Topic: Climate crisis

Topic

Weatherwatch: Paving over front gardens is leading to hotter nights

Changing paved areas to grass and planting trees can reduce urban heat island effect by as much as 1C, study shows Add together all the UK’s household gardens and they cover an area three times larger than all the country’s nature reserves combined. But as the demand for car parking increases, many front gardens are being paved over, with research showing that this loss of green is adding to the urban heat island effect, particularly at night. In 2005, about 7.5% of the UK’s front gardens were paved; by 2025 that had risen to 55%, according to Royal Horticultural Society estimates. Those hard

The Guardian – Weatherwatch18 Sept 2026, 11:05 UTC

Weather

Weatherwatch: Climate crisis fuelling steep fall in migratory bird numbers

Many species under threat use the African-Eurasian flyway, one of the planet’s largest mass-migration systems It may still feel like summer, but in the world of birds, autumn migration is already well under way. Cuckoos and swifts have already left us, and while swallows and many species of warbler will not depart our shores until September, many species of Arctic-breeding waders have begun to stop off at our coastal marshes to refuel for their long journey south. This year, however, there could be fewer than usual. A review by the British Trust for Ornithology, working with other internationa

The Guardian – Weatherwatch18 Sept 2026, 11:05 UTC

Weather

Weatherwatch: how to protect our railways in hotter summers

Steel rails warping and signalling equipment failing in metal cabinets are among the problems to be solved Tarmac softens in the summer heat, which may cause problems on the roads, but even trains running on steel rails are not immune. Railways in the UK are generally designed to operate within a 45C temperature range. The rails expand slightly in the heat, and excessive temperatures can produce “sun kink” with rails warping into S-shapes. The effect is small but the distortion can derail fast trains, so speeds are reduced for safety. Continue reading...

The Guardian – Weatherwatch18 Sept 2026, 11:05 UTC