18th July - Today's News

Less flooding in the UK than I expected from the last 2 days rain, but still a few stories to bring you:

Northumberland: Fourteen evacuated in Rothbury

Clean up continues after Highlands hit by flash floods

Wales: Flooding affects homes and trains

And from the Daily Mail, a typically sober headline:

Flash floods and heavy rain put and end to the summer - and forecasters are predicting more to come

(which is at least true insofar as more rain is expected through the next couple of weeks with unsettled conditions persisting at least until August - how heavy it might be remains to be seen)

Not to be out done, in Ireland the Herald claims that experts say we've seen the last of the sun this summer. And who are these experts? Top forecasters from Met Eireann? Er, no ....
Mr Gallagher, a postman who uses clues in nature to predict the weather, warned that August 22 would be the end of the warm weather.
His predictions are backed up by a New Zealand forecaster who specialises in predicting Irish weather. He's warning of a gloomy spell ahead.

Ken Ring predicted: "July will mostly be a wet month for all, but the north, west and east should be mostly dry between the 15th and 22nd.

Ken bases his forecasts on the sound scientific principle of ....... the phases of the Moon!

Meanwhile, in Blackpool they've started forecasting their own weather
Blackpool is producing its own weather reports presented by clowns, zookeepers and lifeguards after concerns about national predictions.
It continues to blow hot and cold in North America with an excessive heat warning issued for Las Vegas but Manitoba on course for a cool temperature record.

I like the attitude of the Philippines when bad weather strikes: storm 'Isang'batters Luzon; holiday declared. Though can;t really see that catching on in Britain.

And finally, research indicates that ocean current shutdown may be gradual - meaning that melting Greenland glaciers won't suddenly switch the NAD off ...... something only the makers of The Day After Tomorrow ever believed anyway. Past occasions of abrupt climate change when the NAD has suddenly switched off have all been associated with sudden, massive, influxes of fresh water into the North Atlantic, usually from ice dams collapsing to allow thousands of square miles of meltwater lake into the sea in a matter of days or weeks. As, we believe, happened 8,200 years ago. There has never been any evidence of slow, gradual, melting over many decades causing such shutdowns. So I file this under 'tell us something we didn't already know'.

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