Chris Rapley has clearly decided that if he just repeats the "climate change is causing extreme weather" line just one more time, people will believe him.
Warming doesn’t take place uniformly. In particular, the poles warm more quickly, as is evident from the rapid melting of the Arctic ice. Differential warming changes geographic temperature gradients, leading to shifts and changing volatility in weather patterns. The 0.8 degrees of current warming has made more likely the weather extremes that hit Russian wheat in 2010 and are hitting US maize now.
It's a lovely second sentence. The poles warm more quickly, as shown by the Arctic. And the Antarctic ice, I hear you say?
;)
It doesn't exactly support Rapley's case, does it?
Equally, his case that weather extremes are expected to increase seems strange. If the temperature difference between pole and equator is expected to decrease, then hurricane activity should decrease. Or is Rapley picking and choosing his weather extremes too?