U.K. Records Sunniest Spring Ever Amid Worrying Climate Change Trends

The U.K. has recorded its sunniest spring, with May being its sunniest calendar month, since records began over 90 years ago, according to data published by the Met Office—the U.K.’s national weather service—on June 1. For many people in the U.K, it has meant long days of soaking up the sun as lockdown restrictions eased from May 13. However, experts say that this record, along with other extreme weather trends globally appears to be consistent with what they expect from climate change. There were more than 626 hours of sunshine between March 1 and June 1, surpassing the previous record of 555.3 hours in 1948, the Met Office said. In comparison, Italy’s capital city Rome, a popular holiday destination for Britons, sees an average of 621 hours in the spring and in the Turkish city, Istanbul – 548 hours. The U.K. usually gets about 440 hours each spring and only 10 years have had more than 500 hours of sunshine. According to Liz Bentley, Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, a leading independent expert on climate and the weather, there have only been three U.K. summers that have been sunnier. These weather patterns are the result of jet streams — a strong core of winds around 5 to 7 miles above the earth’s surface — being directed north and around the U.K., according to Mark McCarthy, the head of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre. “But we don’t quite understand why these statis...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized climate change Londontime News News Desk Source Type: news