Met Office climate predictions – Why equine cooling is essential
Like every sector, the equine world is often a competitive one. It might be either graded or competitive endurance riding. You could be involved in high level, high-stakes horse racing or dressage, or something relatively simple like a riding school for kids. Whether you breed horses, keep horses for business or pleasure, or care for older retired horses, equine cooling keeps them happier and healthier, which in turn helps to keep your costs under better control.
We’re already seeing climate-led changes in the UK’s weather
The most successful equine businesses like to prepare for change before it happens. The current level of climate change being predicted, and the speed at which the UK’s climate is already changing, means it makes a lot of sense to fit the best horse cooling technologies in the premises right now.
The current spring heat wave affecting the South West of England is a good example of why preparation matters. So far the south west has seen almost four weeks of full sunshine, with no rain at all, and because much the same happened last year it makes sense to prepare for it happening again. If we’re unlucky the coming summer could be just as hot and dry, putting horses of all sorts at more risk of disease and leaving them more vulnerable than ever to heat related illnesses, including heat stroke.
What the UK’s Met Office says about climate change
The weather isn’t the climate, of course. They’re totally different things. But the world’s warming climate is already having an effect on the British weather, making it less predictable than it has been since the end of the last ice age. So what does the Met Office predict for the years to come?
- The latest State of the UK Climate report, for 2018, shows ‘several indicators’ consistent with the effects of a warmer global climate
- The temperature between 2009-2018 has been an average of 0.3 °C warmer than the previous decade’s average
- All the UK’s ten warmest years have happened since 2002
- The longest running record of temperature in the world, the Central England Temperature dataset, shows 2009-2018 was around 1 °C warmer than the pre-industrial period 1850-1900
- This temperature rise in the UK is consistent with warming observed globally at around 1 °C since pre-industrial times
- So far the 21st century has been warmer than the previous three centuries
- By the end of the 21st century, all areas of the UK are expected to be warmer, more so in summer than winter
By 2070, if humanity follows the current high emissions scenario, the UK’s warming range looks like being 1.3 °C to 5.1 °C in summer, 0.6 °C to 3.8 °C in winter - Very hot summers are expected to become more common
- The summer of 2018 was the equal-warmest summer for the UK along with 2006, 2003 and 1976
- Climate change has already increased the risk of a summer as hot as 2018’s by 12-25%
- By the mid 2000s hot summers will already be more common, with the risk increasing to 50-60%
- Also by the 2070s, given the current high emissions scenario, the frequency of hot spells is predicted to rocket
Stay competitive, stay responsible, stay kind
Our equine cooling systems are exactly what you need to look after horses the way they deserve so they can do the best possible job for you, whether it’s race or compete in another way, give rides to kids, provide equine therapy, or just be a really good friend.
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