LONDON — Come rain, wind or sunshine, weather has long been one of Britain’s main topics of conversation. Now it has also become a mystery.
Meteorologists and climate scientists are meeting Tuesday to discuss why this traditionally temperate country has recently experienced icy winters, washed-out summers and the coldest spring in a half-century.
Scientists also believe a southern dip in the jet stream, the narrow band of fast-moving wind which flows west to east across the Atlantic, may be partly to blame for some of Britain’s cool, wet weather.
Whatever the cause, few would deny Britain’s recent weather has been unsettling. In Britain as elsewhere, there is evidence that extreme weather events such as flood-causing storms are becoming more common.
The winter of 2010 brought snow and ice to areas such as southern England that had long escaped freezing temperatures.
The Met Office says the summer of 2012 — a seemingly endless parade of cool, rainy days — was the second-wettest in a century, with June 2012 the wettest June since the 18th century.
This March, April and May were the fifth-coldest spring in national records dating back to 1910 and the coldest since 1962.
National post
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