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highcliffe2

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  1. Around the world, many people are fascinated about the weather. This phenomenon can take lives and we run our daily lives according to it. Every country in the world has its own particular and unique climate. For instance, the continent of Africa is often dry and hot, the two poles are unbeilevably cold with no set population. Over the centuries and milleniums, the climate has changed in more ways than one. Ice Ages, heatwaves, periods in time where the earth warms or cools. Currently Global Warming has said to be the cause for the dramatic rise in temperatures over the last century. This year again Global Warming has been brought up due to the heatwave here in Britain and Europe, only last year floods were devastating the Low Countries. As yet there is no hard evidence to suggest that this is true. Weather fronts and weather patterns are constantly circling around the world then die away, new ones are then born. Air pressure is always bringing different types of weather. Low pressure is often associated with rain, high pressure with dry weather. To measure pressure, we use aneroid barometers in units of miilibars. This type of barometers contain hollow capsules with no air inside. As the pressure of the air alters, the capsules change shape and slowly move the pointer on the dial to show whether the air pressure is rising or falling. The highest pressure ever recorded was 1084 millibars in Siberia. The lowest was 870 millibars in a typhoon over the Pacific Ocean. The highest ever temperature ever recorded in the world is 58c or 136F, in Libya 1922. The lowest ever temperature recorded was -89.6c or -128.6F at Vostok Station, Antarctica in 1983. This was without wind chill. Here are the main weather types that affect each continent: Europe Although much of Europe lies in the northern latitudes, the relatively warm seas that border the continent give most of western Europe a moderate climate, with cool winters and mild summers. The prevailing westerly winds, warmed in part by passing over the North Atlantic Drift ocean current, bring precipitation throughout most of the year. In the Mediterranean climate area—Spain, Italy, and Greece—the summer months are usually hot and dry, with almost all rainfall occurring in winter. From approximately central Poland eastward, the moderating effects of the seas are reduced, and consequently cooler, drier conditions prevail. The northern parts of the continent also have this type of climate. Most of Europe receives 500 to 1,500 mm (20 to 60 in) of precipitation per year. Australasia Much of Australia is warm or hot around the year and even along the cooler southern coasts the winters are mild rather than cold. Serious bush fires can be caused by the prolonged heat waves and drought. Tropical cyclones occur or three times a year in the seas to the northeast and northwest of Australia. Africa Africa has virtually the same climatic zones in the Northern Hemisphere as in the Southern Hemisphere, and they are arranged symmetrically on either side of the equator. The zones are determined mainly by latitude, except in the east where highlands greatly modify the climate. Africa is the most tropical of the continents: Only its northern and southern extremes are directly influenced by mid-latitude westerly winds and are considered to have temperate climates. Africa has six types of climatic zones: tropical wet, tropical summer rainfall, semiarid, arid, highland, and Mediterranean. - Tropical Wet This particular climate is often known as equatorial climate and occurs to the climate in west and Central Africa. Rainfall is high, typically exceeding 1,500 mm (60 in) per year and 3,200 mm (130 in) in some places. Rainfall occurs in every month, and many areas experience especially rainy periods in the spring. Temperatures remain high throughout the year, averaging more than 27°C (81°F) annually, and rarely falling below 21°C (70°F). - Tropical summer rainfall This climate occurs north and south of the tropical wet zone, in much of western and southern Africa. With a dry season of three to eight months, annual rainfall is usually between 500 and 1,500m (20 and 60in). Temperature ranges in the tropical summer rainfall zone are slightly higher than in the tropical wet zone with daily high temperatures average more than 30c (86f) in the northern section of this zone. Due to the higher altitudes of the southern and eastern parts of this zone, the temperature tends to be cooler. - Semiarid and Arid The semiarid zone has a short rainy season of up to three months with a range of 250 to 500mm (10 to 20in) of rain per year. Rain is rare and makes plant growth difficult. Temperatures vary between 25 - 36c (77F - 97F). The arid regions of Africa receive small amounts of rainfall. They are classified as hot desert regions though many a time the regions don't live up to their name. During one day the temperatures can range dramatically. In the Sahara desert, daytime temperatures in the summer can exceed 50c (120F), though night-time temperatures during winter can drop below freezing. - Highland and Mediterranean Tropical highland climates are common in much of East Africa. Temperatures in the highlands of Ethiopia and Kenya average 16° to 21°C (60° to 70°F). In most parts of the world, higher elevations receive more rainfall than lower elevations, though the highlands of East Africa are the exception to the rule, receiving low levels of rainfall. The coasts of the region of Cape in South Africa and the North-western coast of Africa have a mediterranean climate. These regions have mild and rainy winters after a long summer where it is often warm and dry. The annual rainfall is between 250 and 1,000 mm (10 to 40in). North America's Climate This continent has a mumber of different climates, 5 in fact. The north of Canada, Alaska, and all of Greenland have subarctic and arctic climates. Winters are long and bitterly cold while summers are mild and short. Most of this region receives little precipitation and is covered in snow and ice for much of the year. A second climate is made up of most of the eastern side of the United States and southern Canada. It is a humid climate where all four seasons are evident. The southern part of this region has a higher average temperature. A third climatic region takes up the western side of the USA and most of northern Mexico. It is mostly mountainous and deserts are apparent, small amounts of rainfall. A fourth region is made up of a narrow strip along the Pacific Ocean, strectching from southern Alaska to southern California. It has mild but unusually wet winters and almost rainless in summer. The fifth and final climatic region is southern Mexico, where it is warm all-year round but a lot of precipitation, especially in summer. South America's Climate South America, the fourth largest of Earth's seven continents. South America is dominated by relativley warm weather and climates. Droughts are a serious problem in northeastern Brazil and along the northern coast of Venezuela and Colombia due to wet summers and dry winters. In the northern half of South America, only the Andes mountain range is cool. South of the tropic of Capricorn, South America have cool to warm summers and cool to cold winters. Antarctica Antarctica is the fifth largest continent, the coldest, windiest, highest, most remote and the most recently discovered continent. Only 2.4 percent of the continent is exposed rock, only 2 percent of the coast is exposed cliffs or beaches. The rest is made up of ice cliffs. It has a number of climates, all cold but differ largely in severity. The lowest year-round temperatures are found in East Antarctica's high plateau region around late August at Russia's Vostok Station. Air temperatures of the high inland regions fall below –80°C (-110°F) in winter and rise only to –30°C (–20°F) in summer. The warmest coastal regions reach the freezing point in summer but drop well below in winter. The interior of Antarctica is a windy polar desert with less than 50 mm (less than 2 in) of precipitation a year. Precipitation is greater in the milder coastal areas, averaging more than 200 mm (more than 8 in) annually, much of it in the form of snow dropped by cyclones. Asia Asia has every type of climate in the world. The main factors that influence Asia's climate pattern are its huge landmass, its location between the tropics and the arctic, and its huge range in elevations from sea level to high plateaus and mountains. The climate pattern that dominates most of Asia is the monsoon. This season includes the east, southeast and south of Asia. During winter, northern Asia receives little precipitation. This happens because cold, dry air moves southwards out of the Mongolian Plateau. During summer, this pattern is opposite where moist and warm air move north from the tropics. This is the time where rainfall is heaviest and more substantial, especially in southern Asia. This air mass continues its journey north but by this time the moisture has gone. This therefore shows that precipitation is heaviest in the south.
  2. highcliffe2

    Humidity

    Humidity is a measure of the amount of (invisible) water vapour or the degree of dampness in the atmosphere. If the relative humidity and temperatures are high the air feels damp and murky. It is the condensation of this vapour which gives rise to clouds, rain, snow, dew, frost and fog The limit to how much water vapour the air can hold varies with temperature. Warm air can hold more vapour than cold air. When the air contains the maximum amount of vapour possible for a particular temperature, the air is said to be saturated. Usually the air is not saturated, containing only a fraction of the possible water vapour. The amount of vapour in the air can be expressed in a variety of ways. Absolute humidity indicates the actual amount of water vapour present in a sample of air, or the vapour concentration, the mass of water vapour in a given quantity of air. 1kg of air might hold up to 25 grams of water vapour in the tropics, but almost nothing in cold polar regions. Relative humidity is the ratio of the actual mass of vapour in the air to the mass of vapour in saturated air at the same temperature. For example, air at 10°C contains 9.4 g/m3 (grams per cubic metre) of water vapour when saturated. If air at this temperature contains only 4.7 g/m3 of water vapour, then the relative humidity is 50%. When unsaturated air is cooled, relative humidity increases. Eventually it reaches a temperature at which it is saturated. Relative humidity is 100%. Further cooling leads to condensation of the excess water vapour. The temperature at which condensation sets in is called the dew point. The dew point, and other measures of humidity can be calculated from readings taken by a hygrometer. Specific humidity is the ratio between the amount of water vapour in air and the total mass of the mixture of air and water vapour.
  3. BY PAUL SIMONS MARCH can bring some nasty weather surprises, and particularly so on this day 90 years ago. March 1916 had been a very cold month, with plenty of snowfalls across Britain. But on March 27 it felt like the depths of winter when a blizzard tore across England. Some 27cm (11in) of snow fell on the East Midlands, blown up into huge drifts blocking roads and railways and leaving villages marooned. On Exmoor, thousands of sheep were buried alive, and the snow was so deep that some of it was lying under hedges even in June. The wind was so bad that roof tiles were hurled into streets, walls blown down, trees uprooted and telegraph poles felled like matchsticks. The Berkshire Chronicle reported: “Tilehurst, lying as it does very high, caught the full force of the storm and it was completely isolated for several days. Trees and telegraph poles were upended and all entrances blocked, with the result that traffic could neither leave nor enter.” The weather proved a problem for the Army, as conscription was introduced that month in response to the rising losses on the Western Front in the First World War. In fact, the weather conditions at the battlefront were appalling, where heavy, wet snow and bitter cold added to the misery of life in the trenches. Link to Weather Eye source
  4. BY PAUL SIMONS ON SUNDAY New York had its biggest snowfall since records began in 1869. A blizzard dropped 68cm (27in) of snow, lit up by bursts of lightning and driven by winds reaching around 100kph (60mph). The storm came as a greater shock because the city had been enjoying a mild winter. The storm developed as cold air flooded down from the Arctic and encountered warm, moist air off the Atlantic. The resulting blizzard was reminiscent of the notorious snowstorm of March 1888. New York had been basking in balmy temperatures when Arctic air rushed in and snow fell furiously. Within hours the city was reduced to a frozen hell as tram, phone and power lines collapsed under the weight of snow, and commuters desperately sought refuge in hotels, bars and even jails. Two hundred people died, some of them blown over in the street and buried in snowdrifts. Others became hysterical, possibly suffering from hypothermia, while thousands more suffered exposure and frostbite. For three days, storm-force winds, up to 5ft of snow and sub-zero temperatures paralysed the eastern seaboard of the US. The damage was so extensive that New York and many other cities decided to replace much of their elevated train systems with underground networks. Link to Weather Eye source
  5. BY PAUL SIMONS JANUARY is around the corner, but what weather will the new year bring? The ancient folklore weather sayings for January are some of the gloomiest of the year, perhaps because the rigours of winter began to hit home, and there was a particular dread of fine weather: In January if the sun appear, March and April pay full dear. If January calends be summerly gay, It will be winterly weather till May. A good January was thought to herald a hard spring, but there is not much evidence for this. In fact, over recent years the remarkable run of mild Januaries has been followed by largely glorious springs. But there was good reason to fear seeing flowers opening too early or plants sprouting prematurely: If you see grass in January, Lock your grain in your granary. This is because unusually early plant growth could be nipped in the bud by a frost later on. An even truer saying relates to how the winter grows cold: As the day lengthens So the cold strengthens. Although the winter solstice in December is the shortest daylight of the year, the coldest day of the year usually follows later — traditionally on St Hilary’s Day, January 13. This is because the seas around Britain store up enough warmth to help to keep away the worst of the cold for some time. Link to Weather Eye source
  6. Between 2045 and 2105, had a very light snow shower, the flakes froze to the surface straight away. Stopped now but it's made my day
  7. BY PAUL SIMONS YOU may have been surprised how high the Moon has been shining in the sky over the past few days. Indeed, last Thursday night it reached its highest elevation for almost 19 years. This is because the Moon’s orbit weaves north and south of the Earth’s equator in an 18.6-year cycle. The astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) knew this cycle well. He is best known for working out the orbits of the planets around the Sun, and he suggested that the Moon’s 18.6-year cycle affected the Earth’s weather. After all, he had worked out that the Moon’s gravity drove the ocean tides on Earth, and he believed that the lunar orbit also created “cyclic journeys in the humours of the Earth”. Modern scientists tend to dismiss any effect of the Moon on our weather — as a saying goes: “The Moon and the weather may change together, but change of the Moon does not change the weather.” But Kepler may enjoy the last laugh. A few years ago a US study reported that weather records dating back to the early 1800s revealed a pattern of rainfall in the US Midwest that matched the 18.6-year lunar cycle. The Moon’s gravity seems to influence winds sweeping down from the Rocky Mountains, and depending on their direction, the winds create drought or abundant rain. It seems Kepler was on to something after all. Link to Weather Eye source
  8. BY PAUL SIMONS “THERE was a ghastly noise, like a never-ending roll of thunder. The ground shook and didn’t seem to stop.” So reported one eyewitness of the Lisbon earthquake 250 years ago today. People rushed to the waterfront for refuge, but about 40 minutes after the quake another disaster struck. “I could see the sea disappearing as if sucked down a hole. Then the ocean returned, all at once,” described one report of tsunami waves, reaching 50ft (15.2m) high, triggered by the quake. The waves crashed through the city, battering buildings and sweeping thousands of people away. Lamps and fires in fallen buildings also set the city ablaze, creating an inferno that raged for five days. The city was destroyed and about 60,000 people, a third of the population of Lisbon, were killed. Thousands more died as tsunamis tore through the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Waves 6ft (1.8m) high reached Ireland and England, and William Borlase, an antiquarian, described the tsunami that hit Cornwall. “The sea was as rapid as that of a mill-stream, and the rebounds continued in their full-fury for fully 2 hours,” he wrote. One legacy of the tsunami was found recently on the Isles of Scilly, where a thick layer of sand from the seabed was dumped on coastal dunes. Link to Weather Eye source
  9. BY PAUL SIMONS WILLIAM HILL is taking bets at 100-1 that the Thames will freeze over between Westminster Bridge and Tower Bridge this winter (report, October 28). Indeed, bookmakers are so concerned about a severe winter that they have cut the odds on a new UK record low temperature, currently standing at -27.2C (-17 F) in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, on January 2, 1982, and on February 11, 1895. But be warned if you are tempted on a bet. The chances of a new UK record low temperature are extremely small, and the Thames runs too fast to freeze over — the last time that happened was in 1814, but when the old London Bridge was replaced in 1831 it allowed the river to flow more freely. The excitement comes from a Met Office forecast for a 66 per cent chance of a colder than average winter. That was based on predicting the pressure over Iceland and the Azores, which affects our weather. However, the forecasters cannot say how severe any cold will be, and their prediction is even fuzzier when compared with another, separate, Met Office seasonal forecasting technique, based largely on sea temperatures around the world. At present, this shows a warmer than average winter over most of the UK. The best advice is to treat long-range winter forecasts with a good deal of caution, and avoid wasting money at the bookmakers. Link to Weather Eye source
  10. BY PAUL SIMONS WINSTON CHURCHILL campaigned for it, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle endorsed it, and Kaiser Wilhelm used it first. They all wanted to make the most of daylight hours by putting the clocks forward in spring, and back in autumn. David Prerau describes the history of changing the clocks in his entertaining new book Saving The Daylight (Granta). It is not only in the christmas pudding that the subject aroused strong feelings. Benjamin Franklin once woke early because his servant had forgotten to close his shutters and was struck by how much daylight he was wasting by not getting up before noon, his usual time: “I was surprised to find my room filled with light. I imagined at first that a number of lamps had been brought into the room; but rubbing my eyes I perceived the light came in at the windows,” he wrote in 1784. Being at the time the US Ambassador in Paris, he calculated that rising at dawn through the year would save Parisians using candles to the value of £100 million in today’s prices. The world’s first daylight saving Bill was introduced in Parliament in 1908 but it was defeated. The Great War changed everything, though. In 1916 Germany introduced daylight- saving hours to conserve power for the war effort, and the rest of Europe soon followed. Tonight we put the clocks back. Link to Weather Eye source
  11. BY PAUL SIMONS TODAY is the Feast Day of St Simon and St Jude, renowned in folklore for bringing buckets of rain. As an old saying goes: “On St Jude’s Day, the oxen may play” and perhaps there is something in this, because the last week in October is statistically the wettest week of the year in the southeast of England. The jet stream plays a crucial role in the wet weather. This river of wind several miles high runs across the Atlantic and speeds up in October, driven by a big contrast in temperatures between tropical air and increasingly cold polar air. This fast jet stream drags wet and windy depressions across the Atlantic, and often scoops up the remnants of old hurricanes. This weekend we can expect the jet stream to deliver the leftovers of Hurricane Wilma. Not only was Wilma a hurricane of record-breaking intensity, but it also swallowed up its successor, Tropical Storm Alpha, in the Atlantic. Although these two tropical storms have died out, their legacy of warm, humid air has fuelled a vigorous Atlantic depression that is expected to pummel the UK with wind and rain. It is not often that we get hit by the combined leftovers of two tropical storms. But in September, hurricanes Maria and Nate combined in a nasty depression that battered Northern Ireland and Scotland with ferocious wind and rain. Link to Weather Eye source
  12. BY PAUL SIMONS OCTOBER is usually wet and windy, and over the past few years it has tended to be exceedingly wet; October 2000 was the second-wettest October for a century. The period from October 26 to 29 is particularly notorious for westerly winds streaming off the Atlantic in a succession of depressions. This day last year an unusually intense depression battered southwest England, South Wales and southern Ireland. A low-pressure system which had developed near Bermuda burst into a storm in the Bay of Biscay which was so ferocious that heavy swells from it were reported in Morocco and the Canary Islands. Fierce winds gusting at 70mph hit the southwest coast and combined with the intense low atmospheric pressure and a spring tide to produce a big storm surge. In Penzance the sea rose several feet above normal, and large waves overwhelmed the sea defences; spray rose more than 30m (100ft) in the air, and seaweed and stones were hurled over roofs. Rocks were strewn across coastal roads in South Cornwall and Devon, and some 200 passengers on two trains were marooned on flooded railways. It was the region’s worst flood for more than 40 years, and damage was estimated at £50 million. Link to Weather Eye source
  13. BY PAUL SIMONS SQUIRRELS seem to be storing conkers frantically, as if they know that a cold winter is on the way (letters, October 21 and 24). But are squirrels truly good at long-range weather forecasting? Certainly in folklore squirrels have a great forecasting reputation. When they lay in a large supply of nuts we can expect a cold winter: “When squirrels early start to hoard, Winter will pierce us like a sword.” One weather forecaster in the US, Herb Stevens, believes there may be something in this: “I have seen the development of a very strong correlation between a frantic pace of gathering, weight gain and the persistence of snow cover during the following winter.” Watch also how deep in the ground squirrels bury their nuts, because according to folklore the deeper they dig, the colder the winter will be. Also, squirrels can predict a mild winter: “When he eats them on the tree, Weather as warm as warm can be.” But many scientists say that animals cannot predict the long-term weather, and simply adapt their behaviour to current conditions. Last autumn, for instance, the arrival from Siberia of flocks of waxwings was interpreted as a sign of an icy winter on the way. Another sign of a big freeze was holly and rowan trees laden with red berries. But the following winter turned out quite mild. Link to Weather Eye source
  14. BY PAUL SIMONS HIKERS climbing a mountain in California had a shock recently. They found the frozen body of a Second World War pilot at the base of a glacier in Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierra Nevada. The climbers saw the head and shoulder of the body protruding from the ice, with a parachute still strapped to his back. It is believed that the airman was killed in a plane crash on November 18, 1942, during a navigational training flight. His remains have been frozen in the glacier for decades, but this summer the ice melted enough to reveal the body; it is thought that most of the plane still lies buried under the glacier. A similar discovery was made in Iceland several years ago, when a Second World War RAF aircraft was revealed jutting out of a glacier. The Fairey Battle bomber had crashed on to the glacier shortly after take-off in May 1941 and had became entombed in the ice. The frozen conditions had preserved the wreck and the remains of the four-man crew, along with their clothes. But as the glacier melted, the aircraft slowly re-emerged and the airmen were later buried at a war cemetery in Reykjavik. Although thousands of miles apart, the incidents in California and Iceland reveal how glaciers across much of the world are melting as temperatures are rising – a stark sign of global climate change. Link to Weather Eye source
  15. BY PAUL SIMONS IN July Bombay was inundated by record-breaking monsoon rains — 94.4cm (37.1in) fell in 24 hours and killed more than 1,000 people, closed India’s main stock exchange, banks, businesses and schools, paralysed air travel and washed away roads and railways. The cost of the deluge was estimated at more than £1.5 billion. But the rain was not the only factor that caused the floods. The city’s authorities say that masses of plastic bags clogged gutters and drains, and prevented the monsoon waters draining away. Streets became torrents and low-lying land became vast lakes. Ironically, plastic bags had been banned in the city after floods in previous years, but an illicit trade in them had grown up since. Plastic shopping bags are also a growing problem in the UK, which gets through around 15 billion a year. The average household uses 323 each year, according to government figures. The bags not only litter streets and clog drains, they also block waterways, kill wildlife and are almost immune to rotting. The bags also find their way into the sea and cause horrendous problems for all sea life. Perhaps we in the UK should protect our environment by following the example of Ireland, which introduced a tax on plastic bags three years ago. Link to Weather Eye source
  16. BY PAUL SIMONS ALTHOUGH the events off Cape Trafalgar 200 years ago took place in light winds, the opposing fleets were wallowing in an ominous westerly swell. Nelson, realising that a gale was blowing in from the Atlantic, knew that he had little time to press home his attack. The swell gradually strengthened, but fortunately for the British fleet the great battle was won when the storm finally arrived. Ships were hurled around in fierce winds and seas, and many of the captured enemy vessels were lost. Dennis Wheeler, at the University of Sunderland, has reconstructed the weather at the time. Reporting in the Royal Meteorological Society’s journal Weather, he estimates that the Atlantic coasts of Spain and France were blasted by a two-week-long storm, one of the worst storms to hit the region in the 19th century. In these horrendous conditions the tiny schooner HMS Pickle was dispatched to England with the news of Trafalgar. During the nerve-racking 1,100-mile journey Pickle almost sank in hurricane-force winds and had to jettison her guns. She arrived, badly battered at Falmouth on November 4. Her captain, Lieutenant John Lapenotiere, reached the Admiralty in London the following day, after a 36-hour journey and 21 changes of horses, to deliver the momentous news of the victory and the death of Nelson — a fortnight after the event. Link to Weather Eye source
  17. BY JEREMY PLESTER THERE were delays for air travellers on Monday morning after the passage of rain through the South East left behind moisture-laden air and light winds. Such a clearance of rain during October inevitably leads to widespread dense fog patches and problems for air traffic control. On Monday morning flights in and out of Heathrow and Gatwick suffered delays and rerouting, despite the sophisticated guidance systems fitted to modern aircraft. Fog was an even greater threat to aviation in the past. During the Second World War the RAF set up a special unit to devise ways of dealing with fog. The Fog Investigation Dispersal Organisation, or Fido, worked out an ingenious way of dispersing the fog by raising the air temperature. Highoctane fuel was set ablaze alongside a runway to raise the air temperature; this in turn vaporised the billions of individual water droplets which cause fog, and visibility was restored. The process worked very well to disperse the fog but had a number of flaws. The burning fuel lit up the runway like a beacon, making it an inviting target for enemy bombers, and the the rising hot air set up vicious convection currents which caused some bumpy landings. After the war the project was terminated because the quantity of fuel required to disperse the fog was too expensive for commercial airlines. Link to Weather Eye source
  18. BY PAUL SIMONS THE remorseless retreat of the polar icecaps in the face of global warming is making these previously inhospitable regions accessible to big business. The few hardy souls resident in the far north of Canada and Alaska have witnessed a subtle shift in fisheries as species adapt to new ice conditions. Fishermen are sure to follow the changing fish stocks, especially if the retreat of the ice means a longer Arctic fishing season. No doubt untapped fisheries will be opened up, obliging the inevitable harbours and associated processing plants to be built on land. At the same time, the shipping of huge amounts of cargo across the roof of the world will become more feasible. Cargo ships travelling from Northern Europe to Japan, via the north coast of Russia, could shave thousands of miles and up to two weeks from the journey. Hudson Bay will also become navigable for much longer periods. Worst of all for the environment is the lure of huge amounts of oil and gas trapped under the Earth’s surface deep inside the Arctic Circle. Without the ice sheets to protect these reserves, oil men will soon pounce and the prospect of an uncontrollable global warming feedback loop will loom. As yet more CO2 is released from these reserves, global temperatures are likely to rise further. Link to Weather Eye source
  19. BY JEREMY PLESTER WILL WE have to adjust our watches and calendars as climate change takes a grip of our atmosphere in the years ahead? Some scientists believe that the answer is yes. Since the concept of man-made climate change was first proposed, scientists have argued fiercely about whether it exists and what the consequences of it may be. The consensus now is that increased amounts of carbon dioxide and higher temperatures will lead to global changes in pressure patterns. One group of scientists suggests that the changes will affect the length of a day and the exact position of the North and the South Poles. Changes to the Earth’s weather patterns will mean altered wind speeds around the globe. Faster winds during El Niño episodes or increasing numbers of mid-latitude storms, especially those near mountain ranges, will effectively act as an enormous brake, slowing the rotation of the Earth. Such a shift may knock our planet off its axis. Rotational changes for the Earth will be unbelievably small; they are likely to be measured in thousandths of a second each day. Thus drastic action, and big changes to our current calender and clock, is not likely to be needed. Link to Weather Eye source
  20. BY PAUL SIMONS SUBTROPICAL air brought more flooding to northern and western Britain on Tuesday as clouds born hundreds of miles to the southwest unloaded nearly two days of continuous rain in some places. Floodwaters caused problems across a wide swath of the UK. The Environment Agency and Sepa, its Scottish counterpart, issued flood warnings from Aberdeen to western Wales as rivers struggled to cope with the deluge. In Aberdeen harbour a mop-up operation was under way yesterday after floodwaters breached homes, and rail links were cut as rivers burst their banks in Fife and around Edinburgh. In parts of the Southern Uplands the rain started on Monday morning and continued for nearly 48 hours. The deluge provided several inches of rain, and there were numerous reports of burst riverbanks, evacuations, flooded homes, road accidents and even landslides. For the second time this year Carlisle, which was severely flooded in January, found itself under water when floods cascaded off the Cumbrian hills into homes and businesses. Rainfall totals in some areas were staggering — in Milford Haven 97mm (3.8ins) of rain fell in just 12 hours up until 6pm on Tuesday. Ironically, southeast England, so desperate for rain to refuel its empty reservoirs, once again escaped with a scattering of patchy showers. Link to Weather Eye source
  21. BY PAUL SIMONS THE past few days you had to pinch yourself that it really was October and not mid-summer, at least for much of England and Wales. Temperatures on Sunday reached 19C (66F) in Bournemouth, and Monday soared to the dizzy heights of 24C (75F) at Herne Bay, Kent. These would be respectable figures for June or July let alone autumn, and is reminiscent of October 2001, the warmest October on record. The cause of this fabulous warmth is a huge area of high pressure out to our east on the continent, sweeping in mild southerly air. The anticyclone also blocked wet and windy autumnal weather sweeping in from the Atlantic. But this is changing as a broad weather front crawls across the country from the northwest and disgorges big downpours of rain. And cold air behind this front is an uncomfortable reminder that this really is autumn. However, the sunshine and warmer conditions will return again soon as another block of high pressure settles in. Not only is October proving ridiculously warm, but it is also exceptionally dry — in sharp contrast to the rains of October 2001. Even with this week’s downpours, rainfall this month has been desperately meagre, thanks to the dominance of high pressure. If this pattern digs in over the winter it spells big trouble for water supplies — and also threatens bitterly cold weather if the winds sweep down from northern Europe. Link to Weather Eye source
  22. BY PAUL SIMONS THE oldest road in Britain has been discovered on Hatfield Moor, South Yorkshire (The Times, October 6). The wooden track made of pine logs was built about 5,000 years ago, probably before Stonehenge, and is one of the earliest known wooden trackways in Europe. Archaeologists think that the track was built by Stone Age residents to keep their feet dry because the ground was becoming increasingly waterlogged as a result of a change in climate. Analysis of the soil and pollen samples reveal that woodland trees in the area were drowned as water levels rose and bogland took over. However, the rising waters soon enveloped the wooden road and there is no sign that it was repaired or rebuilt, perhaps because the Stone Age people gave up and abandoned it. After the ravages of the Ice Age a few thousand years previously, the climate across much of northern Europe at this time was becoming warmer and wetter. Westerly winds off the Atlantic may have been increasingly dominant and swept in more rain and warmth — what is known as the Atlantic period. Lush forests of oak trees spread north across the continent and covered much of the British Isles. In fact, the climate may have been a touch warmer than today, and heralded something of a golden age as agriculture swept Britain and Stone Age settlements mushroomed across the country. Link to Weather Eye source
  23. BY PAUL SIMONS A BLUE Moon is scarce enough, but even rarer is a Moon that seems to wink with a flash of red. A remarkable photo of a lunar red flash was taken recently by an astronomer in Stuttgart. This shows an almost full moon coloured orange in the night sky, but at the bottom of the moon a thin slice of bright red appears magnified and distorted by the atmosphere (see it at antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050922.html). This is similar to another fabulous sight, the green flash, a brilliant flash of emerald green beaming out from the top of a setting sun. Both sorts of optical effects are created by the atmosphere behaving like a huge glass prism. Layers of air of different temperatures can split the light of the sun or moon into the colours of the spectrum — blue is bent most, but becomes lost in the atmosphere, red light is refracted the least and green is somewhere in the middle. As for a blue Moon, this is a different phenomenon. Tiny particles of ash or dust floating around in the atmosphere can scatter moonlight and make it appear blue. In autumn 1963 the Moon turned blue over much of Britain thanks to the eruption of a volcano on Bali, which produced huge amounts of dust and sulphur dioxide. Blue Moons and blue Suns were seen worldwide after the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. Link to Weather Eye source
  24. BY PAUL SIMONS BE WARNED if you are a Scot and frightened of eight-legged creatures — a cousin of the black widow is crossing the border. Steatoda grossa is a dark-coloured spider from the Canary Islands, so closely related to the notorious black widow that it is known as a false widow. Although its bite is not fatal it can be as painful as a wasp sting. Steatoda has been scampering through southern England for well over a decade and may have been imported in fruit. Exactly how it arrived and then survived in Scotland is uncertain, although climate change is strongly suspected. In fact, a warmer climate may be to blame for big spiders up to 9cm (3.5in) long invading Scottish homes over recent years. Tegenaria domesticus, the common house spider, is well known in England and Wales but is a big surprise north of the Border, where spiders tend to be much more modest. The new house guests are seen hanging on walls, ceilings and, like their southern cousins, often end up trapped in the bath. Another house spider setting up home in Scotland is Amaurobius fenestralis, a brown creature up to 12mm (0.5in) long. The hairy Uloborus plumipes, commonly known as a garden centre spider, is now crawling into the central belt of Scotland. It appeared in England only about a decade ago, and is spreading rapidly northwards, often via deliveries made to garden centres. Link to Weather Eye source
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