The NY Times piece
here.

Others thought it more likely that climate change was a culprit
for the exceptional weather. Julia Slingo, chief scientist of the Met Office,
Britain’s national weather service, said all the evidence pointed to a link.

For the 8.2 million people living in London, what was once a somewhat distant
news event has certainly become uncomfortably close. Residents briefly got a
taste of some of the disruption other areas have been living with for more than
a month when the M25, the ring road running around greater London, was flooded
on Friday. Three of its four lanes running in one direction were temporarily
closed.

The Thames Barrier — one of the world’s strongest flood defense installations,
designed to protect London from a surge in the North Sea — was shut on Sunday at
high tide and was expected to close again to protect properties along the river.