The heatwave during this summer is being compared to the famous summer of 1976, which I remember well (and have blogged about previously), and more data are being produced each day as the heat continues, with a brief cool period happening at the moment. There have been around 26 days this summer which have exceeded 30 degrees C (there were 24 days in the summer of 1976), and for the last few years, that has only been around 9 or 10 days. Back to school for many next week is likely to lead to more heat of course.
There is talk of hosepipe bans, but I'm not sure why the hosepipe ban didn't come in months ago. It's clear that the land is parched, and there are leaks from pipes which haven't been fixed, and if more water is taken out of rivers this will impact on the health of the riparian ecosystems. Agriculture needs to take some sort of priority at this time of year. River flow in the Great Ouse was described as 'very low' during the peak of the heat.
Spring crops are not growing at the rate that they should, and farmers met Michael Gove earlier this month to express their concerns. The East of England has experienced the greatest heat, and has also had very little precipitation, and is one of the areas where a lot of the UK's crops are grown. Farmers have had a bad winter (remember the Beast from the East not that long ago) and are having to go into winter feed, as the grass is not growing.
Farmers are facing huge financial losses.
There has also been a deadly heatwave in Japan, with temperatures in the 40s and people succumbing to heat stroke. This New York Times article provides more detail on this country's problems with extreme heat.
Temperatures have soared and the heat is spreading up to the Arctic as well, which is particularly concerning as there are some important feedback loops which involve the Arctic (I shall come back to that theme in a future post about the 'Hothouse Earth' stories in the news this week.
This Guardian article has some information on the impacts.
There is also a problem if we move into Europe as well.
We seem to be heading for this becoming the new norm very much sooner than we were always told would happen. Leo Hickman shared some tweets recently showing a programme that was made with David Attenborough which had predictions of the future climate very similar to what we have. There are also predictions of hot years to come over the next few years.
The UEA Climate centre is clear that the UK's climate is changing, and that the seasons are shifting. We are now seeing some evidence of this.
#Greece wildfires: Reports of 50 dead. Greenhouse gas emissions, cause the global temperature to increase and #climatechange. This enhances the likelihood of #wildfires often with tragic results. #SendaiFramework #ResilienceForAll #ParisAgreement https://t.co/bwswEDKzoA
— UNISDR (@unisdr) July 24, 2018
In previous years, about this time of the year, I have been to Portugal to work with my good friend Jaime on some Erasmus projects.
He had to cope with temperatures well over 40 degrees, as I did a couple of years ago.
I'll be mentioning the heatwave in the first week of the new term.
Image: Alan Parkinson
There is talk of hosepipe bans, but I'm not sure why the hosepipe ban didn't come in months ago. It's clear that the land is parched, and there are leaks from pipes which haven't been fixed, and if more water is taken out of rivers this will impact on the health of the riparian ecosystems. Agriculture needs to take some sort of priority at this time of year. River flow in the Great Ouse was described as 'very low' during the peak of the heat.
Spring crops are not growing at the rate that they should, and farmers met Michael Gove earlier this month to express their concerns. The East of England has experienced the greatest heat, and has also had very little precipitation, and is one of the areas where a lot of the UK's crops are grown. Farmers have had a bad winter (remember the Beast from the East not that long ago) and are having to go into winter feed, as the grass is not growing.
Farmers are facing huge financial losses.
There has also been a deadly heatwave in Japan, with temperatures in the 40s and people succumbing to heat stroke. This New York Times article provides more detail on this country's problems with extreme heat.
Temperatures have soared and the heat is spreading up to the Arctic as well, which is particularly concerning as there are some important feedback loops which involve the Arctic (I shall come back to that theme in a future post about the 'Hothouse Earth' stories in the news this week.
This Guardian article has some information on the impacts.
There is also a problem if we move into Europe as well.
The link with larger global circulations within the ocean is explored in this article here.Het Nationaal #Hitteplan van het @RIVM is geactiveerd, daarom is er nu een #codegeel voor aanhoudende #hitte van kracht voor een aantal provincies.https://t.co/BTD8TTztZG pic.twitter.com/iVsNGLSbBl— KNMI (@KNMI) August 2, 2018
We seem to be heading for this becoming the new norm very much sooner than we were always told would happen. Leo Hickman shared some tweets recently showing a programme that was made with David Attenborough which had predictions of the future climate very similar to what we have. There are also predictions of hot years to come over the next few years.
The UEA Climate centre is clear that the UK's climate is changing, and that the seasons are shifting. We are now seeing some evidence of this.
#Greece wildfires: Reports of 50 dead. Greenhouse gas emissions, cause the global temperature to increase and #climatechange. This enhances the likelihood of #wildfires often with tragic results. #SendaiFramework #ResilienceForAll #ParisAgreement https://t.co/bwswEDKzoA
— UNISDR (@unisdr) July 24, 2018
This is how rising temperatures will change our lives and our planet @wef #geographyteacher #climatechange https://t.co/nvrozgVZYS— OCR Geography (@OCR_Geography) August 1, 2018
In previous years, about this time of the year, I have been to Portugal to work with my good friend Jaime on some Erasmus projects.
He had to cope with temperatures well over 40 degrees, as I did a couple of years ago.
I'll be mentioning the heatwave in the first week of the new term.
Image: Alan Parkinson
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