NorthernRab

I've only seen three in my entire life, which is apparently quite a lot all the same. I hate how unprepared you are for them: something catches your eye, you spot it, you realise what it is, it's gone. , they're amazing to see.

There was sleet in the Inverschneckie yesterday, quite heavy! It's been quite cold, with very cold windchill. Although this is very early, it's nowhere near as early as the heavy wet snow 6 years ago, around mid September. Hopefully more negative temperature irregularities to come?

Ah I see I don't think it was the crane fly. They are an awful species when it comes to flying considering other flying insects, they are slow in movement, have very weak venom and generally don't attack - even when five year olds pull off all their legs and wings!

I think he was joking around with you! Their venom is harmless to humans

"There is an urban legend stating that the daddy long-legs spider has the most potent venom of any spider, and this same legend is attributed to crane flies where they commonly go by the name "daddy-long legs" (principally in the United Kingdom). However, both the daddy long-legs spider and the crane fly are in fact innocuous; the spider's venom is practically harmless to humans, and the crane fly is not venomous. The commonly confused harvestman, also known as daddy long-legs but which isn't a spider, is also not venomous." - I am rather disappointed. I thought that was true :/ Anyway, yes I've seen two! Very early has to be said, they must not be enjoying the beautiful weather we've been having!

It won't be too long in the Highlands under a clear sky. I would say around...mid to late September :o , so yes a tad early! There are really 6 Scotlands for these sort of affairs: Highlands, 1 or 2 Western Isles 6 South-West 5 South-East 3 East 1 or 2 (We all know I'm talking about Braemar) Shetland and Orkney 4 Above are the order I reckon each will occur. I would actually put a fair bit of a coin into ground-frosts happening in that order haha

^ I've got some great memories of snowstorms, especially from Kingussie and Altnaharra, two of the snowiest locations in the UK. I'm moving down to Glasgow this year however, so I'll be a bit disappointed if a proper highland winter materialises - then again, my uncle just moved to Braemar, perhaps a few well-timed end of January visits might be in need? I'm thinking this winter will be just below average, nothing too exciting with a few decent snow events. Possibly seeming like paradise compared to recent years.

A published government study has actually concluded several times that by increasing fuel prices people don't use their cars any less - they buy cheaper foods (which are higher in saturates), they spend less on entertainment (be it taking the family to the cinema or having a few drinks with your friends), they stop buying products from shops, which in turn damages the economy, causes unemployment and creates a worse situation than before. People generally don't make wasteful journeys (or should I say, don't think they do); children need to be taken to school, the shopping has to be bought at the supermarket and so on. This also effects employers; goods are more expensive to transport, thus causing an increase in food prices (further worsening the saturated food situation), prices in shops increase. I could go on forever, but my main point is that it has already been found that higher prices don't lead to less consumption of energy (at least not a useful slump).

A published government study has actually concluded several times that by increasing fuel prices people don't use their cars any less - they buy cheaper foods (which are higher in saturates), they spend less on entertainment (be it taking the family to the cinema or having a few drinks with your friends), they stop buying products from shops, which in turn damages the economy, causes unemployment and creates a worse situation than before. People generally don't make wasteful journeys (or should I say, don't think they do); children need to be taken to school, the shopping has to be bought at the supermarket and so on. This also effects employers; goods are more expensive to transport, thus causing an increase in food prices (further worsening the saturated food situation), prices in shops increase. I could go on forever, but my main point is that it has already been found that higher prices don't lead to less consumption of energy (at least not a useful slump).

Probably natural variation. Even in times of increased C02 emissions, the temperature will not rise exponentially, there will also be some slight variation. It is difficult to say. You are correct in thinking that increased wealth and the education of women acts as something of a stopper on population growth - women feel liberated and are able to take up employment, thus they are less likely to want to take career maternity leave in order to raise children. However, China and India are two very confusing countries because, first and foremost they are so massive and also they have entered the game rather late. Who knows what the economies of the late 21st century will be like? Professional-based, agricultural, services - it's impossible to tell. The problem is less likely to be a big one as China moves from the Dan Wei system for example to a more market-based economy - the only reason that the aging population is such a concern for the UK is because of our rather large welfare system. I don't think India on China will see a very large recession (the UK hasn't and many of the baby-boomers are approaching retirement), but readjustments will certainly have to be made. A lot of things: increased wealth means better health (take a look at any Western European country to see this - people can afford a gym membership, healthier food with less saturated fats etc), the country as a whole (if education is free) is able to turn out more intelligent people, water is generally a lot cleaner due to facilities installed to clean water (the water in London has been through at least 8-10 people before you drink it).

The problem is we don't practice what we preach. The UK is only able to point the finger because it's a small country - if we had over a billion people we'd be a massive factor in C02 production. We had our industrial revolution, so it's a bit unfair for us not to allow them to have their own. I don't think China and India are particularly serious about tackling the problem, my sister's Scottish Chinese friend had to leave Beijing after 3 days because her asthma got so serious due to pollution. Her family hail from Hong Kong, a city that until the sudden growth spurt of mainland China's urban population and thus pollution levels, was a fairly clean location. Nowadays, all the dirt of the day gets blown from Guangdong into Hong Kong. The flaw in that data is that it isn't completely consistent, China and India's growth in car users has been most rapid over the last few years, but the drop in temperatures doesn't agree with this. Of course, there is natural variation, even during times of AGW, but to my mind we need more time (another 10-15 years) to truly know whether or not global warming is really happening. Have temperatures not increased at such speed in history before, without any proper evidence suggesting that volcanoes and the like were factors? I'm still unsure, but I view it as a situation we should try to tackle all the same. If we do something and we're wrong, we lick our wounds from the costs; if we're right and do nothing, we are in a lot of trouble.

I'm moving down to Glasgow from the Highlands of Scotland this September, and if this winter is a really good one and I'm not there I will be immensely disappointed :/ However, looking forward to the Met's predictions. (Looking at previous data from the last few years the sea of Japan seems to have been recording some impressively large negative differences in sea temperatures - does anyway known if the northern Japanese islands and the city of Sopporo in particular has been experiencing some severe winters as of late? I know that in 2006, thirteen children losts their lives by being crushed by falling snow off a school roof).

As I am only just coming to terms with being able to predict what will take place above our heads in the UK, I find the prospect of trying to guess what will happen across Iberia near enough impossible (I'm that bad). I'm heading to Palma de Mallorca in just under a week and would be extremely grateful if someone could hazzard a prediction of what I should be expecting. The various forecasting sites seem to be somewhat varied to say the least, some predicting clear skies with 27'C for this coming Friday, others suggesting 21'C with rain showers. Admitidely I am normally more concerned with Franko's Italian weather station (that being my location of choice in Europe by a long shot) but this holiday is one with friends so I have to make do with night-club central Magaluf :/. Thanks in advance

Yes, you're asking me whether our efforts should counter those of China's, shall we say, lack of effort? I wouldn't like to comment without a full complete knowledge of the situation as I really don't know what effect it would have on our economy. I think we need a few years of monitoring climate change, to really decide what we think is happening, as we are in qutie uncertain times at the moment. China should perhaps have to deal with climate change, as arguably other countries were not aware of the problem at the time of their industrial revolution. What do you think?

Erm, no. :/ Do you think that you could stop putting words in people's mouths?

Well to sum it up and put it in a nutshell: China does not have to meet any climate change agreements because it is currently facing it's industrial revolution; Germany, USA, Canada, Britain, Russia, Japan, France, Italy and Spain had their's, but were not forced to meet any emissions targets, so why should China, India and Brazil? Therefore, in the future when China has become a economically developed country, it will have to start taking steps to lowering emissions, that is if it is willing to. We all know that a dictatorship is very unlikely to want to do this, so as the public's desire for democratic change increases (as it will, the only reason the CPC are still in power at the moment is because the Chinese people want to better the economy, this will not be the case in the future), thus will the move towards a Greener China will emerge. OK, that was a pretty big nutshell, I'll admit.

Very true, but my point was more that the Chinese people have no say; the dictatorship cares for nothing other than stimulating the economy. In the future, when their economy has settled down, the people will have their say.

The global approach to preventing climate change will begin win China, India and Brazil enter the third stage of population, i.e, birth-rates will start to decline, more students will start attending university, the economy will become stable with its growth rate shrinking to around 2%. This will probably happen in about 20 years time, and hopefully with that (in fact, it's looking quite likely) democracy will be formed in China (India and Brazil already have it). Democracy will probably be demanded due to a highly educated middle class (which are beginning to boom already, there are an uncountable number of yuppies in China now), it's sort of a natural process when it comes to demographics. So, basically in about 20 years the world will start to take climate change very seriously, sadly this will probably be a bit too late :/

Starting to snow lightly here. This event was pretty awful for us, had a covering last night and it was very cold indeed (-5'C), but it's starting again so here's to hoping.

It is freezing here, 1'C feeling around - 4'C by my (poor) calculations. Frequent heavy snowy showers with very strong winds, I await tonight with excitement :o

Yeh Storm Animal, no precipitation has arrived in many parts yet. There's a heavy band which will push its way south across the entire Highland region later today. I think it's just arriving in Helmsdale, which is a bit south of wick. So I'm assuming it's snowing in Wick as speak. Oh wait, its snowing here now XD. And heavily which is a bit unexpected. Anyway, it should hit the Drumochter Pass soon, i.e, traffic chaos in about 1 hour.

That's my point though, global warming itself has technically stopped compared to 1998, but it hasn't stopped compared to 1988. If we are assuming (hypothetical of course) that 1998 was our new climate, then global warming has stopped. It's kind of a clever bit of spin at worst, or simply an observation that the doomsday scenarios might not be as close as we thought at best. P.S, come on, ITV? Couldn't have more coroperate interests if it tried.

No. Please name me one of the other major news broadcasters who are more nutural? The BBC is government owned, although technically not goverment run, therefore coporate interests don't really affect them. I personally believe that all media is extremely influenced and controlled, but that is neither here nor there. Who do we turn to, barr Channel 4 (who are also excellent) for reliable coverage, Sky News, CNN? Probably not. Also Magpie, the article does not directly claim that temperatures have decreased, indeed that article's main theme is that "Global Warming Has Dipped". They are stating that global warming has come to a bit of a standstill, not that it never happened. You can't really talk of "cherry-picking" when considering that, can you?

Well it seems that it will all start happening in the Highlands very soon, with cold conditions gradually pushing their way south. Post your wintry reports here, although not exclusively snow. There was just a little bit of sleet here in Inverness, change is in the air.

I always find climate change a pretty odd little area of science; the amount of solid knowledge an expert of climate change has would be considered merely a novice in any other field!