Durham, UK (SPX) May 12, 2008
Prepare for more floods - in ways we are not used to - that's the message from experts at Durham University who have studied rainfall and river flow patterns over 250 years. Last summer was the second wettest on record and experts say we must prepare for worse to come.
Professor Stuart Lane, from Durham University's new Institute of Hazard and Risk, says that after about 30 to 40 less eventful years, we seem to be entering a 'flood-rich' period. More flooding is likely over a number of decades.
Prof. Lane, who publishes his research in the current edition of the academic journal Geography, set out to examine the wet summer of 2007 in the light of climate change. His work shows that some of the links made between the summer 2007 floods and climate change were wrong. Our current predictions of climate change for summer should result in weather patterns that were the exact opposite of what actually happened in 2007.