Designers will be able to access detailed information predicting wind speed, air temperatures and rainfall under the impact of climate change from a government website to be launched later this year.

Climate science from the Met Office will be made available to designers and academics under the Defra-funded project, which includes five reports to be published under the umbrella of the UK 21st Century Climate Change Scenarios (UKCIP08).

The Climate of the UK and Recent Trends, the first of the five reports, contains information about key climate variables from 1961 to 2006, with statistics on 11 climate variables presented annually and by season for regions of the UK.

The report states that:

  • The temperature in central England has risen by about 1ºC since the 1970s, with 2006 the warmest year yet.
  • Sea surface temperatures around the UK coast have risen by 0.7ºC over the past three decades.
  • Severe windstorms around the UK have become more frequent in the past few decades, but are no higher than levels seen at the beginning of the last century.

The report warns that regardless of steps taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the inertia of the climate system means climate change will continue to have an impact over the coming decades.

The final outputs from all reports will be announced along with the launch of the website late this year.

Environment secretary Hilary Benn said the initiative was designed to help people investigate the possible future climate at the click of a mouse. He said the project would “put us face to face with what climate change might look like in our own back yard and challenge us to think about how to adapt to the unavoidable aspects of climate change”.

A pdf of the report is available from www.ukcip.org.uk

Source

Building Sustainable Design