18th November - Today's News

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:

Starvation 'wiped out giant deer' - although not specified in the report, it would appear the Irish Elk migrated to Ireland at the end of the last ice age as conditions there warmed. The Island then became seperated from the rest of Europe as sea levels rose. Then the Younger Dryas cold period set in - very suddenly indeed if recent research is to be believed - and the deer faced colder, drier conditions with no means of migrating to a better climate. And thus perished. It does now look quite certain that it was the sudden shift out of the early interglacial into the YD, coupled with predation by humans, that killed off much N America and Eurasia's megafauna. They were able to survive previous shifts from glacial to interglacial because there was no sudden YD cold event and no human hunters.

NASA's Terra satellite spots Cyclone Anja, the first of the Southern season

In China, shrinking major lake a victim of drought and the same drought poses obstacle for giant Chinese dam whilst in Venezuela, Chavez plans cloud seeding with Cuban help to ease drought.

With memories of Black Saturday still all too fresh, Australia issues top fire alert

'Expect the unexpected' when it comes to weather says Environment Canada's David Phillips

I'm pleased to see that the Guardian have amended their headline yesterday of Global Warming will rise by 6c by end of century to could rise ..... Maybe they saw my comment yesterday regarding the Telegraph's similar (unchanged) misleading headline?

Monsoon model indicates potential for abrupt transitions

And seeings as our government has been working so hard to ensure we - and the rest of the world - cut our carbon emissions, I see that fossil fuel carbon emissions up 29% since 2000 - just think, if you left those lights on all the time it might have been 30% ...... But remember, it's not all about CO2, for example, a dozen lesser-known chemicals have strong impact on climate change. Given the seemingly impossible task of even reducing the increase in carbon emission, let alone reducing them significantly, maybe we'd be better off concentrating on the myriad of other causes of climate change that just maybe we can deal with?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

23rd September - Today's News: Climate Change Impacts "Accelerating"

11th October - Today's News: Race on to Protect Bangkok from Floods

25th July - Today's News: Fatal Chinese Bullet Train Crash Caused by Lightning