Weather & Earth Science News

Back from Stirling - and some kind soul gave me a cold on the train ..... Ironically the weather has also finally turned cold, albeit just briefly, with most hills seeing at least a dusting of snow over the weekend and tonight for many the first air frost of the season - which, assuming that's the case in Evesham, will be the latest I've recorded my first air frost. More rain in Britain this weekend - rain continues as winter weather brings more floods and floods spark caravan parks rescue Melbourne storm creates travel havoc whilst severe thunderstorms hit SE Queensland In Chile, northern beaches open early because of hot weather Buffalo, where's the snow? - the US city is experiencing it's 4th longest snowless streak on record. Outraged Saudis blast govt after deadly Jeddah flood And it's just as well it's not the 25th December as wind gusts topple trees, delay Santa Climate 'time bombs' stoke scientists' fears Winds blow clouds of ash from S...

An increasing number of media commentators and bloggers - including George Monbiot - have been jumping on the 'climategate' bandwagon and adding their tuppence worth of uninformed opinion - almost all of it scathing against Professor Jones etal. In every case these commentators have 2 things in common: 1) they appear not to read the actual files, do not know the context in which certain emails were written and are relying entirely on other bloggers for their information and 2) the general public will believe that what they write must be true ..... Next week they'll be telling us all about the alien cheese mines on the Moon and the public will be boycotting cheddar! If you are going to report on a conspiracy theory, check all the facts first - don't just rely on what the conspiracy theorists tell you! Is that really to hard to understand? There's a slightly better report from the New York Times: Stolen emails sharpen a brawl between climate scientists and skepti...

Well, another stormy night here last night - winds seemed the strongest yet - with another 8mm of rain bringing the month's total so far up to 100mm - that's about twice the normal amount but rather a lot less than some places have had. No problems with local rivers as yet although on the Severn the flood barriers are going up as the heavy rain over Wales of the past week or so works it's way downstream. We start today with tragic news from down under as world's oldest sheep dies in Australian heatwave - baaaaaa - whilst records fall in long, hot spring . Scottish flooding 'to get worse' and experts predict more bad weather for Cumbria whilst in Ireland they're saying extreme weather will be the norm . In Canada, cold, windy weather extinguishes Olympic torch - a dozen times so far. I think that's meant to be unlucky? Doesn't bode well, especially since El Nino could be too warm for Olympics . Grass ski-ing instead perhaps? Phil Jones and col...

New Zealand glaciers melting away , but don't panic ... there's more ice on the way with over 100 icebergs drifting to N Zealand. No let up in Malaysia as flood situation worsens in Kelantan, Perak - meanwhile, here, Minister warns of new UK flood threat . More rain to come, especially for those areas hardest hit already. Yesterday, however it was a different problem - tornado leaves trail of destruction as wild weather continues to sweep across Britain . CO2 curve ticks upwards as key climate talks loom Supervolcano eruption in Sumatra deforested India 73,000 years ago it also ushered in the coldest spell of the last ice age and nearly managed to wipe humankind out. Some think it would have been better had it succeeded .... Is global warming unstoppable? In a provocative new study, a University of Utah scientist argues that rising carbon dioxide emissions -- the major cause of global warming -- cannot be stabilized unless the world's economy collapses or society builds...

Month's worth of rain falls on Melbourne Wildfires sweep across eastern Australia In Britain, further rain and gales batter South-west (Saturday was actually the wettest day in Evesham since July). More rain is not what those in the flood stricken parts of the British Isles want, but sadly there is yet more forecast in the coming days with no let up in the stormy weather as gales queue up to batter Britain . Once again today I've added the latest news stories specific to last weeks floods here . Meanwhile, other parts of the world have also been experiencing flood problems. In Malaysia, the flood situation in Terengganu, Kelantan deteriorates further whilst in Canada Vancouver Island evacuees survey the damage as flood risk eases and flash floods, landslide force 50,000 to flee their homes in Indonesia . Greenland ice loss behind a sixth of sea level rise whilst in Antarctica, World's largest ice sheet melting faster than expected .

Stories relating to the flooding in Britain and Ireland will again be added here Elsewhere in the world: 300 homes evacuated, schools closed after heavy rain, high tide flood Duncan, B.C. Wild storms hit Melbourne after scorcher Climate change causing 'corrosive' water to affect Arctic marine life Combined global surface temperature was 6th warmest for October - I thought we were cooling? And, apart from the floods, the other big breaking news story yesterday was the revelation that the computer server used by the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia had been hacked and a large number of emails and other documents removed. This were then made widely available ...... Certain blogs leapt on these with glee, posting carefully selected comments which could be misinterpreted and taken out of context to imply improbity and collusion amongst some climate scientists to 'fiddle' data in order to show global warming. I've seen nothing that suggests that ...

All news reports concerning flooding in Britain and Ireland are in the entry below Mini tornadoes spotted on Humber As the Australian heatwave continues, temperature records fall and fire burn Mysteriously warm times in Antarctica - were previous interglacials 6c warmer there than they are today? SOFIA seeks secrets of planetary birth Army Corp of Engineers blamed for for Hurricane Katrine levee breaches 58,000 homeless after Sri Lanka flash floods After mastodons and mammoths a tranformed landscape - how the demise of the megafauna led to a change in the ecosystem of North America Ocean's uptake of human-made carbon may be slowing Tornado clean-up underway in Lowestoft Heavy storms batter KwaZulu-Natal Water found in lunar impact likely came from comets Was there a stone-age apocalypse or not? - the "Clovis Comet" debate continues

The flooding in Cumbria has been even worse than I anticipated, with unconfirmed reports of around 340mm of rain falling at one location with a 48 hour period - if correct this will be the highest recorded 48 hour rainfall event in the UK, easily beating the 306mm that fell at Kinlochhourn in the West Highlands on the 5th/6th February 1989. It's also possible the UK's 24 hour rainfall record may have been broken. Confirmed totals won't be known for a while yet though. Update: Seathwaite is reported as having recorded 314mm rain in a 24 hour period. I've decided to collate all news stories and related links into this one blog entry to make it easier for future reference. So to start with, this was originally posted yesterday: 19th November 2009 First an update of stories relating to the on-going serious flooding across many parts of Britain: Yesterday there were schools closed and another nightmare commute in West Yorkshire and in Bury , a woman rescued from car as...

Now, let's just see how accurate Piers Corbyn's forecast for this week really was: N Sea Storm Surge Stormy with heavy rain - snow & blizzards in Scot & N/E later. N Sea storm & coastal flood warnings East Anglia & Holland 18-19/20th enhanced by new moon 16/17th (Red oval = danger sea level rise) S Ireland & S/W less wet & windy. Atlantic ridge, powerful deep 'dartboard low' moving E centered N of Scot going into Scand N Sea Storm Surge - No Stormy with heavy rain - Yes Snow & Blizzards in Scot & N/E - No N Sea storm and coastal warnings in East Anglia & Holland - No S Ireland & S/W less wet and windy - No Atlantic Ridge - No Deep Low moving into Scandinavia - No He failed on all bar one point. And it's been stormy with heavy rain for the past week and likely to continue so well into next week - something else Pier's failed to forecast. His forecast also showed that for the SW there would " showers turning win...

And so the wind and rain continues - and looks certain to do so well into next week. A lot of rain likely in parts, mainly the North and West of the UK with river flooding now a high risk as much of the ground is now saturated. All parts getting gales, severe at times. But at least it will be mild ....... ! Heavy rain sparks driver warning Flood alert as gales batter Wales Britain braced for 60mph gales while half the month's rain is expected to fall today (being the Daily Mail the headline is a bit misleading - some parts of the UK will see very little rain, but to the north and west rainfall totals could be 50% of the average for the whole month. Many places - including Evesham - have already seen over 100% of their average month's rainfall - hence the flood concern.) Expect many more news stories of disruption, damage and floods over the coming days. Meanwhile, the Met Office have issued theior report on the Stormy weather 13 and 14 November 2009 . Elsewhere: Starvati...

Managed to catch some of the Leonid meteor shower earlier this morning with one bright fireball seen and a few lesser meteors captured on camera. Fortunately we're having a brief dry, sunny interlude in the run of storms which look like getting quite nasty again by the weekend. In Calcutta, celsius sets November record Russia is getting bigger, physically 2 dead as heavy rain, storms, batter B.C. In Ireland, landslide derails train and closes commuter line More unintended consequences of human activity on the environment: dissolved arsenic in Bangladesh drinking water is from human alteration of landscape And just in case anyone felt complacent about climate change: Global Warming will bring killer heat, floods and storms to Britain . Note 'will' ..... That's the media for you - never indicate uncertainty when it comes to doom and destruction!

Kicking off with a round-up of reports from the stormy weather that affected mostly just the very southern parts of the UK over the weekend. There were 2 reports of tornadoes, both from East Anglia: Mini tornado hits Lowestoft and 60 houses damaged as tornado hits Benfleet - the latter was actually filmed by a UKweatherworld forum member and can be see on youtube here . There's also excellent discussion, photos and the initial site investigation report from Paul Sherman on Ukweatherworld . There was a lucky escape from overturned caravan as weather wreaks havoc in North Wales whilst homeowners warned to expect more floods . The strongest wind gust recorded was 100mph at the very exposed Needles Lighthouse on the Isle of Wight - though that figure inevitably made it into the media headlines such as storm batters southern England, bringing 100mph winds whilst according to The Daily Mail Britain prepares for another battering after biggest storm of the year washes out the weeken...

It was wet and windy overnight, but nothing too bad here. However, in the SW heavy rain and gales cause chaos , in the SE homes flood amid weather warning and in Wales too weather warning as floods strike . With a risk of tornadoes today, there're likely to be more reports on Monday. Meanwhile, in Australia heatwave causes chaos across SA and in the USA bridges reopen in NJ as flooding starts to ease as nor'easter worst storm to hit Shore in decade Greenland ice cap melting faster than ever - which is not exactly an indication of an imminent 'little ice age' as the global coolers would have us believe is about to happen! Brazil says Amazon deforestation slowest in 21 years China mayor apologises after heaviest snow in 60 years kills 38 Global warming is not our fault say most voters in Times poll - but I'm amazed that 28% think it's " far and away the most serious problem we face as a country and internationally " - more than the economy, crime...

October was wettest on record in USA . It was also the 3rd coldest on record. The full NOAA Press Release is here . Suffice to say that the USA is just a tiny part of the planet and 1 month is a tiny part of any climatically significant period (we usually look at a minimum for 30 years to determine any meaningful trends) so in terms of global warming/cooling/whatever it means b*gger all. And on that vein it's also interesting to note that over the past decade record high temperatures far outpace record lows across US There's flooding on both sides of the Atlantic: rail delays as rain brings floods in Wales - likely to be just the first of many such stories as we head in to a very wet (and windy) spell of weather here in Britain with heavy rain and gales on the way (as I forecast earlier this week). Meanwhile, in the US, Ida's torrents dump floods along Atlantic coast . Elsewhere, Tanzania hit by deadly landslide and in India, Cyclone Phyan rains on Pune As forecast ea...

This could make for an interesting insurance claim: mystery holes in Grovedale roof could be meteorites . Elsewhere in Australia it's rain that's been coming down as the heaviest falls in months hit central Queensland . Rain claims 29 more lives in Nilgris whilst Cyclone Phyan threatens Mumbai Landslides kills at least 1, injures 20 others in Italy Blizzard hits north China - but was it manmade? Playing with weather stirs debate in China . Even without weather modification, the Chinese are predicting extreme weather forecast for Yangtze over next 50 years . Ida weakens to a depression, heads east to Fla. Following on from the announcement that areas of Antarctica where glaciers had melted were now absorbing more CO2 as a consequence, comes controversial new climate change data: is Earth's capacity to absorb CO2 much greater than expected? New data show that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant ...

Tornado hits Oregon coast as wild conditions continue Antarctic glacier retreat creates new carbon dioxide store - is this Gaia in operation again I wonder? Sixty missing and 124 dead after Hurricane Ida mudslide buries entire town in El Salavador , whilst Gulf Coast residents stay put ahead of Ida . Now downgraded to a tropical storm, Ida is expected to make landfall this morning in Lousiana. The hot weather in Australia continues to spread with the first November heatwave for Adelaide expected this week - 5 days with the temperature above 35c being deemed a heatwave. Not surprisingly, some are claiming that SA heatwave is 'climate change weather' . Or maybe it's just weather. Will drilling into a volcano trigger an eruption that destroys Naples? Er, no .... Landslide kills 39 in southern India After a wet October in the US, sunny November may cure this season's harvest headaches More wholly unsurprising news as a new study announces climate models don't t...

It was reported last month that Venezuela was suffering power shortages because drought has reduced the efficiency of the country's hydro stations. Now there are electricity blackouts in Ecuador for the same reason. Nearly 5,000 stranded in NSW floods Vanishing glaciers jolt smokestack China Melbourne swelters as heatwave conditions strike early down south Storms kill 91 in El Salvador as Hurricane Ida strengthens Seafloor fossils provide clue to climate change Was life founded on cyanide from space crashes?

Lightning's NOx-ious impact on pollution, climate Severe storm cuts of thousands in New South Wales Ida drenches Central America, forecast to enter Gulf - indeed, it now looks like Ida could be closing in on Florida Expanding cities contribute to global warming (well there's a surprise!) - the full paper - publicshed by the Royal Meteorological Society can be obtained via co-author Roger Pielke Sr's website It concludes: Our results suggest that for both non-changed and converted land types, agriculture, urbanization and barren soils offered the clearest patterns in terms of sign and magnitude of the OMR [observation minus reanalysis] trends. Conversion to agriculture resulted in a strong cooling. Conversely, all conversions of agricultural lands resulted in warming. Urbanization and conversion to bare soils were also mostly associated with warming. We conclude that these LULC [land use land cover change] types constitute strong drivers of temperature change. Deforest...

In the US, the wet weather delays harvest from Midwest to South Vietnam flood toll rises to 98 It took until November, but we finally saw an Atlantic storm make landfall as a hurricane! Just. Ida drenches Nicaragua after landfall weakens system . Carbon trading - the next 'sub-prime' - according to Friends of the Earth. I certainly agree it's a fallacious 'solution' to the problem of increasing carbon emissions, solves nothing but possibly makes money for a few. That said, I still want them to introduce personal carbon trading in the UK so I can make a killing selling all my unneeded 'carbon credits'! Record October temperatures in Malaga Melting snow shrinks Mont Blanc - no such worries in the UK, although I suppose if sea levels rise then our hills will become lower too ..... But are the Alps growing or shrinking? - as fast as they erode so they rise through isostasy! More evidence not all oil and gas may be 'fossil fuels' after all: Abioti...

It's been a very quiet hurricane season in the Atlantic, but it's not quite over just yet and Tropical Storm Ida could trigger Nicaragua mudslides Study uses satellites imagery to identify active magma systems in East Africa's Rift Valley And apparently weather chaos looms - if we get a couple of inches of snow in London again this winter ....

Why are the Himalayan glaciers melting? We don't actually know - but maybe there's a clue in reports of how much snow they used to get in the region? Death toll rise in Vietnam floods Volcanic and ferric surprises on Mercury Atmospheric 'tides' trigger landslides at night The Nazcans are added to the list of societies such as Easter Island and Greenland who brought about their own demise through uncontrolled deforestation: clearing oasis trees felled ancient Peru civilisation - not that any human activity can ever be environmentally detrimental to human society ..... as, I'm afraid to say, some still maintain. In the wake of Beijing's cloudseeding activities, David Adam asks in The Guardian can we manipulate the weather? I would say emphatically yes, but mostly it's inadvertent and when deliberate then beware of unintended consequences. We're not all storm gods yet. As for geo-engineering to counter global warming: how about reducing our current ...

Typhoon Mirinae weakens after crossing Vietnam coast Sydney boils as mercury rises Stormchasers head for supercell central - which in Australia is just south of Brisbane I'm not sure whether to laugh or bang my head on the wall, as 'chemtrails' get a high profile write up in a provincial US newspaper - watching the skies for an H1N1 connection (yes, now chemtrails are being blamed for swine flu). Suffice to say it's full of the usual misinformation and nonsense promoted by those who see conspiracies everywhere but are utterly incapable of reading a book about weather. It's internesting to note that 'chemtrails' supposedly started appearing almost exactly the same time the internet took off ...... although the persistent contrails claimed to be chemtrails had been around for decades before - and much studied too. But never let facts get in the way of a good conspiracy! For more reliable info on contrails try: http://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/Flig...

A nice autumnal day on Sunday with a bit of rain and some nice strong winds - as usual Evesham missed out on anything really exciting though. Some parts did see over 2 inches of rain. We had something more like a quarter inch.... Britain's Indian Summer ends in downpours and gales In Wales, 13 rescued after flooding and in Scotland there were hundreds rescued as heavy rain and high winds cause flood chaos From now on looks like typically, seasonal, unsettled weather for at least the first half of November with temperatures at best around average, but no signs of any real cold as yet. 4th typhoon leaves 14 dead in Philippines Beijing's first snow of the season 'artificially induced' - compare with Moscow, where they're proposing carrying out weather modification (cloud seeding) to do the exact opposite: prevent snowfall.