A new set of maps showing how the climate has shifted in each UK constituency will help people ask pertinent questions on the doorstep in future elections, write Professor Chris Brierley (UCL Geography) and Hannah Woodward of Birkbeck, University of London in The Conversation.
During the UK general election campaign, we worked with colleagues to create a series of maps that show both how the climate has changed over the past two generations in each constituency, and how it will change over the next decade.
You can look up the climate changes for your own constituency and see how they compare to the local actions promised in election leaflets coming through your door.
We used combined data from the Met Office and other national weather services, which shows that the UK, like the rest of the world, has warmed since the 1960s. The warming is largest in the south-east, with temperatures in Westminster itself having gone up by a whole degree celsius, averaged across the year.
The UK saw one of the wettest winters on record this year, and increasing rainfall in both winter and summer over the past decades can be seen in the maps.
You can also explore changes in extreme weather using the maps. The temperature of the warmest day of the year, for example, has increased at a faster rate than the annual average, which fits with the increasing heatwaves that have plagued the country in recent years.
Flooding is often associated with heavy rainfall over several days, and increases in storm rainfall by 20% have been attributed to climate change.
Mapping changes in the amount of rainfall on the five wettest days of the year in a row, show large increases over the Lake District, west Wales and the Scottish Highlands - all areas that have suffered badly from flooding in recent years.
