England’s uplands ‘get more frequent heavy rainfall’
By Mark Kinver Science and environment reporter, BBC News
13 January 2011 Last updated at 08:20 ET
The frequency of heavy rainfall during the autumn and winter over the uplands of North England has “significantly” increased, a study has shown. A team of UK researchers said the shift coincided with an increase in westerly weather systems over the area. The findings showed why models looking at future weather scenarios had to take into account how high ground could affect rainfall patterns, they added. The findings will appear in the International Journal of Climatology. “It seems to be a significant trend through the 20th Century,” said co-author Tim Burt from Durham University. “We started in the 1900s with quite dry winters and relatively few heavy falls, while the 1990s were obviously exceptional in that regard.” The last decade of the century saw the uplands receive a record number of heavy falls of rain in winter, yet an “almost complete absence of heavy summer rainfalls”. Professor Burt explained that an inch or two of rainfall over the course of a day, spread over a large catchment area, had the potential to result in a sizeable flood in low-lying areas where run-off from the uplands had accumulated in local river systems. “So if these sorts of rainfalls become more common, then the implication is that flooding will become more common,” he told BBC News. …
