So many people these days think that extremes are abnormal, and must be caused by something or someone interfering with the system. Someone is to blame, they say, and something should be done about it. This is wrong-headed.
Extremes are part and parcel of the British climate.
Our detailed meteorological archives show this, and even if you believe all statistics are damned lies, the vast corpus of ancient weather lore compiled by Richard Inwards more than 100 years ago demonstrates how deeply concerned our forebears were with floods, freezes and famines. Indeed, none of those years was remotely as dry as 1921. There are those who argue that, although the extremes of drought and flood in recent years may not be unprecedented, the wild fluctuation between these extremes is. Easy to say, and easy to disprove. Thus there is no need to seek special reasons for the contrast between the downpours and droughts of the last decade, nor for the individual wetness of 2000 or the dryness of 1996.