The presented data was collected to examine the role of extreme weather as an influence on public perception of climate change through a focus on people's responses to the flooding events that affected the UK in the winter of 2013/2014. To this purpose the pilot tested survey assessed three broad conceptual areas: climate change beliefs, flooding experience, and perceptions of the 2013/2014 flooding. Concepts measured in relation to climate change beliefs were issue importance, personal engagement with climate change, psychological distance, attitude strength, support for national policies, private and public sphere actions, and perceived changes to weather and seasons. Furthermore, survey items measured respondents' flooding experience in a number of ways including impacts on property, travel and service. Additionally respondents were asked about the winter flooding’s of winter 2013/2014, covering their appraisal of flood impacts, attribution of causation and responsibility, and the interpretations of the flooding in the media and by other social actors. Other concepts assessed by the present survey were: perceived personal risk of future flooding, ability to cope, and willingness to undertake adaption measures attitudes towards society and the environment, as well as newspaper readership, education, and sociodemographic variables. The dataset contains data from two samples 1) a nationally representative sample (n=1 002), and 2) the so called flood affected sample (n=995). Public understanding of climate change is a topic of interest to many social scientists. In part, this is because people's views on climate change tend to influence their attitudes to national policy (e.g. reducing emissions) and personal actions (e.g. reducing one's own impact on the environment). The proposed research considers the role of extreme weather as a critical influence on people's understanding of climate change. Although a number of studies have looked at how wider meteorological conditions (e.g. day-to-day temperature) can affect people's views on climate change, there is little research that examines the role of extraordinary or extreme weather events in affecting public opinion. We are interested in this topic because there is reason to believe that extreme weather events may have a particularly pronounced effect on people's attitudes. We also see this focus as relevant because climate change is itself predicted to lead to more frequent and severe extreme weather around the world, including increased incidence of floods across the UK. Our research is designed to examine people's perceptions of climate change shortly after the occurrence of major national flooding in parts of the UK in early 2014. We propose carrying out a large survey across Great Britain through which we can measure people's views about the flooding and about climate change, and how these are connected. The proposed survey will be different to previous studies in several ways. First, we aim to collect data not only nationally, but also to pay particularly close attention to areas that were directly affected by the 2014 flooding. This will enable us to compare affected regions with national data. For example, if people in flood-affected areas are more worried about climate change than the national sample, this might suggest that personal experience has had an effect on beliefs about climate change. Second, the proposed survey will look more closely at a number of psychological factors which have been identified as important in shaping people's views. These include the role of emotional responses (e.g. anger about the flooding), cognitive variables (e.g. what people believe are the underlying causes of the flooding), how 'distant' people feel from climate change as an issue, how much risk people perceive from climate change and flooding, and people's underlying values. Third, the survey is designed to be run close in time to the flooding events (which is why we are seeking 'urgent' funding). Exploring these questions is important for theory in terms of our understanding of how beliefs about climate change are shaped. It is also important for developing strategies for engaging members of the public in addressing the causes of climate change, and for responding to climate impacts. We hope to contribute to the development of more effective climate science communication in ways that take account of the complex linkages between extreme weather and climate change. The findings are expected to be of interest to a diverse range of stakeholders from the public, private and third sectors; representatives from these sectors will be engaged through an advisory panel (including providing advice on the design of the survey) and other activities to make the research findings widely available. We will launch a report of our findings in late Autumn 2014. In addition we will hold a specific workshop for those interested in communicating climate change, and write and disseminate a series of academic papers.

Sampling and data collection was conducted by the social research company Ipsos Mori. The pilot tested survey was conducted face-to-face interviews during August, September and October 2014. A core representative British sample ( n=1,002) was collected, and in order to gain a further sample of individuals who had been directly affected by these events, targeted over-sampling was conducted in five flood-affected parts of the country; Dawlish, Gloucester to Tewkesbury, Sunbury to Windsor, Aberystwyth, and Hull (n=995).