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Reply to 'Drivers of the 2013/14 winter floods in the UK'

Nature Climate Change volume 5, pages 491–492 (2015)Cite this article

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Huntingford et al. reply

Our Perspective1 on the potential factors in the UK floods of December, January and February 2013/14 (DJF1314) discusses potential links between remote drivers in the climate system, Atlantic atmospheric circulation and storminess and UK precipitation. Based on a correlational analysis, van Oldenborgh et al.2 are critical of these links, arguing for instance that winter rainfall amounts for parts of the UK have only a correlation of 0.23 when compared with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The disagreement is essentially one of spatial scale: their arguments are based on a particularly localized measure of rainfall for southern England, rather than the Atlantic atmospheric circulation or more UK-wide precipitation and river flows that we discussed.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, OX10 8BB, Oxfordshire, UK

    Chris Huntingford, Terry Marsh, Jamie Hannaford, Alison L. Kay, Christel Prudhomme, Nick S. Reynard, Simon Parry, Helen C. Ward, Vicky A. Bell, Mark Bailey & Alan Jenkins

  2. Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, EX1 3PB, Devon, UK

    Adam A. Scaife, Elizabeth J. Kendon, Jason A. Lowe, Malcolm Roberts, Peter A. Stott, Tim Legg & Julia Slingo

  3. Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6BB, Earley Gate, UK

    Mike Lockwood

  4. College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Harrison Building, Streatham Campus, University of Exeter, North Park Road, Exeter, EX4 4QF, UK

    James A. Screen

  5. Oxford University Centre for the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK

    Friederike E. L. Otto, Neil Massey, Nathalie Schaller & Myles R. Allen

  6. Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PU, UK

    Myles R. Allen

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  1. Chris Huntingford
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Correspondence to Chris Huntingford.

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Huntingford, C., Marsh, T., Scaife, A. et al. Reply to 'Drivers of the 2013/14 winter floods in the UK'. Nature Clim Change 5, 491–492 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2613

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