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Oxford uni project reveals wet winters 'more likely'

Oxford University researchers found that the total rainfall in Oxford is the highest ever recorded for 200 years.

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Oxford project finds wet winters are on the rise

A project by Oxford University has found that wet winters across Southern England will become increase by 25% because of global warming.

It follows recordings of the highest ever rainfall in Oxford since the university's observatory was set up 200 years ago.

The citizen science project compared tens of thousands of simulations of possible weather in our climate alongside weather influenced by greenhouse gas emissions.

They found a 1-in-100-year winter rainfall event is now thought to be a 1-in-80 year event, meaning the risk of a wet winter has increased by around 25%.

It will never be possible to say that any specific flood was caused by human-induced climate change. We have shown, however, that the odds of getting an extremely wet winter are changing due to man-made climate change. Past greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution have “loaded the weather dice” so the probability of the south of England experiencing extremely wet winters again has slightly increased."

– Researcher Dr Friederike Otto, from the weather@home project based in the University’s School of Geography and the Environment
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