Melting Arctic ice caps helps predict UK heatwaves, study finds – as scientist reveals this summer’s forecast | Climate News
When the UK sizzles during an intense summer heatwave it could well be linked to melting ice caps and glaciers in the frozen North, according to a new analysis. While increased melting due to climate change could make such events even more extreme, the connection may also make heatwaves possible to predict up to a year in advance, the study finds. “We will be able to estimate the exact year of the warm and dry summer in northern Europe more closely in the winter before it occurs,” says Dr Marliena Oltmanns at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton who led the research. Such a forecasting ability could be significant, allowing farmers, hospitals, or power providers time to plan for heatwaves that are already becoming more extreme due to increasing global average temperatures. Researchers have suspected for a while that there is a link between weather extremes in northern Europe and the intense summer melting in the Arctic and subarctic due to climate change – but how they might be connected remained elusive. Image: Bournemouth beach …
