THIS year is on course to be the warmest and among the wettest recorded in Britain, sparking warnings that more people will die as a consequence of heatwaves and flash floods caused by climate change in coming years.
New Met Office figures for January to October was the warmest since records began in 1910 while it has also been the second wettest. Unless November and December are extremely cold, 2014 will be on record as the hottest.
Analysis of Scotland reveals above average summer temperatures in most parts of the country and the north east in particular seeing large rises in the amount of rainfall compared to average.
Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics and Political Science, warned that the elderly and those with health problems are particularly at risk and could end up dying in the heat in increasing numbers if, as expected, the trend continues.
He warned that as Britain warms up it will also grow wetter - raising the spectre of flash floods which could cost lives and cause billions of pounds of damage.
He said: "A large part of the population is unaware this risk is increasing, and is a problem because people are not then able to take the necessary precautions."
Mr Ward accused the UK Government of failing to get to grips with climate change and said the coalition urgently needed to plough more money into beefing up Britain's flood defences."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article