Hampshire authorities count the cost of above average temperatures and rainfall

September 2009

Hampshire County Council, on behalf of the Hampshire Local Area Agreement (LAA) Partnership, coordinated a Local Climate Impacts Profile (LCLIP) in late 2008 to early 2009. The LCLIP covered the period from 2000 to 2008 and the national indicator on climate change adaptation (NI188) was a key driver with the LAA specifying Level 2 by March 2010 and Level 3 by March 2011.

Hampshire Local Authorities worked with Portsmouth City Council, New Forest National Park Authority, the Environment Agency, Primary Care Trusts and Police & Fire Authorities, to collate a spreadsheet of weather events that had affected local services, through searches of local paper archives and emergency planning logs.

By categorising the impacts by month they were able to compare the weather that produced severe incidents with Met Office data on seasonal average temperature and rainfall. From this they were able to understand the costs and impacts associated with above average temperatures and rainfall.

These results were used to inform reports on adaptation and related issues and also to create a generic presentation for use by LAA partners and affected services.

The temperature and rainfall analysis has helped to reinforce the significance of even small changes in climate within affected teams and services. For example, during the winter 2006–2007, which was 2.6°C warmer than the seasonal average, there were significantly more incidents of extreme rainfall, flooding, landslides and property damage.

Working with the districts to collate costs associated with the weather-related incidents, the County Council was able to give a figure on the cost of weather related impacts over the past 8 years.

Due to issues with data recording methods, the cost of £17 million (including Portsmouth City Council) represented data from only half of the authorities. Even so it has been recognised as being a very conservative estimate and has generated consciousness of the costs of weather events and prompted some partners to begin to record these costs on an on-going basis.

The Hampshire LCLIP is now being used as a starting point for the comprehensive risk assessment under Level 2 of NI188.