The last few months have been strangely mild across the UK. Temperatures in December and January were well above average and people have been asking "what happened to winter?". Elsewhere in Europe, the mild weather is even more pronounced, with temperatures in Finland about 10°C higher than usual and new high temperature records being set in St. Petersburg and Norway respectively.
Despite the current quiet weather conditions, people have been complaining about their TV reception. The internet is awash with people grumbling that their Freeview picture is freezing, breaking up, or in some cases, not working at all. People can understand when a severe storm interrupts their viewing pleasure, but the recent benign weather is causing a little more confusion.
Why is there another IPCC report?
Thursday 25th July 2019 was a record-breaking day for temperatures in the UK and parts of central and western Europe; The UK's all-time temperature record was broken, with 38.7 °C recorded at Cambridge Botanic Garden. The provisional value was released on Friday but was subject to quality control and analysis, and has now been validated by the Met Office observations’ team. This figure exceeds the previous record of 38.5°C recorded in Faversham, Kent, in August 2003.
Heatwaves do not only occur on land, but also inside the ocean. Marine heatwaves are defined as periods of prolonged anomalously high sea surface temperatures compared to the local 30-year long record. Although the occurrence of these events has been observed locally, researchers in recent years looked at this phenomenon at the global scale.
In February 2019, snow rollers were spotted in Wiltshire - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-47108382?SThisFB.
Snow rollers are snow balls formed naturally by strong winds blowing across a flat, snow-covered field or hillside. Three conditions need to occur for snow rollers to form:
The Midwest has been hit by extreme freezing conditions this week. Parts of the Midwest will experience the coldest temperatures in over 20 years. A polar vortex which is causing extreme Arctic blasts could bring temperatures as low as -53°C.
Parts of Australia have been affected by a heatwave since the end of December 2018. Tarcoola in South Australia reached temperatures exceeding 49°C this week. The top 15 hottest places in the world on the 15th of January were all in Australia, as the record-breaking hot weather continues to affect the country.
