2021 is a critical year for the planet. Assuming we have Biden in the White House by late January and a Brexit deal done, at least on paper, there is a reasonable chance that the two leaders will join forces to help create one of the most ambitious attempts at slowing the impact of climate change. The irony of a rapidly changing climate is that what is decided in the US election will have a direct bearing on Hampshire residents for generations to come-such is the extent of the threat caused by human activity.

As I am writing this as Hurricane Iota is bearing down on the coast of Nicaragua. There is some irony in the name since we really do need to take notice of storms like this. It every way this one weather system encapsulates all that is wrong with the weather. It is the latest ever Category 5 hurricane. Cat 5 are the most powerful storms on the planet-and this one is packing wind speeds of over 160mph. That is not wind gusts, but actual mean wind speeds-the gusts are over 200mph-enough to destroy brick houses and lift trucks from the ground! Never before in recorded history has a storm of this intensity ever been recorded in the Atlantic so late in the year. By the time it hits land it is also likely to be in the top 5 most powerful storms for any date ever in the Atlantic. It will also dump about 30 inches of rain across a huge swathe of Central America. That’s the equivalent of 6 months of rain in Hants in just 6 hours!

The reason for the intensity and the power is fairly simple. As storm systems develop, they need energy and power to create rainfall and wind. This energy comes from the sea and the atmosphere. The warmer the sea temperatures the more likely the storms are to become massive Cat 5 systems as they pull in huge amounts of warm water-supercharging the weather system.

Why does this matter for Hampshire? For one simple reason. Our low-pressure systems that bring us our rainfall through the year are also being impacted by warming seas. Sea temperatures across our part of the North Atlantic are rising year on year. You may have heard the newspapers talk about “weather bombs”? Sounds dramatic doesn’t it! It is where low pressures drop in pressure and become very intense in a short period of time. Whilst we don’t currently get full blown hurricanes, we are heading in the direction where our weather will get increasingly wild and unpredictable-with more intense rainfall; much higher wind speeds and rapid changes in temperatures.

For residents of Hampshire that has huge implications in what food we can grow, where we can build our homes, what our beaches and coasts look like, and even what we can plant in our gardens and green spaces.

Over the next months I will be taking a look at the challenges facing the county and some of the amazing and creative solutions people are finding to ensure we have a future where we can still thrive-despite the huge impacts of a country facing the reality of climate chaos.

If you have ideas of what we can do to help protect Hampshire from the impacts of climate change -please e-mail the newspaper and let us know!