The Past: Climate Trends

In Scotland, we have access to a long record of observational climate data collected by the scientific community. It is important that we use this to understand what has already happened to our climate. This provides a valuable context for climate change, allowing us to establish a baseline to compare future changes, validate climate models, and begin to examine impacts already occurring.

The last century has been a period of rapid climate change across Scotland. In particular, records show that over the last few decades: temperatures have increased - with the last decade the warmest ever recorded; rainfall patterns have changed - with increased rainfall and more heavy downpours; sea-level is rise is accelerating; and there have been fewer days with frost and snow cover.


Met Office: State of the UK Climate Report

The State of the UK Climate report is an annual publication which provides an accessible, authoritative and up-to-date assessment of UK climate trends, variations and extremes based on the latest available climate quality observational datasets:


Met Office: UK Climate

The Met Office holds the weather and climate records for the United Kingdom. It has an extensive UK Climate section on its website, including a range of summaries, maps and figures. Of interest are:


Global Climate:

There is a wealth of information available on global climate trends: