Climate Change Keeps UK Uncertain, Whatever the Weather [BLOG]

Britain is bathed in sunshine, and the mind wanders.

Away from the wettest April to June on record.

Away from weather so temperamental that office workers were frequently wearing flip-flops while carrying umbrellas. Instead we have we thought we might never see: the longed-for promise of an Olympian summer as London lies back and basks - forgetting, for a moment, the concerns over its creaking infrastructure's capability to cope with the influx of visitors.

Enjoying, for now, the mercury's ascension to the upper reaches. And letting the spirit of Mars preside over the games.

But we might do well to consider the experience of the last three months. Rain disrupting play at Wimbledon has been a staple of June for time immemorial. But consider the kind of weather seen in the spring and early summer.

It sometimes seemed the gods were unleashing deluges and letting the sun beam down, all at the same time. Or replacing bright sunshine mad weather mood music. This, you feel, is not normal.

We might have to get used to it. Climate change has as many sceptics as adherents and no one knows exactly what its effects will be. But when we consider this year's events coupled with the series of winters of varying degrees of severity the UK has experienced, it is tempting to conclude that it is now making its effects felt in Britain's weather - and the nature of that change may lie in its very unpredictability.

When is the last time you can remember hosepipe bans being introduced and rescinded so quickly by the water companies? For now we have sunshine, and most are pleased. But the forecast for 27 July is that rain could disrupt the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

Not news in itself, but perhaps part of a wider trend in which the UK's weather is becoming increasingly erratic, extreme and difficult to predict thanks to the effects of global warming.

Ben Hargreaves is a journalist based in London.