Britain's climate is changing now. And Earth is expected to continue experiencing global warming in the future. But the pressing question is to what degree are we likely to feel the heat? What change in temperature might we expect and what are the potential consequences?

1854: The Met Office is founded to provide information on the weather and marine currents to the marine community. This small department of the Board of Trade is headed by Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy. Fitzroy established a network of coastal weather stations, and pioneered daily weather reports in newspapers, coining the phrase "weather forecast" in the process.

About 38 million years ago, the temperature dropped and a mass extinction took place.

Just a few years ago, the theory behind this gloomy history of mollusks was unproven. Now, thanks to Linda Ivany, Kyger Lohmann, and William Patterson, it's fact. The three scientists used nature's record to learn about the behavior of the climate long ago.

Tree rings are nature's way of documenting climate changes. The team simply applied that same principle to shellfish.

Rain stopping play and intense tennis duels in almost oven hot temperatures are regular of tennis matches. Play can be stopped by rain and sometimes even heat. But the way the game itself is played is also affected by weather and atmospheric conditions.

The Great Fire of London in 1666 was partly caused by the drought of an unseasonably hot summer, and London had practically no rain for over a year. The wooden buildings in the city were tinder dry when the fire started on 2nd September, and thus spread easily, raging out of control for three days and three nights.