I’ve not been particularly lucky when it comes to weather in the UK. One of the rainiest summers ever, and now a winter which doesn’t seem to want to end.
A corner seems to have been turned, though. Standing in the drizzle at the end of Exhibition Road this evening, I was relieved to note that the temperature seems to have tipped over into the double digits. And Sunday has a forecast maximum of 16C, which I don’t think I’ve seen for more than 6 months now. That’s practically t-shirt and board shorts weather. Right?
It was a good moment to take a snap of a dreamy looking Natural History Museum. Working in the Science Museum, and walking past the majestic facades of Albertopolis daily, I rarely stop to take them in.
Oh, and I’d really like to see Dispatch live. The vibe in this crowd looks fantastic. “I have seen the others, and I have discovered, that this fight is not worth fighting…”
This is the kind of weather London just doesn’t see. Click for full resolution.
On my last day in Barcelona, we were waiting to go on a cable car when a huge storm front swept through. By the time we were up on the observation deck of the tower, it was surging off into the distance, leaving heavy, boiling clouds in its wake.
This week’s been as crazy as I thought it would be, but I managed to find time for an hour’s kick about in Hyde Park yesterday evening. Click for the full size image – unfortunately there was scaffolding on the monument. The weather’s been amazing!
Remember, Australia’s a similar size to the USA… that’s a monster cyclone!
Whoa. My home state, Queensland (remember the one with all the floods last month? that one) is about to get bashed by a massive Tropical Cyclone called Yasi. Check this out:
Holy smoke! My sister’s about halfway up the Queensland coast, and was warned to evacuate yesterday, which was then retracted as the storm moved more to the north. Still, there’s lots of townships along that stretch of coast which are looking at a very serious disaster.
I hope everyone can take the necessary precautions and stay safe – I can’t really hold out much hope for the infrastructure though. The storm surge associated with the cyclone making landfall is predicted to be big, and there’s lots of low-lying areas which will be inundated (not to mention the 250kph wind gusts). For more information about the storm, check out the official Bureau of Meteorology wrap here, or the more readable news page at the Courier Mail here.
A much smaller storm front moves over a South Australian shoreline…
Has the world gone mad? December was the coldest ever in the UK; there was a searing, record-smashing heatwave in Russia; 2010 was the equal hottest year, globally, in the temperature record, along with 2005; and it was one of the wettest years ever seen.
Right now, there’s major flooding and human tragedy unfolding in Brazil. On a larger scale, but thankfully with less loss of life, my home state in Australia, Queensland, is pretty much underwater. Widespread flooding in central and eastern parts of the state made international headlines over the course of several weeks. The geography of Australia means that water dumped inland doesn’t really have anywhere to go, so the problem lasts for a long time. Not only that, but in the South, Victoria and South Australia are suffering another bout of major flooding, following on from a similar event in September.
In a cruel double play, torrential rain in South East Queensland led to more flash flooding this week and a huge flood pulse in Toowoomba and then the capital city, Brisbane. The force and speed of the initial stages of the flood are staggering, and are best captured in this video:
While most of my friends and family live on the Gold Coast, which was spared any disaster, some people I know have been affected, and I wish them the best cleaning up and recovering from the experience! Others haven’t been so lucky, with lives lost and many more livelihoods ruined.
Sean’s place in New Farm, looking a bit damp…
Oxley Restaurant submerged in the city; pic by Asabi.
So what’s causing all this? The finger’s been pointed squarely at an intense La Nina event. If you haven’t heard of this phenomenon, it’s a disruption of the usual pattern of wind and water movement on the surface of the central Pacific Ocean. Warm water piles up near Australia, adding moisture to the atmosphere and triggering heavy rain, while on the other side of the ocean in the Americas, cooler water accumulates and the atmosphere is drier.
A moderate La Nina situation, showing warm and cool water accumulations in 2007. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Disruptions in ocean temperatures and wind patterns can lead to flow on effects globally. It’s not fully understood, at a predictive level, how any given change will affect other areas, but the northern hemisphere has seen several major disruptions to the jet stream, leading to local temperature extremes as I mentioned earlier.
Such changes offer us a look into the future; a world where weather extremes are more intense and unpredictable, out-of-the-ordinary scenarios play out more often. No single event can be attributed to climate change, but the fingerprints of human-induced global warming are all over 2010.
In the aftermath of these huge flooding events, I hope that people work together to restore the damage that nature has wrought, and show solidarity and support for each other. I hope that we, as a community and a globe, extend the same support and solidarity to our future selves: we can take preventative action now which will lessen extreme flooding, shock heatwaves and global weather disruption. We need to recognise the problem and understanding that meaningful action is achievable and necessary!
Right after my friends clear the mud out of their properties. Good luck, guys.
David Robertson 