How often have you heard on the news that "this flooding cannot be attributed to climate change"?
Well this is very misleading, and implies that the flooding was not caused by climate change. Actually, no single weather event can be attributed to climate change.
This is because climate is the trend of weather events, so for us to find out if human-induced long-term climate change is occurring we need many years of records to show that there are increased incidences of extreme flood events or tropical cyclones. Even with meteorological records since the 70s it is difficult to decipher the long term trend due to climatic oscillations that occur on decadal and sub-decadal cycles (such as the El Nino - La Nina cycle).
(There are also many other factors which affect the severity of flooding in the UK. Urbanisation and deforestation both lead to an increase in flooding, and of course flood events appear more severe when those houses that have been built on a floodplain are inevitably flooded.)
metyu
My business partner once told me the UK used to be a beacon of water management. Until recently [not sure when but probably around the early days of Thatcher] management was based around catchment areas. I think now it's more complicated, with privatisation and what-not management is based around... well, whatevber they've bought I guess. (It's a bit late...)