What’s with all the Weather?

Britain has been hit by a series of floods caused by torrential rain over the past few weeks. Why are we having these freak weather patterns and what does it say about the future.

If you live on the west coast or in the south of England it truly has been a miserable few weeks for you. Continuous downpours have caused rivers to break their banks and pavements to turn into veritable lakes. As a consequence swathes of these areas have flooded.

The effect has been enormous. Properties have been damaged, livelihoods cost, natural vistas ruined. Politicians are now even getting in on the act, trampling down the flooded walkways in wellies just waiting for the next photo op.

Furthermore experts predict (rather grimly) that these conditions could last for months. Then apparently we’re in for the hottest summer on record. How any summer can be hotter than the last one, I’ll never know, but it’ll certainly be interesting to found out.

However we’re not the only ones who have experienced freak weather conditions. America has experienced its fair share lately as well. Anyone heard of the polar vortex?

The polar vortex is a bitterly cold wind that is usually trapped in the artic due to atmospheric conditions. However these conditions broke and the polar vortex travelled down to America causing temperature lows not seen on record. People had icicles growing on their faces; it was a sight to behold.

Furthermore the temperate south of the US has not been spared the ravages of these freak weather patterns. Southern hubs such as Atlanta and Birmingham, places usually notable for their warm weather, have been gridlocked by snow storms that have raged across the US south.

So what’s causing all this?  Scientists say global warming, which involves the temperature of the earth rising due to changes in atmospheric conditions caused by CO2 emissions. This would certainly explain the polar vortex, as global warming has been proved to have contributed to the melting of the polar icecaps.

I don’t know whether it’s global warming; there’s so much doubt around this hot button topic and I’m not a scientist so I couldn’t speak on this with any authority. However what is clear is that something has indeed changed.

This means that life as we know it could very well be different to the way it has always been. All predictions point to the fact that we haven’t seen the last of this unusual weather so people across the world are just going to have to learn to deal with it. Only time will tell if they actually do.