I remember them, right back to when I spent most of 1976 sat in paddling pool because it was that hot!

www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/past-uk-weather-events

Things fade from memory, especially if they didn't happen directly to us.

We have storms every year in winter/spring.

I think it's all the more well documented these days, with the internet, social media, storm trackers etc etc etc. It feels more intense because the reporting is more intense and the world feels like a smaller, more examined place than it did in the 70s/80s. Back then, people watched the news (maybe), or read a paper but there wasn't the nationwide and global coverage we can find at our fingertips 24/7 these days. It probably makes things feel more close/intense.

(Even the fact we are taking here about it on an online chat forum, sharing opinions on it to total strangers from across the country/world!) It feels more intense than just chatting about it (in passing, if you saw them in the right timeframe) with a relatively small circle of friends/family/colleagues.