20th July - Today's News: Massive Wildfires Hit Holiday Destinations

Holiday makers are getting a bit more heat than they bargained for as Portugal's Maderia hit by forest fires - more details on the Maderia news blog.   Video of the fire over Funchal looks damned frightening!   In the Canaries, firefighters battle Tenerife forest blaze.  And near Athens, Greek wildfire damages homes, forces evacuation of children's camp, retirement home, monastry.

Meanwhile, in Cypress, heatwave claims its first victim

With over 22mm, mostly from two thunderstorms (well, there was a bit of thunder and I did see a couple of flashes of lightning, one possibly a ground strike!) made Wednesday the wettest day in Evesham since August 2010, and also means that July is already the wettest month also since August 2010.   However we have some way to go still to match the rainfall in July 2009, let alone the record 251mm in 2007.   Four of the past 6 years have now recorded over 100mm against a long term local average of 44mm for the month.  2010 and 2011 however were both well below average - seems July has become an 'all or nothing' month.   We may catch some showers today, but thereafter it looks like being mostly dry and quite warm for much of next week, at least with a heatwave on its way in time for holidays.

And today is the 5th anniversay of the "Great Flood" when  downpours shocked 'most flooded' town Upton upon Severn

100 passengers escape as trains crash into landslides in Scotland but sun forecast after month's rain falls in just 18 hours

Cold weather kills three Kielder osprey chicks - I don't know how many of 'our' chicks, from the nest near an MBA bothy, survived.

In Massachusetts, thunderstorm washes away a summer inferno

The US's widespread drought is likely to worsen

Down under, it's been central Australia's frostiest winter in a decade and breaking news as another earthquake shakes Victoria

In Korea, Typhoon Khanun dies after causing minor damage

Ancient African water source could last for centuries

NASA spacecraft captures powerful flashes of daytime lightning during Saturn's longest ever storm

And interesting study shows that Generation X is surprisingly unconcerned about climate change - though of course, how the questins were phrased can make a big difference in the results.   I'm not sure I'm concerned about climate change - I know it's happening and will cause problems, but it certainly not cause me any personal concern ....

Over on WUWT, Anthony dropped himself in it claiming another paper refutes the Mann made hockey stick because it shows it was warmer than today during the MWP - when in fact the paper's authors specifically state in the abstract that it does no such thing!   The error was quickly pointed out by some of his contributors, but of course, ignored by most.  The paper does however conclude that 1,000 years ago there was greater seasonal variation in the Orkneys, with warmer summers but colder winters. 

On Skeptical Science there's an article putting Esper millenial cooling in context - this was another paper that was wrongly claimed to 'prove' the MWP was warmer than today.   What it actually shows is a steady decline in temps over the past two thousand years, with recent warming looking somewhat anomalous in comparison.

And John has also written another piece for SS on the Mid-Wales floods of June 2012: a taste of things to come?

Scientists connect seawater chemistry with ancient climate change and evolution

And it's really no surprise at all to hear that global CO2 emissions continued to increase in 2011