Britain has become twice as stormy over the past 50 years as climate change has forced storm patterns south delegates at a UN conference in Milan on climate change were told.
Deep depressions that used to hit Iceland have moved south, revealed research from the Hadley Centre for Climate Change.
The report from the Hadley Centre showed that 2003 was on course to be the hottest year on record, with average land temperatures 1ºC higher than a century ago.
At the same conference, research from Munich Re revealed that natural disasters, mostly caused by extreme weather, cost more than US$60bn during 2003.
The summer heatwave in Europe was the single biggest event of the year, costing $10bn in agricultural losses alone and killing some 20,000 people.
Munich Re said flooding in China had cost nearly $8bn and a tornado in the US Midwest had cost $3bn.
