UK sea level rising faster than global average, study reveals

Coastal hazards will be “intensified.” 

Climate change is making the country much hotter and wetter while extreme weather events like droughts and floods are set to "become the norm."

Sea levels are said to have risen by 13.4cm in the UK since 1993, which is about 3cm higher than the global average.

While UK sea levels have been steadily rising over the last few decades as a result of our warming climate, this is the first time they’ve risen ahead of global averages.

Svetlana Jevrejeva, who co-authored the research said: “For a long time, [based] on observations, our rate of sea level rise was very close to the global estimate, but over the last 30-years we have started to see a departure.”

It has risen by 19.5cm since 1901 but two thirds of the rise have occurred in the last 30 years.

The report is based on records from hundreds of weather stations around the country, which have temperature and rainfall data stretching back more than 100-years.

The most likely cause is the impacts of global warming but more research needs to be done to establish why the UK is being indiscriminately affected.

Coastal hazards like flooding and coastal erosion will now be “intensified.”