2007 Heatwave

[Fran]

http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/28/28_2_6v.gif (http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb001_ZN) It's only the middle of January and already experts are predicting that we are in for the hottest year in history.
The Met Office has announced that last monday....2 weeks ago....., overnight temperature was a record 12.6c. During last summers heatwave overnight temperature in july only averaged 12c.
January is on course to be the warmest since records began in 1659 inspite of the recent gales.





http://www.smileycentral.com/sig.jsp?pc=ZSzeb114&pp=ZN (http://smiley.smileycentral.com/download/index.jhtml?partner=ZSzeb114_ZN&utm_id=7922)

[JAWS]

1659 was in the middle of the Little Ice Age in Europe which ran from about 1500 to 1800. The warmer period prior to that had also been preceded by a Mini Ice Age which ran from about 500 to 900.

I wonder what the predictions would have been had somebody taken readings in the mid 1500s and predicted a continuous trend then?
No doubt we would still be digging ourselves out from under two miles of ice.

And what caused the Little Ice Age from 1500 on? Well, even with the benefit of hindsight and knowing exactly what happened with the weather scientists still cannot say what caused it. One theory is that it was due to a cooling of the sun, possibly due to a complete absence of Sun Spots. Another recent theory being investigated is that it could have been as a result o the aftermath of the Black Death. I've no doubt that there are many other theories.

Scientists cannot explain how something they know definitely happened yesterday came to be but they can definitely tell me what will happen tomorrow?
I know a woman in a booth on Blackpool Seafront who claims to be able to do the same thing. She doesn't need a computer, she uses a Crystal Ball!

[Whitewater]

Thanks for that wee bit of information Jaws, I was under the impression that the 'Little Ice Age' began about 1400. It was this Little Ice Age which wiped out the early Vicking settlements on Greenland. I say 1400 because I recall somewhere in the dark depths of my mind, reading a book regarding a survey of the ice. From the examination of the ice cores they came to the conclusion that it was about 1400, but 1500 is probably OK too, as that type of measurement is probably only acurate to +/- 100yrs.

Today as everybody is on the fashionable band wagon of Global Warming, I have to agree that the Carbon discharges are not doing us any good, but having said that there has been Climate Change all through the the history of our planet with disasterous results. This present warming phase is probably normal for the planet, but it is present day mans nature to look for a 'visible' or 'acceptable' reason. My own opinion regarding the Carbon discharges is the continual and massive removal of the rain forests over the same period of time. The rain forests are the lungs of the earth which convert the carbon gases back to oxygen, we should be planting more, not removing them. But I guess no matter how much we planted we could not keep up with the massive carbon gas outputs. But it does seem odd that the carbon discharges have been increasing steadily, and increasing over the same time period as the rain forests have been removed and have been decreasing steadily in area over the same period.

[dozerboy]

1659 was in the middle of the Little Ice Age in Europe which ran from about 1500 to 1800. The warmer period prior to that had also been preceded by a Mini Ice Age which ran from about 500 to 900.

I wonder what the predictions would have been had somebody taken readings in the mid 1500s and predicted a continuous trend then?
No doubt we would still be digging ourselves out from under two miles of ice.

And what caused the Little Ice Age from 1500 on? Well, even with the benefit of hindsight and knowing exactly what happened with the weather scientists still cannot say what caused it. One theory is that it was due to a cooling of the sun, possibly due to a complete absence of Sun Spots. Another recent theory being investigated is that it could have been as a result o the aftermath of the Black Death. I've no doubt that there are many other theories.

Scientists cannot explain how something they know definitely happened yesterday came to be but they can definitely tell me what will happen tomorrow?
I know a woman in a booth on Blackpool Seafront who claims to be able to do the same thing. She doesn't need a computer, she uses a Crystal Ball!

I believe that what we experience now is just a warmer phase, and a colder one will start again sometime. I've lost count the number of times I've scraped the frost off the car this winter, so it can't be that warm in January!!

[Tugmistress]

The temps Fran is quoting are the CET (Central England Temps) and hold absolutely no bearing on us up here .

Just as an aside dozerboy, you say you have been scraping ice, well i am reckoning you will be shifting snow on monday and tuesday ;) IF the low going across the country on thursday does not disrupt the pattern :roll:

[cuddlepop]

Over here on the west coast its done nothing but rain this winter.Where do you live Dozerboy?
Whatched a programe last week about salt and it mentioned the last cold spell in Europe.They said it was all to do with the salination process,the sea's weren't mixing.Thats the best explanation of their findings I can give.
They dont no why it happened they just know it did.:eek:
Roll on a heat wave,we could do with drying out.:lol:

[dozerboy]

The temps Fran is quoting are the CET (Central England Temps) and hold absolutely no bearing on us up here .

Just as an aside dozerboy, you say you have been scraping ice, well i am reckoning you will be shifting snow on monday and tuesday ;) IF the low going across the country on thursday does not disrupt the pattern :roll:

Thanks for the warning Tugmistress, I'll set my alarm even earlier then!!

[lassieinfife]

I don't like snow at all but would put up with some to get rid of this incessant rain .......... getting webbed feet

[changilass]

There is snow in Inverness today, not too bad, its just melting at the moment, but will have to wait and see how bad it gets

[the nomad]

There is snow in Inverness today, not too bad, its just melting at the moment, but will have to wait and see how bad it gets
Long range Ness forecast is ok, only snowing on higher ground at the moment.

[changilass]

There is snow in the centre of Inverness now:D so it aint just high ground, but it aint settling

[SNOWDOG]

Dont mind a bad winter as long as the summers ok! :cool:

[North Rhins]

I head Billy Connolly once say that there was no such thing as bad weather, just an inappropriate choice of clothing.

[robynaus]

We're praying for rain!!!! It was 40degrees C last week. regards robyn

[Bill Fernie]

Delivered a few folk home from the Old Folks Treat at Assembly Rooms tonight tonight and there was frost on the north side of Wick but not on the south side. Gritter trucks were out.

[JAWS]

Moan, moan, moan, eco21@esc.net.au, just because it's a little warm and dry! [lol] Hope you get the rain you need though.

I suspect Tugmistress has hit the nail on the head. If the information refers to Central England Temps then I would say they are already getting their 'reasons' for hose-pipe bans etc. in place for the South-East.
They have to have some prepared excuse instead of admitting that there are just too many people there for the available resources.

Whitewater, I agree with you about the decimation of the Rain Forest coinciding with the increase in CO2.
There is, of course, a very good reason why such things will be pushed to the bottom of the list of causes. You can't Tax a lack of Rain Forest but Carbon Based Fuels, well that's a different ball game altogether. Make the people feel guilty and tell them that massive tax increases are for everybody's benefit and........ Well, you know the rest, you get the 'lecture' at every Budget.

A Climate Scientist during the last week described 'Global Warming' as the 'New Religion' likening it to people's belief during such times as the Black Death that it was the 'Wrath of God' for 'Mans' Sinful Ways' for which they must do penance.
He pointed out, and was backed up by another Scientist in the same kind of field, that if anybody tried to get Funding to study Eco-Systems then, unless the liturgy about "Global Warming" had been worked into it somewhere you could forget the Funding because none would be forthcoming.
He was in total agreement about Climate Change but I suspect his scepticism was more about the Dogma trotted out that there was one single, simply solvable cause.

Anybody know what happened to Acid Rain and all the devastation that was going to cause to the pine forests of the north?
The Hole on the Ozone over the Poles and how we were all going to die of Skin Cancer?
Can anybody remember when they were last constantly all over the Media?

I've no doubt in the next few years we will all be being told there is something else that is going to destroy life as we know it.
First find you 'Disaster', then convince the Politicians and Media an urgent solution needs to be found, having done that just sit back and wait for Funding to roll in.

[Metalattakk]

Just a touch on the cynical side there JAWS, but nonetheless I cannot disagree much at all...

[George Brims]

Anybody know what happened to Acid Rain and all the devastation that was going to cause to the pine forests of the north?


It devastated forests.



The Hole on the Ozone over the Poles and how we were all going to die of Skin Cancer?


Its still there, but thanks to the ban on CFCs it is growing more slowly and is on track to start decreasing in a few years. UV levels at the Earth's surface are up from historic levels, but will decrease again as the hole closes. I don't know what happened to skin cancer rates but I do know most Australians are pretty paranoid about it and very careful to keep covered up. Slip, slap, slop - slip on a shirt, slap on a hat, slop on some sunscreen.



Can anybody remember when they were last constantly all over the Media?


It's been a while. I think the problem is that we have a short attention span (or at least the media do) and we can only concentrate on one or two crises at a time. I see a disturbing trend lately to say that because something is no longer the hot topic of the day, it was never a problem in the first place. I've seen people write that the year 2000 computer problems were a hoax. In fact they were serious problems, but were 99.999% taken care of before the excrement impacted the air moving device.

In general the amount of attention a topic gets in the media is unrelated to its seriousness. Much more attention is paid to one air crash costing a couple of hundred lives than the thousands of people relentlessly slaughtered by drunk drivers every year, for example.

[robynaus]

[QUOTE=JAWS;182720]Moan, moan, moan, eco21@esc.net.au, just because it's a little warm and dry! [lol] Hope you get the rain you need though.

Not moaning Jaws just praying!! anyway it rained last night not much in Adelaide but the farmers and the outback are a little happier Some places had their first rain for 5years so somebody prayed
regards
robyn