Why are we getting SO many storms?- Phoebe G

Why are we getting SO many storms?- Phoebe G

It seems as though recently, the UK has been bearing the brunt of a few too many storms. Since the 27th September in 2023 (when good old Agnes swept the streets), the UK has experienced a shocking 10 storms in 3 months, the most recent one being Storm Jocelyn only a few days ago, the third one for January.

In fact, this current storm season has brought the most named storms since the 2015/16 season: when the naming of the storms began!

But… why?

Many have argued that this recent influx of storms can be explained by Climate Change, and that would be a reasonable assumption since it is responsible for worsening a vast array of events such as:

  • Droughts
  • Wildfires
  • Declining Biodiversity

Some influences on storm activity that are likely to be affected by Climate Change include:

  1. Sea surface temperatures
  2. Position and Strength of global jet streams (e.g. the polar jet stream which affects the UK)
  3. Climate Patterns (such as the El Nino effect)

Indeed, a Met Office meteorologist stated that the weather has been been ‘chiefly dictated by the position and strength of the jet stream’, so it is possible that Climate Change has heavily influenced our stormy season.

However, in the recent climate, it has been stated that trends, in windstorm numbers specifically, are difficult to detect; their numbers naturally vary year-to-year and decade-to-decade. Storms are extremely complex systems that can be affected in a number of different ways; it is difficult to say for definite that Climate Change is linked to their growth.