The Queen has reportedly voiced her concerns that climate change is causing flooding at her beloved Scottish residence.
Her Majesty is said to have raised her fears about flooding at Balmoral to the Met Office’s chief scientist, Dame Julia Slingo, during a private lunch at Buckingham Palace.
It is understood that after Dame Julia told the Queen about a new £97million computer that will be able to help the Met Office predict how the Earth’s temperature will change of the next century, the monarch then began talking about the flooding in Royal Deeside this summer.
Bridges were swept away and holiday-makers were forced to bed down in Ballater’s village hall after the caravan park was flooded when nearly a month’s worth of rain battered the north-east in just 24 hours in August.
Yesterday, one of Scotland’s top flooding experts said the Queen was right to be concerned about the risk of future flooding at Balmoral.
Richard Brown, head of hydrology at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) said: “The floods on August 11 were widespread across the north and our gauging stations in the Upper Dee recorded the highest levels on record.
“If the Queen had asked me about it, I would have said that with climate change we can expect an increase in summer heatwaves and also more intense rainfall events, and on that basis we could expect an increase in flood… at least that would be my humble opinion, Your Majesty.”
Mr Brown said Balmoral was included in Sepa’s new flood warning maps, indicating parts of the estate had a “high likelihood” for both river and surface water flooding.