ABSTRACT
After this brief look at global warming from an international point of view, it is now time to consider the likely impact of these climatic changes on the United Kingdom. There is already a mass of data to show how the trend for global warming has affected Britain - temperatures during the 1990s have been about 0.5°C warmer than the 1961-90 average, with four out of the five warmest years on record having occurred since 1988. The 1990s has also seen the greatest number of 'hot days', when mean temperatures above 20°C have been recorded. During this decade an average of 7.5 hot days were recorded each year, nearly twice the longterm average. In fact, 1995 alone saw 26 hot days - the highest total in 225 years of measurements. I
Several surveys have been undertaken looking at these climatic changes, specifically in the summer months. Julian Mayes analysed changes during the summer months between 1947 and 1996, at both the national and regional level, using Davis' index of summer weather which combined measures of precipitation, temperature and sunshine from 24 evenly distributed sites across the country.2 As far as the national picture was concerned, the index rose from 711.9 during the first part of the study period between 1947 and 1971 to 730.5 after 1972. This confirmed that there had been an increase in the frequency of good summers with warm temperatures, long hours of sunshine and little rainfall.
