Climate change 'already happening in the UK' as temperatures climb: Met Office

In a warning for power markets in the world's fifth largest economy, evidence of climate change in the UK is growing with 2020 the first year to see temperature, rain and sunshine rankings all in the top 10 on record, the Met Office said July 29.

The UK's ten warmest years in records dating back to 1884 have all occurred since 2002, the office said, referencing The Royal Meteorological Society's annual report in the International Journal of Climatology.

"Average temperatures for the UK continue to climb, with nearly a degree of warming when comparing the most recent 30 years with the preceding 30-year period," said lead author and Senior Climate Scientist at the Met Office, Mike Kendon.

Extreme weather events and new records are now a regular occurrence impacting European power markets, S&P Global Platts Analytics said July 22 in its weekly outlook report.

"This time last year the focus was very much on the lack of precipitation in Europe, most notably in France, which suffered its driest July in more than 60 years, lifting concerns about low river levels and the impact on hydro and nuclear generation," it said.

Last year was notable with records broken for daily rainfall and monthly sunshine hours, with significant weather extremes including severe flooding from heavy rainfall in February and a major heatwave in early August, the Met Office's Kendon said.

As well as increased temperatures, the UK has been on average 6% wetter over the last 30 years (1991-2020) than the preceding 30 years (1961-1990). Six of the ten wettest years for the UK in a series from 1862 have occurred since 1998.

Conversely, it was a dry and exceptionally sunny spring in 2020, especially across the southern half of the UK with over 150% of normal sunshine across England and Wales.

This was the UK's sunniest spring on record by a very wide margin, while May 2020 was England's driest calendar month since August 1995, making conditions difficult for farmers and growers.

This year the savage floods that have afflicted much of mainland central west Europe have also impacted supply, through disruption to hydro generation as well as the flooding of RWE's lnden lignite mine, which temporarily constrained production at its 1.9 GW Weisweiler plant, it said.

Meanwhile high temperatures during the week commencing July 19 sharply curtailed UK gas plant availability due to efficiency effects, "with total availability falling an average 5% between 08:30 and 15:30. Some plants saw losses as high as 20%," Platts Analytics said.