Gluggaveður

The Icelandic word gluggaveður, which translates as ‘window-weather’, refers to weather that is good to watch from your window, appropriate for today!

SNOW

The Daily Star is remarkable for its animal amd weather stories – headlines much better than the Sun! So I decided to see where its forecast of a snow bomb came from. The following was found

Mercury readings could drop as low as -7C in parts of Scotland, with snowfall spanning a 436-mile radius from Inverness in Scotland to Reading. Weather maps from WXCharts show the possibility of snowfall on November 29, while Wales and Northern Ireland could be swamped with rain. 

And the charts show snow continuing into next month with up to 50 centimetres possibly falling on December 3 in Scotland. James Madden from Exacta Weather said it could get even colder depending on the impact of a sudden stratospheric warming event.

Howeverbthe Met Office prediction for 29Nov -6 Dec is as follows Most likely starting dry, settled and colder than average across the UK with widespread morning frost. Outbreaks of rain and slightly milder conditions are however soon likely to arrive into the northwest, spreading southeast to many parts. The early part of next week is most likely to be characterised by light winds and a mixture of wetter, cloudier conditions and colder, brighter and drier conditions, before winds from a broadly northwesterly direction become more established. These leading to periods of wet or showery weather focussed in the northwest of the UK, and largely dry weather elsewhere. Temperatures overall are most likely to be just a little colder than average, with only a very small chance of something much colder and wintry developing from mid to late next week.

Frost seems lkely here in North Somerset on 29th November.

WEATHER

It has been wet recently. I emptied a bucket about 2 weeks ago and it is now full again. the soil is saturated – a drive along rural roads is like navigating a river. The forecast is for more rain starting early morning and lasting most of the day. It is a credit to the Environment Agency that flooding has not occured around here. However much new housing has been built on flood plains and I wonder how much the flood defences can cope with.

WEATHER

The Met Office has announced another Yellow warning for rain here. We have missed most of the heavy stuff from Ciaran but have had a period of persistant wettish weather. The Met Office is correct that sodden ground may lead to flooding, but the public will be wary of the “crying wolf’ aspect. We had a wind warning for Ciaran but nothing of note happened. Could the met office please publish cumulative statistics to support warnings where the event itself is not notable, but is part of a chain of events.

WEATHER

Records continue to tumble. A Swiss Met Office balloon reached its highest ever before being at 0C – at 5300 m. Southern Europe is braced for a new heat wave with temps above 40C. In Canada the military is sent to help fight the wildfire (Shoot them?) and 35000 have been placed under evacuation orders. Tropical Storm Hilary continues to bring copious rainfall, despite the wind speed falling, to s.California and Nevada. 15 natural disasters costing more than $1bilIion so far this year (another record) wonder what is happening elsewhere?

We know that governments can get their acts together when faced with catastrophe – in this country as a reaction. Corporations will have to take a hit, globalisation reassessed. Environmental damage costed and paid to a fund which could invest in insulation and green energy, local food production and scientific research.

To kick start this fund we could have a 90% tax on increases is net payments to executives (to include bonus and wage hikes).

Remember that we have not seen hikes in sea level yet – sea level rise + low pressure + high onshore winds could mean disasters across the world including the UK. 107.9 million people live within 1m of sea level, 431m within 6m. A refugee crisis in the making? When will London rebuild the Thames Barrier – starting the work is getting urgent!

Time for joined up thinking – get environmental groups, and people like Marcus Rashford and Jamie Oliver together with Dale Vince and Chris Packham, then Marina Purkiss and Gemma Forte and Zac Goldsmith (if he can leave racist comments aside!)..

HURRICANES

NOAA’s update to the 2023 outlook — which covers the entire six-month hurricane season that ends on Nov. 30 — calls for 14-21 named storms (winds of 39 mph or greater), of which 6-11 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or greater). Of those, 2-5 could become major hurricanes (winds of 111 mph or greater). NOAA provides these ranges with a 70% confidence. These updated ranges include storms that have already formed this season.

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES!

So the government is to cut bck on green policies. Maximise profits before losing power? Create an even bigger problem for the next government. Maybe is should be ‘NASTY IS AS NASTY DOES’?

Why does the government not issue a travel warning for Rhodes and Corfu – Oh becausde that could hit the profits of the travel companies – no concern for holiday makers? Why has the government not chartered planes to get people out? Flood warnings acrosss the north of the UK. Sewage warnings across the south west. Of course people would rather nit have extra costs during this economic crisis – but properly explained they would understand the need, especially if subsidised by the government – and NO Starmer I do not buy the shortage of money aspect. The government found a 25% pay rise for the King (on top of the hundreds of millions he is making from offshore wind farms. Selling off Buckingham Palace could bring in a couple of billion!

NET ZERO

Even a cursory look around the media for world events will make it staggeringly obvious that the time for action on climate change is NOW! Cynical politicans seeking to get into or stay in power can state the cost of changing to a cleaner more healthy way of living, they can also claim that it is unfair for us to make the changes necessary when the big polluters are doing little i.e. China and USA.

Gove and Sleaze-Dogg are happy to talk up the costs, but fail to talk about the costs of inaction. We are already very dependant on gas imports so diversification into alterntive energies would be strategically beneficial and also mitigate against world surges in fossil fuel cost. Developing a work force to develop the necessary technologies would put us in an excellent position in this market which is already developing at a pace. The savings too the NHS woukd also nbe massive. If the cost is too high – then subsidise it with money saved from elsewhere and taxes on the polluting companies. Energy prices are unlikely to fall anytime soon.

So politicians are willing to sacrifice a cleaner, healthier more ethical life for their retention in the sordid cesspit of Westminster?

CLIMATE

Full article from Guardian here but the stats are astounding. Phoenix has 43.4C or more for 19th day running; Morocco anounces red temperature alert as temperatures exceed 44C; Spain hits 45.4C with fears fot the olive crop for second year running; Italy 47C; Greece wildfires; Canary Islands wildfires; China 52.2C; Gaza38C; India floods; South Korea floods; Japan 37.3C. Since the mid 1980’s the planet has warmed by another 0.5C, with present policies the world will warm by 2.7C. Avian flu has killed millions of not hundreds of millions of sea birds so far this year Whilst this mynot be related to climate change the warming temperatures will not have helped. And then we have sea temperatures at record levels and Antarctic ice at record low levels.

The responce of our Cabinet (according to the Mail) is to press Sunak to drop eco legislation and policies! Is this to incite “Just Stop Oil” into ever more outrgeous acts and then blame Labour for them? The summer heat killed over 60000 in Europe last summer.

CLIMATE CRISIS

Kerry needsd to tell the Chinese to act now to cut emissions. The arguement put forward by China about historic emmissions is just not valid in the present crisis. They are correct that the west gained an early advantage by burning coal, oil and gas, but the crisis is here, and now, and every country needs to face it.

Right wing politicians across Europe with nationalist agendas also need to look closely at their use of the climate crisis in culture wars and anti-woke measures. History will not be kind to them.