Site Map |  Cymraeg   A/AS Home > What is the evidence for climate change in Wales? WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE? 1. Global climate change http://nsidc.org/ is the site of the US National snow and ice data centre where current daily views, and records of change in the polar ice caps can be seen. In ‘State of the cryosphere’ Snapshots gives real time images of polar ice. 2. UK climate change http://www.ukcip.org.uk/resources/publications/documents/UKCIP02_briefing.pdf This is a report written by Tyndell Centre for Climate Change Research and the Hadley Centre of the Met Office for UK Government DEFRA – Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. It is a report, written in an accessible style, to help the UK prepare for climate change. It discusses the level of uncertainty of climate change. The section Is our Climate changing? has graphs of global and UK past climate change. 3.  Collecting evidence - Indicators of climate change in Wales www.wales.gov.uk/subienvironment/content/climatechange/clim-change-rep-e.pdf This is a 60 page review which assesses which indicators would be useful in identifying climate change in Wales. It was undertaken for the Welsh Assembly Government in 2001 and written by Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, NERC. It contains information on the following indicators: Climate: temperature; rainfall; snow cover; westerly and south-westerly winds; gales; air quality Wildlife including timing of: ear emergence; leafing dates; peak insect abundance; bird migration; egg laying; flowering Trends in: health; agricultural activities; forestry; sea level; sea temperature. The review recommends that long term data collection at Environmental Change Network [ECN] sites e.g. at Snowdon & Plynlimon is maintained. www.countryside.wales.gov.uk go to environment, then climate change link, to climate change Newsletter 1. This contains a graph of maximum and minimum temperatures taken at Snowdon over two periods 1966-77 and 1996-2003 and compares them. The minimum temperature, is now warmer than 1966-1977 by an average of 1.30C. In contrast the maximum temperature, has changed little over the 2 periods. http://www.ecn.ac.uk/environmental_indicators.htm This is an interactive site. Choose an indicator and graphs of changes in that indicator at sites across the UK, including Snowdonia, are displayed. Climate sensitive species are also being monitored in the Biodiversity Indicators of climate change.

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To what extent is climate change caused by humans? What are the predictions for future climate change in Wales? What are the impacts of climate change in Wales? What strategies in Wales could reduce the level of climate change? How can we adapt to long term changes in climate? Other related links