Yarmy

One other ingredient to throw into the stew is the disappearance (for the time being, at least) of the infamous North Atlantic "cold blob": The 90-day animation can be found here: 90-Day SST Anomaly Animation

How do the ENSO verification stats on those models stack up? The ECMWF doesn't appear to be interested in La Nina at all.

Topped out at a balmy 13C today.

This *is* climate change. In the past 2 years we have had extraordinary injections of heat into the UK. If you think rapid climate change will mean warm settled summers then you’re in for a shock.

Arpege has a max of 36C in Norfolk on Wednesday which would be pushing the local record (made last year):

Arpege and UKV have the North Norfolk coast maxing out at 20C tomorrow:

Burning hot, but low humidity so not that uncomfortable indoors. There's a fairly stiff south-easterly breeze too. Fingers crossed for some pyrotechnics later, but I suspect I'm a little too east.

The Arpege mentioned above has the sweet spot around about Heathrow at 4pm: So 36C+ not out of the question somewhere according to that. Not much sign of a thundery breakdown anywhere as yet though.

Betelgeuse – a giant with blemishes | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft WWW.MPG.DE Betelgeuse, the bright star in the constellation of Orion, has been fascinating astronomers in the recent months because of its unusually strong decline in brightness. Scientists have been... They think the dimming earlier this year was caused by a huge sunspot rather than dust.

There were 6 consecutive months of -NAO last year from May-Oct followed by (of course, of course) 5 months of solid +NAO from Nov-Mar. This April went negative again (May has yet to be updated). Hmm.

Despite the Northerly flow and below average temps advertised on the output, there still doesn't appear to be a great deal of precipitation in the outlook, especially in the East. May was the driest on record in the UK. The situation around here is getting desperate: Drought fears grow as dry spell continues - Farmers Weekly WWW.FWI.CO.UK Government representatives and farm leaders are to discuss drought measures as a lack of rain further damages harvest prospects across the country. Low

Can’t speak for the rest of the country, but round here it’s baked dry and the latest top dog ECM suggests little relief in the near future. If this carries on we will be in Californian mega drought territory come August.

Well, the Moon belongs to America:

Solar flux is an excellent measure of solar activity: Error - Cookies Turned Off AGUPUBS.ONLINELIBRARY.WILEY.COM There are 2 numbers: the observed and the adjusted. The observed is the actual flux density hitting the Earth's atmosphere. If you are a ham radio enthusiast, then that's the number you are interested in (the higher the better). The adjusted number accounts for the varying distance of the Earth from the Sun. If you are interested in comparing the solar activity in June with the solar activity in December, then you must use the adjusted value for it to make sense. Anything around 70 or below indicates minimal solar activity.

Anyway, I think sending out the cheque to everyone is actually a good idea: it's far more efficient than a tax cut. See here:

Governments are going to have to borrow a lot of money. From memory, China owns something like 20% of all US debt? There are going to be some interesting questions asked when this all finally ends.

I've heard a few stories about people being refused to allow to work from home, even though it's entirely practical (desk jobs with laptops, etc) and follows the government guidance. It's madness: if I were in that situation, I'd just tell them I had a cough and was self-isolating.

Four players from the Brooklyn Nets have tested positive for COVID-19: Kevin Durant among four Brooklyn Nets players with coronavirus - BBC Sport WWW.BBC.CO.UK Four Brooklyn Nets players, including 2014 NBA Most Valuable Player Kevin Durant, test positive for coronavirus. The virus must be way more widespread than thought. As mentioned by others above, it renders the recorded cases figures almost meaningless until random testing in the general population is performed. You wouldn't even need to do that many to get a better idea. How can you plan for anything if you don't know what the real situation is?

What an excellent idea. The other stores should follow suit.

This is from a Doctor who posts on an NCFC website: Something to remember the next time some gobsh1te goes on about media hysteria.

Not sure whether you’re being serious or not. He first claimed it was a hoax and then claimed to have shut it down. He was shaking hands with everybody on Friday night. He’s a halfwit who says whatever comes into his head without regard to truth or even sense. Fortunately, it doesn’t really matter as he’s an irrelevance as far as this crisis goes.

I’m not sure it really matters as the institutions, bodies, and businesses have effectively all implemented their own lockdowns and measures anyway. It’s the same in the US.