Floods and climate change - help solve the mystery! 17 March 06

To what extent were the disastrous UK floods of Autumn 2000 (which I wrote about in the first chapter of my book High Tide) caused by climate change? Data shows a clear trend towards heavier rainfall events and wetter winters (though the last two have been notable exceptions) but does this constitute proof? To help solve this mystery, the climate modellers at Oxford University’s climateprediction.net are asking the public to download a model to run on their computers at home. Not to be confused with the recently-launched BBC/climateprediction.net model looking at climate sensitivity, this one will study the occurrence of extreme weather. Half the models will have an unperturbed climate, whilst the other half will have elevated CO2. Which get more floods? Only you can help the team find out. Visit the project pages here.