English coastal storms more intense, but is it climate change?

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2007

TRIESTE, Italy (AFP) — Coastal storms battering the southern coast of England have sharply increased in intensity over the last century and a half, a possible consequence of global warming.

The research -- presented this week at the European Conference on Severe Storms in Trieste -- found that 12 of the 15 most powerful storms to hit the Dorset coast from 1865 to 2004 occurred after 1965.

The two most severe -- rated seven out of nine on a new intensity scale -- struck in 1987 and 1998, killing at least 15 people and causing more than a billion pounds in damage.

These are important findings, meteorologists gathered here say. But whether the increase in force is caused by global warming, largely driven by human activity, remains a point of sharp debate....