UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09)

Preparing for climate change

Climate change is happening and has begun to have significant impacts on our world. We are already committed to further warming as greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere. This warming will bring significant changes to the UK even in the next 30 years, posing threats as well as opportunities. It is vital governments, businesses, organisations and individuals understand the challenges ahead and prepare for them now.

Introduction

UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09) is a climate analysis tool, funded by Defra, which features the most comprehensive climate projections ever produced. Projections are broken down to a regional level across the UK and are shown in probabilistic form — illustrating the potential range of changes and the level of confidence in each prediction.

How the climate may change in your region (requires Flash)

You can find out more about this freely available resource on the Defra UKCP09 website.

Getting the most from UKCP09

Used appropriately and combined with the right information, UKCP09 provides a detailed guide to our future climate — informing risk based decisions that mean we can avoid the dangers and capitalise on the opportunities of the changes to come.

As our science is behind the projections and our scientists are experts on climate science, the Met Office is ideally placed to provide detailed advice to maximise the potential of UKCP09.

Our climate science consultants can guide you through the projections, ensuring they are properly used and applied to meet your needs. We can also provide training to enable customers to accurately interpret weather and climate information.

Taking UKCP09 forward — detailed climate solutions

We can add to the projections in UKCP09 by generating information and solutions tailored to your exact needs. This includes adding more detail to projections by focusing in on specific locations, variables or scenarios, updating projections with the very latest science or taking your specific situation into account.

We have produced a number of case studies of some of the climate change adaptation projects we have already carried out for government and businesses.

Read the case studies

Using our tailored projections offers a number of advantages to give you the best possible information:

• Latest science — our understanding of the climate is always developing, and our newest models utilise the latest knowledge alongside cutting-edge computing power to produce the most detailed projections available.
• Specific timescale — running models from the latest situation over shorter time scales can give you the most accurate picture of what’s ahead for the next few years.
• Detailed geography — we can focus on particular areas to take into account the key issues which can affect local climate. For example, UKCP09 does not include the process by which urban areas store and generate heat, creating a local climate which has significant implications under climate change. Our custom projections can include this, and other factors which may be vital for your risk management consideration.

Services we can offer to help you.