The way in which individuals respond to an experience of risk, both in attitudinal and behavioural terms can in part, be explained by the way that such an experience is interpreted and appraised. Taking climate change as an example in this paper, there is existing evidence that experience of local flooding can inform individuals' attitudes towards climate change. This trend however is not observed in all cases, and is highly dependent on the local context. This paper postulates that the variation observed in attitudinal and behavioural responses to climate change, following experiences of local flooding can, in part, be explained by the 'Cognitive Filters of Experience Appraisal' Model introduced in this paper. The model is developed through a review of the existing literature concerning appraisal (cognitive and experience), and a series of fifteen face to face interviews with farmers in the county of Gloucestershire, England, who have all directly experienced local flooding in recent years. The study is exploratory in nature, and the qualitative data serve as contextualised accounts of the different patterns of experience appraisal. The model of experience appraisal suggests that due to a number of cognitive filters, including, farmers' pre-existing views on risk, their perceptions relating to the severity of the experience, and their beliefs about other attributing factors; the sample population was found to be unlikely to appraise their experiences of flooding as evidence for global climate change. It is envisioned that with further research, the model of experience appraisal could be applied to various contexts of environmental risk in the future.