Storm Eunice is certainly unusual, which has got many wondering if the worst storm seen in the UK since the Great Storm of 1989 could be connected to climate change.
After all, we know other freak weather events such as heavy rainfall and flooding are.
But climate change expert Bob Ward, policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and ESRC Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, says we should not rush to make that link.
He said: “There is currently no evidence for any trend in the frequency and intensity of windstorms affecting the UK.
“The strength of these windstorms from the North Atlantic are not determined in the same way as tropical storms, which intensify due to high sea surface temperatures.
“There is clear evidence that heavy rainfall events in the UK are becoming more intense due to climate change.
“But Storm Eunice is a powerful windstorm, and rain is not the main threat.”
The Met Office added: “There is no compelling evidence of climate change impacting trends in maximum wind gusts.”
But scientists generally agree the side-effects of storms like Eunice will worsen due to climate change.
The German climatologist Friederike Otto says there are two reasons for this: “One, rainfall associated with winter storms has become more intense, and many studies link this to climate change.
“Two, because of sea-level rise, storm surges are higher and more damaging than they would otherwise be.”
