Climate change and the summer 2007 floods in the UK

We have always bemoaned the wetness of the 'Great British Summer'. The summer of 2007 was, without a doubt, one of the wettest on record, but we have had wet summers before, indeed some quite recently. Analysis of the Meteorological Office's rainfall series for 1914-2007 for the United Kingdom (Figure 1) shows that in about 20% of years the UK's summer rainfall was greater than the median winter and autumn rainfalls. However, the UK’s summer rainfall for 2007 (357.1mm) was the second highest on record, and only marginally less than in the wettest year (1956, 358.4mm). But one thing stands out in relation to 2007: the way in which, in many different areas of life, the summer of 2007 has become linked to the belief that out climate is changing.