If you live in the north of Britain we’ve some bad news for you ... climate change means you’re in for a real soaking in the years to come.
Scientists say this is the reason why the region has been suffering from some of the most severe floods in Europe.
The Environment Journal has reported on the largest study of its kind which analysed river flow data from thousands of locations over a 50-year period and found that flood events are becoming increasingly severe in north-western Europe, but decreasing in severity in southern and Eastern Europe.
The change ranges from an 11% increase per decade in flood levels in northern England and southern Scotland to a 23% reduction per decade in parts of Russia, with the researchers saying their findings provide the “clearest evidence yet” of the link between climate change and flooding in Europe.
The study published in the journal Nature was led by the Vienna University of Technology and involved research institutions in 24 European countries, including in the UK the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) based at Lancaster University and the University of Bath.
Scientists have long suspected that human-induced climate change is having an impact on the magnitude of floodwaters because a warmer atmosphere can store more water.
Until now though the extent to which climate change affects the severity of floods across Europe has not been clear because previous studies have been on a smaller scale due to a lack of access to data from parts of the continent.
Lead author Professor Günter Blöschl from the Vienna University of Technology said: “We already knew that climate change is shifting the timing of floods in a year, but the key question had been ‘does climate change also control the magnitude of flood events?’.
“Our study did in fact find there are consistent patterns of flood change across Europe and these are in line with predicted climate change impacts such as a contrast between increasing severity of flooding in the north and decreases in the south.”
Homeowners and businesses often don’t realise that councils have no responsibility to provide sandbags if flooding is expected. They must protect themselves and one way to do this is to have FloodSax alternative sandbags which are space-saving to store and easy to deploy. It means you have peace of mind and are ready for action 24/7 to prevent a flood.
Once FloodSax come into contact with water they inflate to weigh 20kg (44lbs) which makes them more effective than traditional sandbags at keeping floodwater out.
More than 2.5 million have now been sold worldwide.