
Reviewing the history & causes of climatic change & evaluating regional models, this New Naturalist volume offers an important analysis of climatic variations. Much has happened in our knowledge of climate & weather over the past fifty years. The recording of relations between weather & natural history has continued to be of constant interest, with the weather providing a continual & essential backdrop to natural history accounts. But the significance of this backdrop has been very much widened by our better understanding of climate change & its effects on flora, fauna & biodiversity & also by our increased knowledge of historical climates & weather events. In this timely addition to the New Naturalist Library, leading climatologist John Kington offers a comprehensive & up-to-date survey of the diverse climate of the British Isles. Examining the ways in which regional climates evolve from the interplay of meteorological conditions & geography of the British Isles, the author analyses the climatic characteristics & provides a historical overview of changing weather patterns, which is complemented by fascinating & never-before published photographs. Kington reviews the many ways in which people have observed & recorded weather conditions throughout the ages. It is a story based on a rich & varied resource stretching back 2000 years. This approach has allowed climatic trends, anomalies & extremes to be identified over the past two millennia, putting our present experience of weather into striking perspective.