Climate change: what's in store where you live?
Yorkshire and Humberside:
Sea level rises, storm surges and intense erosion are a threat to the entire Humber Estuary: more than 300,000 people live on the Humber’s floodplain, protected by flood defences. After the Thames, the Humber has the greatest concentration of people and property on a tidal floodplain in the UK.
Climate change will bring more extreme weather events to Yorkshire and Humberside, according to the Environment Agency, as well as significantly wetter winters. Sea levels are expected to rise by up to 66cm, and average mean temperatures are expected to increase by as much as 4.5°C by 2080.
Torrential downpours have already caused flooding in some parts of the region: in Headingley in 2004, 182mm of rainfall was recorded in one month. The monthly average is 78mm. Many of the region’s homes, businesses and settlements are on the flood plain, which means they face a greater risk of flooding as a result of increased rain and rising sea levels. Patterns of flooding are expected to change over the next 50 years, with larger and longer-lasting winter floods. Rather than individual floods lasting a few days, there may be a “flood season” with high river flows for weeks or months derived from higher groundwater and runoff inputs.
The coast is particularly vulnerable to a changing climate in terms of rising sea levels, changing patterns of tidal flooding and coastal erosion and the warming of sea waters. Coastal changes are also expected to affect fish populations.
Some coastal land will be lost to increased erosion rates and more extreme tidal flooding, decimating internationally important inter-tidal habitats. Elsewhere on heath land such as the North Yorkshire Moors, the trend towards hotter, drier summers will bring increased fire risks.
Agriculture in the region will also have to change: increased demands for irrigation water will somehow need to be met, especially if potatoes are to continue to be grown, and the changing climate may even manifest itself in a greater national demand for seasonal salad produce.
But it isn’t just living things that will suffer: heritage sites, such as York Minster and Bolton Abbey, are extremely fragile and could be easily damaged by extreme weather events, including drought, flooding and water-logging.
Find out what's in store elsewhere in the UK:
