The Weather!

As an Englishman I feel it is my duty to show an interest in the weather, it is after all part of being British to comment upon or generally have a view on our climate isn’t it? So The weather is generally one of the things I check out at night before going to bed and is also one of the first things I check in the morning (after my emails). I have numerous bits of software to use for this purpose and have to admit to a fascination with meteorology!

Currently we are for the first time in ages having proper seasonal weather, it’s April and we are actually getting April showers – the weird thing is that this weather is actually being commented upon by the press as a significant wet patch! I accept that the press will pick on anything to sell papers, but does this point to something more significant? Has our weather changed so much over the past few years that we don’t now recognise when it is ‘normal’?

If this is the case (and I believe it to be so) is it not the best evidence yet for the ‘nay sayers’ who claim nothing strange is happening to our climate? The press are loving the fact that they can call the current rainfall the ‘wrong type of rain’ which won’t go any way to solving the drought issues, but it can’t hide the fact that we have had a particularly dry couple of winters.

Part of the reason for the British love of talking about the weather is due to its change ability, but also the fact that it, is so predictable as far as the seasons go – or always has been up until recently.

So to all you climate change sceptics out there, how about it? Are you willing to finally accept that things are changing or are you all still sticking your heads into the sand?

 

It’s official – we have had a poor summer!

I really look forwards to my summer sun – but am increasingly needing to leave the UK to get it! OK we had a scorching Easter – but that isn’t officially the Summer (and I was in Paris anyway). Our Summers do appear to be going the way of our weather generally – into unknown territory! A British Summer day And it appears that I am correct, according to the Met Office, this year has been the coolest summer in 20 years! Summer 2011 has actually been the coolest one we’ve had in some parts of England in two decades. The Met Office data, based on the Central England Temperature Record, reveals the mean temperature this year to be 13.63C (56.53F), similar to that of 1993 when we faced average temperatures of 13.39C. The provisional figures have been collected from the 1st June to the 29th August and so far last summer was on average 1C hotter at 14.65C (58.37F). The Met Office Report also shows it has been wetter than last year but considerably drier than 2007, 2008 and 2009. This summer we had 267.7mm of rainfall, compared to 243.8mm in 2010 and 323mm in 2009. Heavy rainfall in Scotland earlier in August resulted in saturated ground and localised flooding particularly in Aberdeen. Other findings released for August show that the UK received 126% of the normal monthly rainfall this year (full statistics for the summer are available on the Met Office website from yesterday). The met office say that the amount of sunshine in August this year was three-quarters of what one normally expect. However it is not all bad news as the figures show that generally summers in the UK appear to be getting hotter – the bad news is that so are Winter, Spring and Autumn. No doubt the sceptics will say it’s not global warming, I am not so sure!

 

Its official – last month was very cold!

Its official, the past month was Britain’s coldest December for 120 years. It was also the chilliest individual calendar month since February 1986,  with temperatures dropping as low as -21.1C in the Scottish Highlands.

The benchmark Central England Temperature plunged to an average of -0.6C over the month, the lowest figure for December since 1890, according to MeteoGroup UK, the weather forecasting division of the Press Association.

Some more figures:

• There were 10 nights in December 2010 when the temperature fell below -18C somewhere in the UK.
• Altnaharra in Sutherland, Scotland, experienced the coldest conditions, with temperatures plummeting to -21.1C early on December 1.
• By contrast, St Mary’s in the Isles of Scilly basked in the relative warmth of a high of 11.5C on December 28.
• Over the month, the lowest average maximum temperature of -0.4C was recorded in Dalwhinnie and Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands, and the highest of 7.6C in St Mary’s.
• The average minimum temperature ranged from -8.4C in Tyndrum in Stirlingshire, Scotland, to 4.9C in St Mary’s.

Much of Britain may have been freezing and snowbound in December, but it was drier and sunnier than usual!

• Rainfall averaged 39.5mm over England and Wales (39% of the mean for 1971-2000), the lowest total for December since 1971, 48mm over Scotland (47%) and 59mm over Northern Ireland (60%).
• Northern Ireland enjoyed 80 hours of sunshine over the month (227% of the mean for 1971-2000), Scotland 59 hours (178%) and England and Wales averaged 56 hours (117%).