Climate and extreme weather ⏲️ 6 Minute English

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Phil. It seems that we're hearing about more and more terrible weather events, but how exactly is climate change affecting extreme

weather? I'm lucky today to be joined by BBC weather forecaster, meteorologist and presenter Sarah Keith-Lucas. Hi, Sarah. Hi, Phil, it's great to be here.

Sarah is here to help us understand what's happening with extreme weather. She'll also help explain some of the words and expressions used in a new series of BBC Learning English videos, all about weather and climate, and the language we use

to talk about them. You can find the link to them on our web page or in the show notes for this podcast. Sarah, let's start with a really important question. What's the difference between climate and weather?

That's a great question, Phil. The weather is what you see and feel every day. Climate is more long term. Today, I'll explain how a change in the climate over the long term can be seen in the weather that

we experience. And as always, we'll also be learning some key vocabulary to talk about the topic. And Sarah, it's traditional for us to set a quiz question.

Have you got one for us? Yes I have. By how much has the Earth's temperature increased since 1970? Is it a) around 0.5C? b) around 1C or c) around 2C?

Erm, around 2C? I'll give you the answer at the end of the programme, so listen to the end to find out. Now we're going to talk about tropical storms. What do we mean by tropical storms, Sarah?

Well those are hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons. They're large rotating storms formed over warm tropical waters. They're actually the same. We just use different names depending on where in the world they form.

Hurricanes in the Atlantic. Cyclones in the Indian Ocean and typhoons in the West Pacific. As the world warms, climate scientists think that these storms will get more destructive.

In one of our new learning English for weather videos. Meteorologist Darren Bett tells us about another worrying change. Scientists also think storms are slowing down. They're not moving across as quickly. And that means if a storm is in the same

area for longer, the winds will be stronger for longer and the rain will last for longer, producing more flooding and more likelihood of flooding and landslides and also mudslides. Darren said that if a storm moves more slowly, there will be more likelihood of flooding.

'Likelihood' is the noun that we use to say how probable or how likely something is to happen. Darren also told us about landslides and mudslides. Yes, landslides are where a large amount of earth or rock moves down a slope quickly.

Mudslides tend to be faster and more liquid. Both of these things can happen after particularly heavy rain and can cause damage to buildings. People can also be killed or injured by them. What else causes loss of life in a hurricane, typhoon,

or cyclone? Well, something else that is very dangerous is a storm surge. Let's hear again from my colleague Darren Bett. Storm surge.

That's that body of water that gets swept inland and produces widespread flooding. Climate change is warming our seas and the sea levels are rising. That potentially could mean that storm surge, which is one