University of East Anglia climatologist Dr Clare Goodess will warn of the challenges facing farmers in decades to come at a farming conference today.

She predicts a trend towards warmer conditions with "more hot and very hot days" which she says may offer new opportunities. But the variability of rainfall from season to season will also bring with it challenges for the future.

Her presentation will focus on the effect of climate change on farmers and the future extremes of weather that farmers should be preparing for.

She said: "In 2012 farmers had to deal with the prospect of severe drought and water restrictions in the first three months, but by the end of the year the East Anglian region had received 129 per cent of average rainfall.

"There is some evidence of changes in rainfall variability over the last decade or so, including perhaps a tendency towards more heavy summer rainfall such as experienced in 2012.

"The trend towards warmer conditions is much stronger and is projected to continue – with more hot and very hot days, an increase in growing degree days and a reduction in frost days.

"While some of these temperature changes may offer new opportunities for the regions farmers, the suggested increase in the variability of rainfall, particularly from season to season, will bring challenges over the coming decades."

Dr Clare Goodess is a senior researcher at UEA's Climatic Research Unit. Her research interests include regional climate change projections, extreme weather events, and climate change impacts.

Her presentation 'Our recent weather - a taste of the future climate for farming?' will be part of the Norfolk Farming Conference 2013. The event takes place at the John Innes Centre at the Norwich Research Park on Thursday, February 21.