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Up here in Edinburgh we've had a lovely day today and there's no issue with flooding even though we've had quite a bit of rain in the last 6 weeks.
Also the weather forecast suggests that August will return to normal as the high and low pressure systems seem to be shifting to their normal position. It's been a strange set of circumstances that have led to heavy rain staying in the same areas, not moving up or down the country as they normally would.
Enjoy your UK vacation.
We are not having a great summer but no more rain than usual. Be sure to visit Scotland when you are here. The scenery is to die for in any weather. :)
[edited by: BeeDeeDubbleU at 6:24 am (utc) on July 24, 2007]
If you are going to any of the areas affected (see the BBC) take necessary precautions.
People in the UK
I think you meant people in England?
(Sorry, we Scots get a bit paranoiac when people think the UK is England) ;)
re: rest of UK - it gets drier as you go further North then in Scotland there's even drought in Shetland [shetlandtoday.co.uk]!
[edited by: SuzyUK at 8:41 am (utc) on July 24, 2007]
But the south is okay. London is fine, Cornwall, the south coast, Hampshire ,Devon, Dorset and Sussex are all okay. Then up north, Blackpool, Manchester. Liberpool and the Lake District are all fine.
That said, it is very wet! (nothing new there!)
Matt
But the south is okay
Gloucestershire has sunk.
The only reason im not outside while typing this is because its too hot and i needed to cool down as im trying to burn off the tan i picked up yesterday.
god, don't you love working for yourself?
Visit Scotland!
Some friends from out of state called to check on us after seeing the news reports about the earthquake on TV. I told them I had to call them back later because we were just leaving to go to a rock concert. They asked how we could be going to a rock concert when our entire city had just been destroyed.
There are villages which are now islands in the middle of vast lakes. The deluge in South Yorkshire a couple of weeks ago was bad but these are the most appalling floods I have ever seen in this country.
The only explanation I have seen put forward so far is unusually cold water off the Pacific shore of Latin America enabling the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic to drift southwards (?) Any climatologists here?
And you were Skeptical about Global Warming all of these ears...
It wasn't fair looking at the negative effects of Global Warming only in the poor nations, I have a heart for the people who were affected in the UK, but it is a lesson for developed nations. Global Warming affects everyone of us.
Doesnt exist.
This is just a poorly understood wobble in the earths climate, its happened before and will continue to happen.
This is becoming a self fulfilling statement.
Doesnt exist
Unfortunately all the evidence is to the contrary. Perhaps you'll reconsider when icebergs from the melting polar ice cap start drifiting past the UK. :(
(Sorry, we Scots get a bit paranoiac when people think the UK is England)
I hope you don't need to worry about that on this forum. I was also wondering if all the British Isles was getting swamped to some degree, just some not deep enough to get in the news. Good to hear that's not so.
Your comment reminds me of my wife's high school classmate who thought "Europe was in England."
(Why yes, we're American. Why do you ask?)
I just got a postcard from my Mum on summer holiday in the deep French countryside, totally disconnected from the 21st century and happily oblivious.
She writes: "The weather is not so sunny over here. Hope it is better at home!"
And yes, I'm a meteorologist, so I should know a bit about this.
Not being a politician certainly helps keep my mind from being clouded by alterior motives...
My thoughts go out to those who have been affected by the flooding. The Gulf Stream certainly has had an influence, but I'd suggest that the Longitudinal shift of the jet stream is more at play. Where one area would be experiencing strong ridges of high pressure, they are now mired in huge troughs of low pressure which would be more normal in the late Fall/Winter seasons....and vice versa.
we Scots get a bit paranoiac when people think the UK is England
I have a Welsh in-law who still seems very bitter about Wales being invaded by England, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that last happened during the Middle Ages.
The Act of Union,from which the United Kingdom was born happened exactly 300 years ago in 1707. This is a very important anniversary in the UK and outside of Scotland there has scarcely been a mention of it. That is what P¦sses us off up here.
I bet the vast majority of English people are not even aware of it?
How are your verocious midgy mosquitos?....ate thru my jungle juice last time I was there!
...outside of Scotland there has scarcely been a mention of it. That is what P¦sses us off up here.
Ouch - chip-on-shoulder! You're "up there", isolated by your own choice of words, and the rest of the world just doesn't give a Hoot. Lol! Back to the weather...
Just come back from a month spent in The Netherlands. The Dutch have a saying that every day you see all the weather. I have to say that it's true - sun, cloud, rain, thunder & sun every day.
With this in mind, I have to say that the UK (all of it) has a great tendency to overly meditate upon the weather system found in its own navel.
Compared to Katrina and New Orleans the UK has had but a shower. The levels experienced are the worst since when - the middle of the last century? Pah!
As the saying goes, one swallow does not make a summer. One wet summer does not a crisis make.
Even given heat waves across Europe, what does this actually prove? That we're in a period of warmth? That temperatures are rising? To what end - that sea levels are rising?
Didn't this all last happen some 12,500 years ago, and didn't it happen about 26,000 year ago, too?
We as a species survived then, so what's different now? We have central heating and waterproof clothing, for goodness sake!
Syzygy
[edited by: Syzygy at 11:44 pm (utc) on July 26, 2007]
BDW you cannot speak for the 'vast majority', I too feel (and do, and have) the history but it is 300 years later and I have a family tree and village history to do. Why? because time moves on, and never faster than in the online world, - small bonus is that now everyone wants to know!
Davewray.. (I respect your meteorology genius but, you commented here at WebmasterWorld ;)) To me *it is cycles* I remember when we had snowy winters, then of course they weren't as snowy as my forebears remember so that suggested to me both memories needed respecting (didn't have mobiles to take pics in those days!) Now, upon researching the 'GW' stuff.. I find a routine search will prove both memories quite easily but more than that no one wants to know because yes it's getting warmer.. but a mere 100 years ago it got colder!.
Then with just a wee think back, there are stories of those like Wallace and Bruce, living in the hills all year around. to me that would not have been possible if it weren't warmer then, or at least as warm as it is now.. (they weren't that hardy despite the stories!) so?
You say with certainty that this is GW,, but how can you say that when the true mechanics of the Gulf Stream and it effects are only relatively recently being realised (last 25 years only?) how can you compare that with the last 100 years, let alone a new Ice age millenia - that's got to be like apples and oranges?
It's life, it's happened before and it will happen again but the human race will survive, they did before and they will again.. I think they call it evolution?
btw.. this reminds me of our IT industry today except that it 'appears' to be unfolding before our eyes :)
It's life, it's happened before and it will happen again but the human race will survive, they did before and they will again.. I think they call it evolution?
Or maybe it is time to simply step down and let dolphins have a crack at being the dominant species. :)
[edited by: Jane_Doe at 12:43 am (utc) on July 27, 2007]
I am 58 years of age and I remember walking across an icy Loch Lomond in the winter time. I also remember sledging every winter and periods of two or three weeks when the temperature hardly got above zero Celsius. Last winter? Hardly a frost! I also remember summers where we got extended periods of nice weather and only average rainfall.
During the last five or ten years I have seen more weather extremes than ever before. We've had massive Tsunamis, flooding, droughts and forest fires on AFAIK an unprecedented scale. On my own doorstep Loch Lomond reached it's highest ever recorded level last December flooding many properties on its banks. I took lots of pictures of this because I knew the many people from my area who are scattered around the world would not believe it.
Cyclical? Doesn't look like it to me. Don't forget that there were no unnatural greenhouse gases until a few years ago. The effects of GW are not a nice prospect but there's really no point in denying it.
