Recent Climate Trends in Scotland
Observations of climate trends over the last century in Scotland
The last century has been a period of rapid climate change across Scotland, and this is shown in the wealth of observational data collected by the scientific community. The Scottish climate has warmed, while altered precipitation patterns have led to drier summers, wetter winters and an increased frequency of heavy rain events. These observed changes have already had impacts on many aspects of society, including health, agriculture, water resources and energy demands. Given the climate projections for the next century these impacts will continue and even intensify.
It is important that we understand what has already happened to climate as this provides valuable context for climate change, allowing us to establish a baseline to compare future changes, validate climate models, and begin to examine impacts already occurring.
SNIFFER Handbook of Climate Trends Across Scotland
The ‘Handbook of Climate Trends Across Scotland’ was published by SNIFFER in May 2006. It compiles and analyses observed climate data across Scotland over the last century (1914-2004), and presents these in a high-level / simplified way. It supports the development of climate change adaptation strategies by providing a benchmark of observed climate trends and is aimed at a broad audience of users from a range of sectors and disciplines. You can access the handbook online here: http://www.climatetrendshandbook.adaptationscotland.org.uk
For a more detailed technical analysis, SNIFFER also published an accompanying document ‘Patterns of Climate Change Across Scotland: Technical Report' is also available to download here.
UKCP09: Observed Trends Report
The UK Climate Projections (UKCP09) include a separate report that looks at observed climate data: ‘The climate of the UK and Recent Trends’. This extends the approach taken in the earlier SNIFFER Handbook for Scotland (see above) across the entire UK.
This report includes maps for a number of variables averaged from 1961-1990 and 1971-2000 (and difference between), maps of changes from 1961-2006, graphs of climate variables for the 14 UK regions (in UKCP09), and tables of seasonal and annual change from 1961-2006.
External Website: UKCP09 Observed Trends