State of the UK Climate 2020
Prof Tim Sparks and Dr Judith Garforth, 02/08/2021
The State of the UK Climate report, compiled by the Met Office and published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology, reveals that the last 30 years (1991 - 2020) have been 0.9C warmer than the preceding 30 years (1961-1990). Last year, 2020, completes the decade and continues this trend: It was the third warmest, fifth wettest and eighth sunniest on record.
The phenology sections focused on two natural events (first leaf and bare tree) for four common species (elder, hawthorn, silver birch and pedunculate oak), utilising citizen science records from all across the UK. The mild January and February in 2020, followed by a remarkably warm and sunny April, stimulated plant growth.
Use the above link to learn more about the just how early Nature's Calendar records reveal spring was in 2020 (compared to the 1999-2019 baseline), which species had the earliest first leafing in this record and what the calculation for autumn 2020 was, compared to the baseline.
