Storm Amy with its gusts of nearly 100mph brought heavy rain, fallen trees, and transport disruption across parts of the UK in October. Shortly after, a cold spell brought frost risks in several areas. The shift from flooding to frost showed how quickly farmers' access to fields, harvesting and transport can be disrupted.
Author
- Mohammed F. Alzuhair
Doctor of Business Administration Candidate and Researcher, Durham University
It also revealed how heavily the food chain depends on clear, connected information when conditions change suddenly. Without improvements, in this type of extreme weather , supermarkets risk running short of food.
Extreme weather, like the floods and high winds of Storm Bram on December 9, is reshaping UK farming. A recent survey found that 87% of farmers have seen lower productivity because of droughts, floods or heatwaves, and major retailers now link higher food prices to weather-related harvest losses.
A recent UK assessment of resilience in the systems delivering food from farms to shops also identifies how much pressure severe weather places on production and transport.
Storm Amy exposed that clearly. It left fields too muddy for machinery and blocked rural access roads in several areas. Harvesting was paused and collections rescheduled because vehicles could not operate safely or reach farms by normal routes.
When many farms face the same conditions at once, produce reaches distribution centres later and waste risks rise. The storm illustrated how quickly weather can unsettle the flow of food, and how much depends on clear, connected information when conditions shift suddenly.
How information moves through the system is important. Farmers may know frost is coming, but not whether access roads are open nearby, whether rivers are rising in their region, or whether retailers are shifting collection times. Each part of the chain acts on its own information , so decisions are made later than they need to be.
A shared early-warning system could change that by giving farmers, retailers and public agencies (such as local authorities) the same practical signals at the same time. Information about soil conditions, water availability, severe-weather alerts and access, could help the food system can adjust earlier and avoid possible food shortages.
Food is already classified as part of the UK's critical national infrastructure, meaning disruptions can affect essential services. Projections from the Met Office, the UK's weather and climate science agency, suggest Britain will face hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters.
They also warn of more frequent extreme events. Even as intense rain falls in some areas, reservoirs in parts of south-east England are entering winter below typical levels, showing how uneven rainfall can leave soils saturated while water storage remains tight.
The rapid shift from heavy rain to colder conditions illustrates what the Met Office describes as compound events - hazards arriving close together that can cause greater disruption than either would on their own. For farmers, this can mean managing soaked ground one day and protecting crops from frost the next, all while keeping collections and deliveries on track.
Data that doesn't connect
Farmers already monitor soil moisture, field conditions and crop status. Public agencies track rainfall, river levels and flood alerts. Retailers have complicated systems that include transport networks and assessing expected demand. But these numbers sit in different systems, often using different formats, making them difficult to bring together quickly.
At its core, this is a problem of systems not being able to talk to each other when it matters. Work on the food data transparency partnership (which brings together views from government departments and industry) highlights the need for common standards.
Technical groups make the same point - that inconsistent formats and definitions prevent organisations from forming a clear shared view of what is happening on the ground.
Each set of data helps in isolation; the difficulty is that they are not easily viewed together.
Supermarkets want change too
In November, Tesco's UK chief executive, Ashwin Prasad , called for a national framework for farm data, noting that 96% of farmers say inconsistent standards make planning harder. When both the UK's largest retailer and its suppliers highlight the same barrier, it suggests a deeper, system-wide issue rather than an isolated concern.
Government plans for revising its agricultural policy is starting to acknowledge these issues. There are pilot schemes testing the use of shared environmental data on farms. And the food data transparency partnership is working on more consistent data rules. These efforts are important foundations, but recent events show that more practical, real-time coordination is still needed, especially in emergencies.
Public agencies hold information that no other part of the system can access: regional transport pressures, infrastructure constraints and emergency responsibilities. They are also required to assess climate-related risks under government reporting standards which will start to be introduced in 2026. These assessments depend on accurate, timely data, something that becomes far harder to provide when information is fragmented.
With clearer and more connected information, government bodies could identify which rural roads matter most for moving perishable goods, direct targeted support to farmers when severe weather threatens crops, spot pressure points when multiple regions face disruption, and plan long-term investments in flood management, soil health and water resources.
Why early-warning systems are needed
The UK already has many of the components needed for a modern, connected food-information system, detailed monitoring on farms themselves, national forecasting and sophisticated retail logistics. The priority now is to bring these parts together.
A shared early-warning layer could make a difference. It would not replace existing tools or farmers' experience, but provide a small set of common signals, soil conditions, water availability, severe-weather alerts and key access-route issues, available to everyone at the same time. To work in practice, it must also ensure that farmers retain clear control over how their data is used so that trust and coordination develop together.
A recent survey found that more than 80% of UK farmers are worried that climate change is "harming their livelihoods" . That sense of pressure underlines the need for systems that help farmers prepare earlier and respond more confidently when conditions change.
Better, more connected data is one of the simplest ways to offer that support, and to help keep food moving smoothly as British weather becomes increasingly unpredictable.
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Mohammed F. Alzuhair does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
