The Met Office has warned Brits could fall victim to a “severe impact” from volcanic activity that could see the UK and other nations left on the receiving end of “increased flooding and storm damage”.

The national weather agency has said a “large-scale atmospheric pressure see-saw” could tip and leave most of northern Europe at the mercy of an unprecedented crisis, bringing extreme weather to the region. Climate scientists from the organisation taking part in a “groundbreaking” new study found the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) could “reach unprecedented magnitudes”.

The NAO, the study explains, is a large-scale atmospheric pressure see-saw that resides over the north Atlantic, and can determine winter weather patterns in the UK, US and beyond. If the NAO is fuelled by massive concentrations of greenhouse gases at the current trending rate, the study warns, it will “increase to levels never before seen” and leave millions of people at the mercy of extreme weather.

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The Met Office study found that, under a scenario in which “very high concentrations of greenhouse gases” persist into the end of the century, the NAO could massively increase in magnitude and raise the risks of “impacts from extreme weather such as flooding and storm damage”.

The research team used climate model simulations and found “climatological water vapour” could play a significant part in deciding differences in long-term NAO fluctuations. The team identified “limitations in the way that current climate models represent water vapour in the atmosphere” and found those contributed to “uncertainty” in predictions about the NAO’s behaviour.

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Once those were taken into account, the team added, they were able to reveal the NAO was responsive both to “volcanic eruptions and greenhouse gases”. While the study added that the impacts could be mitigated by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, lead author Dr Doug Smith said mitigation efforts were urgently needed to address the “unprecedented increase in the NAO”.

Dr Smith said: “These findings have major implications for understanding and preparing for extreme weather events. Our study suggests that taking model projections at face value could leave society unprepared for impending extremes. Mitigation efforts are crucial to prevent the severe impacts associated with an unprecedented increase in the NAO.”