Insight

Why autumn could soon feel more like summer as climate change affects the seasons

Welcome to meteorological autumn!

It's the 1st of September and we like to divide the year up into four equal slices.

September, October and November are what we meteorologically speaking call autumn. And we know it's autumn from the leaves on the floor.

But things are changing. Climate change is a very real concern. We already know that predictions state that warmer, wetter winters are something we're going to have to get used to, as well as hotter, drier summers.

But there's even more. Those summers are now going to extend into our autumn. So our autumns are going to get drier, sunnier and warmer.

There is a distinct blurring in the seasons - the boundaries are melting away.

If you can remember a couple of weeks ago, it felt like autumn. Because it was so hot and dry, the leaves were dropping and turning brown early, because the trees were almost going into survival mode.

With this warmer, sunnier autumn, we're also going to get more severe weather events, including thunderstorms.

It's all going to feel very different and of course with dry ground and thunderstorms, we get issues with flooding. So we're going to have to change the way we think about things.

Our weather is getting more and more eventful.