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Bytram writes in via IRC with two hot stories about the weather:
Records Tumble as Europe Swelters in Heatwave
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Records tumble as Europe swelters in heatwave
Belgium and the Netherlands have recorded their highest ever temperatures, in a heatwave searing Western Europe.
The Belgian town of Kleine Brogel in Limburg province hit 39.9C (102F), the hottest since records began in 1833.
A Eurostar train broke down in the extreme heat, trapping passengers.
The southern Dutch city of Eindhoven saw 39.3C, the highest temperature recorded since the Dutch royal meteorological institute began in 1901.
The highest temperature recorded in Paris - 40.4C in 1947 - is expected to be surpassed on Thursday.
Luxembourg is on red alert for the south and the capital - with top temperatures possibly climbing to 40C on Wednesday and even higher on Thursday.
Europe's Record-setting Heatwave to Spike Even Higher
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Europe's record-setting heatwave to spike even higher
A dangerously intense heatwave across much of Europe is to spike even higher Thursday after already breaking records in several countries, impacting rail traffic and sending people in search of shade and water.
Paris was expected to see the mercury soar to as much as 41 or 42 degrees Celsius, breaking a 70-year-plus record of 40.4C (104.7 Fahrenheit) and turning the UNESCO-listed capital into a baking urban bowl.
Britain's Met Office predicted a chance that the UK record of 38.5C, which was recorded in Faversham, Kent, in August 2004, would also be exceeded on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands all recorded their all-time highest temperatures.
Thursday was forecast to be the peak of Europe's latest heatwave—the second in less than a month and impetus for new focus to be given to climate change. Cooler weather with rain was expected to provide relief from Friday.
The body-sapping, leaden, shrivelling heat was posing difficulties for humans, animals and crops across the continent.
The northern third of France, including Paris, was under a red alert while the rest of the country had a yellow warning and water-use restrictions were in force.
Cyclists in the Tour de France in southern France had to puff their way over the course in well over 30C.
In the Netherlands, farmers have been leaving their cows outside to sleep, rather than bringing them in at night, while Dutch media said hundreds of pigs died when a ventilator failed at Middelharnis.
On Wednesday, the southern Dutch town of Gilze-Rijen experienced 38.8C heat, surpassing a record dating back 75 years.
Belgium registered an all-time high of 39.9C at the Kleine-Brogel military base, beating a record that dated back to June 1947.
And Germany's western town of Geilenkirche sweltered through 40.5C.
(Score: 2, Troll) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday July 26 2019, @01:20PM (6 children)
Yo, journalists, "their highest ever temperatures" does not jive with records that go back less than two hundred years unless you have even more radical young-earth-creationist ideas than churchy folks.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @02:23PM (3 children)
*RECORDED* highest ever temperatures
FTFY.
and in the Netherlands and UK this goes back actually a bit over 200 years.
(Score: 5, Touché) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday July 26 2019, @03:00PM (1 child)
Indeed. The very idea of a "record" is that it is recorded by a human officially. I may have "caught a fish THIS big!" but it's not a "record-setting" fish unless some official person was there to actually measure it and write it down.
With that it mind, let us review the supposed lack of "precision" Mr. Buzzard would have us believe these journalists are guilty of. Let's look just at the summary to begin:
Hmm... nowhere do I see "highest temperature ever" stated without qualification that it is the highest temperature RECORDED. I reviewed the entire BBC article, and nowhere do I see that Mr. Buzzard's "imprecise" language being used.
So, let's try the other article, shall we?
Hmm... again, lots of mentions of "records." No unqualified statements in the rest of the article either. About the closest we come to Mr. Buzzard's imprecise language are these two statements:
The second statement lists "all-time high," but that's clearly qualified by "back to 1947" in the same sentence. Obviously. Because that's the definition of "all-time high" when you're talking about RECORDS! Thus, the first sentence should be read the same way. They RECORDED an "all-time high" in their RECORDS.
I have to commend Mr. Buzzard for his general lack of trolling in the past year compared to previously, but I don't believe he's stupid enough not to read what the articles clearly say and instead imagine them to be saying something else. He's hoping to start a fight about journalist exaggeration around climate change. Shame!
Both of the articles here use clear language. The BBC lacks anything like what Mr. Buzzard claims. The other article has a few qualified sentences, but nowhere does it say, "Place X experienced an ALL-TIME HIGH in history!" Instead, they all "recorded" in "records." Again, that's what records are about. Nobody here is saying Rolf from Germany might not have caught a fish the size of a bus in 1463 while sweltering through a hotter day than we have now. But there's no RECORD of it, so maybe the fish wasn't quite that big, and maybe the temps weren't that hot... or maybe they were. But it wasn't RECORDED.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday July 27 2019, @02:24AM
No, I was just being pedantic. People whose business is the English language yet still manage to suck ass at it annoy me.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday July 27 2019, @02:23AM
"recorded their highest ever temperatures" does not mean what you think it means. For that it would need to be "recorded their highest ever recorded temperatures". As written it is a verb not an adjective and does not modify the noun "temperatures".
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @07:58PM
Sup bird brain, in here being stupid? Oh good. You're my rock buzztardo!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @01:20AM
I liked that bit :)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by aim on Friday July 26 2019, @01:22PM (8 children)
Yes, records were broken by quite a margin. The heat also led to a number of fires, which are very unusual around here - we've had our share of farming machinery burning down previously, but it's decidedly more marked this year, with a number of e.g. forest fires - and this smack in the middle of temperate, central western europe, not down south in the Mediterranean region.
It's holiday season, people are travelling to escape the heat rather than seek the sun.
Of the measurements, this year so far tops the last several years, which were in turn record-breakers. And still, there are idiots refusing to see the obvious trend. This is not just weather any more. This is climate change. And it's _not_ for the better.
Need I remark that unlike for the cold wave in winter, Mr. Orange didn't make stupid tweets (at least not reported upon) about the recent heat wave in the US?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @01:27PM (1 child)
You are the idiot who is incapable of understanding there is more that one explanation for "the climate is changing". Also, local weather is not climate. The global trend is downward from the Obama peak: http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/ [drroyspencer.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @01:36PM
Everything happening has been strengthening the case that there is a coming grand solar minimum:
> Recall that a Grand Solar Minimum initially manifests not so much in lower average temperatures, but greater climate variability including floods as well as heat waves and droughts; the drop in global average temperature usually follows the solar modulation less closely and with delays. As we have (very likely) entered the next Grand Solar Minimum, however, cold/ snow records are dominant this time around.
https://abruptearthchanges.com/2019/07/12/worldwide-cold-snow-records-2019-while-the-media-is-still-talking-about-the-3-days-heat-wave-in-june/ [abruptearthchanges.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Friday July 26 2019, @07:55PM (5 children)
Sorry, but each individual incident is weather, not climate. It's the collection that is climate. It's rather like the difference between the speed of a gas molecule and the temperature of the gas.
That said, the collective weathers definitely indicate a hotter climate. But it's still wrong to point to one incident and say "See! Climate!". (That the idiots do doesn't excuse you doing so.)
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @10:33PM (1 child)
Yes, in fact every region of the world could be individually cooling while the earth is warming in aggregate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox [wikipedia.org]
So even lower temperatures everywhere would not disprove global warming.
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Saturday July 27 2019, @03:18AM
No, that's not true. You would also need to fiddle with the weights of your integration (for example, the batting average example from the link where there was a hidden number of times at bat which could vary considerably from year to year). But if you're integrating temperature over unit area for the entire world's surface, then lower temperatures everywhere in the world does indeed mean lower temperatures in aggregate. Simpson's paradox doesn't exist in that case.
Having said that, when you're dealing with shifting regions, weights, and statistical adjustments from the usual climate data set, you no longer have that situation and Simpson's paradox can come back.
(Score: 2) by aim on Saturday July 27 2019, @09:15AM (2 children)
Re-read my text properly. I referred to the *trend*, what you call "collection". Thus, I stand by my judgement that, considering quite a few years of data, indeed *climate* is changing. As do close to 100% of scientists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @11:42AM
Yes, the climate is changing. Water is wet, and every government is attempting to affect every other governments elections. I see a trend here in a certain type of person thinking they know something special when it is common sense.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday July 27 2019, @04:24PM
Well, ... OK. I reread it, and it still sounded as if you were referring to this weather incident as climate, but I can see the other reading as viable.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday July 26 2019, @01:34PM (4 children)
Bleh... nothing the next generation can't fix.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Friday July 26 2019, @01:54PM (2 children)
No! there is no time! Tax on CO2 now! that'll show the Chinese.
BTW the Chinese are building empty cities in Africa. Maybe the natural outcome of this climate change is a glaciation and they have already the spot ready for their population. As for us we will tax the heaters and we'll be fine.
Before the next ad bot strikes, remember I am basically of the opinion that luddites were right.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Snow on Friday July 26 2019, @03:18PM (1 child)
The Chinese are investing more in clean energy than the USA is. More clean energy innovation is happening in China than the USA.
Remember the days when China and India would buy power plants from the west? Now they are working on next generation fission plants. India is working on Thorium reactors.
A decade from now, the west will be buying power plants from China and India.
(Score: 3, Informative) by HiThere on Friday July 26 2019, @07:57PM
I thought it was Indonesia that was working on Thorium plants.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/07/interview-clarifies-current-situation-with-thorcon-and-the-indonesian-government.html [nextbigfuture.com]
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @03:41AM
if they fix climates like they program airliners, we're SOL
(Score: 3, Informative) by J_Darnley on Friday July 26 2019, @01:41PM (10 children)
What forecast says it is going to get worse? It is already Friday and temperatures have already dropped and were not predicted to exceed Thursday's. The forecast for the weekend and next week is for temperatures in the mid 20's.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @01:47PM (1 child)
The Democrat forecast.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @10:34PM
Mod parent up... looks like #CrookedHillary downmodded him.
(Score: 3, Informative) by aim on Friday July 26 2019, @01:56PM
The article sounds like it's from wednesday evening. Indeed, thursday was worse, now that peak is past... even if it's still more than hot enough now (friday).
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday July 26 2019, @08:07PM (5 children)
Forecast isn't worth shit anymore. Something changed in the last six months, and they changed their models/science. Weather.com used to spot-freaking on when it came to the temperatures. If it said 84 at 3pm, I could reliably measure 83-85 walking outside. Always consistently within +/- 2 degrees from the hourly forecast.
These days they say 84, and it ends up being 92.
Forecasts aren't worth shit anymore.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @08:29PM (1 child)
By me they said there would be a hurricane and there was half an inch of rain. A week earlier they gave no warning and there was 7 inches of rain in a few hours that lead to flooding. Weather forecasting has been taking over by political appointees pushing agendas.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Saturday July 27 2019, @12:39AM
I highly fucking doubt its political. More likely its because they adopted that new scientific model that replaced what they had for decades. I can't recall the details completely, but weather forecasting for the next 12-24 hours used to reliable.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 27 2019, @03:25AM (2 children)
I suspect the missing key is seasons. Your region probably has more predictable weather at certain times of the year. I guess you'll find out in six months whether weather.com gets their mojo back.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday July 29 2019, @08:12PM (1 child)
I hadn't thought about that. Interesting notion, thanks for sharing.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday July 30 2019, @04:22AM
(Score: 4, Funny) by c0lo on Friday July 26 2019, @11:13PM
*chuckle* look, somebody expecting to get his the weather forecast on Soylentnews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Revek on Friday July 26 2019, @02:19PM (28 children)
Those are normal temperatures for where I live. 100+ with 90% humidity. The last few weeks its been around 10 to 15 degrees under our normal temps. It getting down in the 70's at night and normally its never drops below 80. I know this doesn't prove anything about global warming but It sure is nice.
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(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @02:25PM
Yea it's just the energy being redistributed more unevenly. This is the opposite of what CO2 should do since radiation is so much faster than convection. CO2 should lead to a more uniform distribution.
(Score: 4, Informative) by pe1rxq on Friday July 26 2019, @02:33PM (22 children)
This is definitely not normal for The Netherlands.
In an average year you can count the amount of days with temperatures above 30 degress on a single hand. Yesterday (Thursday) we broke the record of Wednesday again with a peak of 40.7 degrees.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @03:44PM (21 children)
Waiting for the bus earlier today, I overheard someone saying something similar, but about my location here in Scotland.
I've reached over the half century mark, and I can remember at least a couple of occasions at roughly this time of year where it was hot enough for the tarmac on the roads and pavements to melt here, and can remember one year having to save a number of birds suffering from heat exhaustion...I've yet to see any squishy pavements this time...so yes, it's hot here, but it's been hotter, and earlier in my lifetime.
I'm fond of reminding people that it was only 500,000 years ago, give or take a few millennia, that the then inhabitants of the what are now the British Isles hunted those well known prey animals of 'temperate climes', elephants, rhinoceroses and hippopotamuses, and were, most probably, in turn, hunted by Lions...
And, about 22,000 years ago, at this very time of the year, at this very location, they'd be freezing their balls off, what with the bloody great ice sheet covering the place..
Humans are really bad at handling both the concept of geological timescales and the fact that we're living in a 'dynamic' biosphere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @04:02PM
Funnily enough, in the language of my people "Scotland" comes from our word for "Land of the melting skinks".
(Score: 5, Informative) by pe1rxq on Friday July 26 2019, @04:19PM (16 children)
And a few billion years ago everything was molten lava......
Reminding people of geological timescales in order to downplay climate change just makes you look stupid....
Nowhere in the geological timescales you mentioned has the climate been this dynamic. It is now changing on human timescales (whether you like to remember or not) instead of geological timescales.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @04:31PM (3 children)
The climate is relatively stable right now. Look up the Maunder Minimum, the Younger Dryas Event, etc.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @04:50PM (2 children)
Really?? A 20 year blip few hundred years ago you call "geological time scales"? These events don't even register on geological timescales!! And Younger Dryas took thousand of years .... not few decades like now ...
GP is right. Nowhere in geological timescales, has the climate changed so quickly.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @05:52PM
If you are looking at averages over tens of thousands of years you wouldnt see the last 100 either... you make no sense.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday July 26 2019, @11:25PM
Some dinos impacted by meteorites might disagree, would they not be extincted.
What saves the comment you reference is "Nowhere in the geological timescales you mentioned..." where mention is "I'm fond of reminding people that it was only 500,000 years ago".
Get rid of the qualification and you are nowhere.
<pedantic hat="off" />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday July 26 2019, @10:27PM (10 children)
Don't waste time arguing with climate change denying trolls. A discussion of our options would be much more interesting and pertinent. From what I read, it sounds bad.
First, I'm guessing we are stuck. We can't stop the ice sheets from melting. If we could somehow magically reduce the CO2 level to 180 ppm, the lowest point it has reached in the past several million years, and do that instantly, it would not be enough to stop the melt. I'd still like to try. Maybe we can delay things, gain a few decades to work on the massive problem of relocating to higher ground. I fear moving to higher ground will be the only option we will have. We need places for the displaced to go. We need to work on our farming.
I keep asking myself, what more can I do about it, now?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @10:38PM (5 children)
It isn't that hard to move to higher ground. It does not take decades. So perhaps what you should do is move to higher ground?
And the Chinese know that a grand solar minimum is coming which has always lead to regime change throughout their long history. That is why they are building ghost cities in Africa and elsewhere where they expect food production will move: https://www.iceagenow.info/chinese-dynasties-collapsed-solar-minimum/ [iceagenow.info]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday July 26 2019, @11:29PM (4 children)
It is, if you don't have a higher ground. Remind me: Pays-bas is which country?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @11:38PM (3 children)
There is plenty of higher ground available at the moment...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday July 26 2019, @11:58PM (2 children)
Show me.
The Vaalserberg is a hill with a height of 322.4 metres (1,058 ft) above NAP and is the highest point in mainland Netherlands. [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @11:47AM (1 child)
The Netherlands literally means "the low country". You are looking in the wrong place. I mean it does seem likely that area will be inundated eventually just like what happened to dogeland. Perhaps the grand minimum will save them.
(Score: 2) by SparkyGSX on Saturday July 27 2019, @07:27PM
More than half the country is below sealevel already, and has been for hundreds of years. If anyone anywhere in the world has serious problems with an excess of water, who do they call? The Dutch! Don't worry about us, we'll be fine.
I think the problem is much bigger for small islands and developing countries that don't have the resources to build huge water defences.
If you do what you did, you'll get what you got
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @11:33PM (3 children)
Same here. I do not believe that there is any room left to avoid >2C global temperature rises. The efforts we put in now are to prevent a 5-degree rise instead. And I do not believe that any change I make to my personal life makes the slightest hint of a dent in that process.
So what can you do, personally? Vote green, advocate for the strictest emission controls possible. Make sure the efforts are global. Failing that, prepare for a population loss of about 5 billion in the second half of this century.
What we can do, coordinated? We could trigger a Tambora-like volcanic eruption perhaps. That single event caused a .5-degree drop in global temperatures for 2 years. But I hesitate to propose a solution that requires us to detonate 800 megaton of energy every few years. We will quickly run out of sites to blow up.
Then again, we could all just vote nationalistic and go MAD. That will help with both the population count and the required megatons.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @11:40PM (2 children)
Your plan is to wait for the government to do something? The same government that is still paying people to move to flood plains?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Flood_Insurance_Program [wikipedia.org]
By every indication the thing you are waiting for is NEVER going to happen. So you better come up with something else if this is really what you are so concerned about.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday July 27 2019, @04:42AM (1 child)
Yes, another illusion. Government does not lead. The people lead.
Now there are some more local things to be done. Like, get local governments to ease up on lawn care ordinances. Make it legal to allow grass to get 18" high. There would be less mowing, and more carbon storage in all that extra height.
Another one is more walkways. It would also be a great help if there weren't so damned many fences. It's ridiculous how far around one has to walk thanks to a fence put up by people who think only poor delinquents get about on foot. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @11:52AM
Yea, turn off the lights when you leave the room.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday July 27 2019, @03:36AM
Why should you expect to see such dynamics at geological time scales? For example, let's measure how many times someone has jumped a rope over a million year period. Jump that rope 100 times a day from birth to death at 100, and you still won't make 4 jumps a year on the geological time scale.
Even attempts at the more interesting parts of the geological past, such as the mass extinctions often yield data sampling over tens of thousands of years. You can miss a vast amount of short term dynamics with sampling rates that slow.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @04:38PM (1 child)
LOL? Or serious? You do realize that the composition of the roads changes overtime (ie. maintenance of the roads) so that they don't melt at such a low temperature? Yes?
(Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Friday July 26 2019, @06:41PM
Don't you understand? Measurements of temperature must not be done with Mercury or other scientific instruments is not accurate. Measurement of temperature must be done by looking at melting rubber and tarmac. That is much more accurate. At least to climate change deniers. Doh! By the way, in the other news Pi is 3 and not 3.14 something and the earth is flat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @07:17PM
Maybe some humans are, but others sure have caught on to use it for politics / religion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @04:44PM (3 children)
Sorry, but I call BS. I've been in the jungle on the equator surrounded by 80+F oceans and there is lower humidity. There is no place on surface of earth that has "100+ with 90% humidity". QED.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Friday July 26 2019, @08:07PM
I expect that there actually are a few such places. But they'd be really unusual. You'd need not only shallow seas near the equator, but also just the right surrounding land masses and wind patterns. And you'd need to measure at the right time of day. (And I really doubt that *anybody* lives there.)
OTOH, California's central valley used to get up above 100 F (I think often to 120 F) every year before they started irrigating (say over 38 C). The last time I was there it only habitually got into the upper 90s (same location).
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by sfm on Sunday July 28 2019, @12:15PM
"There is no place on surface of earth that has "100+ with 90% humidity". QED."
Not sure, but I'm betting Houston comes close
(Score: 2) by Revek on Sunday July 28 2019, @06:49PM
Arkansas is where I live and for this time of year hundred degree temperatures are normal and the humidity feels like you are in a sauna. Right not though it is only 90F and the humidity is only 80 percent. Its really nice outside.
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(Score: 2) by looorg on Friday July 26 2019, @03:09PM
Colder here, central northern Europe -- Scandinavia, then last year. Mid to high 20's all week -- dropping to 15-20 during the nights. Only the humidity makes it suck really, high 80's to mid 90's % all day every day -- I guess that is the price for living on the coast.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @05:54PM
if they used superior units, they'd have one extra digit for even higher temperatures.
(Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Friday July 26 2019, @06:32PM (5 children)
Hello, Belgian here. We have a new record of 40.6 Celcius since today in Kleine Brogel. Fun detail is that Kleine Brogel is a military airport (where our US nukes are hidden and most of our F-16, and soon F-35s are located). I guess this is also why it's one of the measurement points for our national weather forecast services.
Today there is a storm going over the area. The temperature dropped to 24 Celcius.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday July 26 2019, @09:58PM (2 children)
The Netherlands must be very, very focused on Climate Change. What will they do if sea levels rise? If Greenland melts, that will raise sea levels by 2 meters. They can't just make all the dikes 2 meters taller, can they? They will have to leave. What is their plan?
The even scarier nation is Bangladesh. Low lying and densely populated. And much larger and poorer than the Netherlands.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @10:27PM
If it does completely flood out more or less permanently that is just a continuation of a trend started 6k years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland [wikipedia.org]
But why do you think they couldn't achieve that? Where I'm at there's 6 meter tall levees already. Another two meters is just an additional 30%.
Also, the Netherlands have large designated areas (where property is cheaper and insurance more expensive) that will be purposefully flooded to make room for additional water either temporarily or permanently.
The dutch aren't helpless idiots like you seem to assume. I've never met someone racist against the dutch until now, they are a hard working, intelligent, and largely peaceful people. What is it you have against them?
(Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Saturday July 27 2019, @09:27AM
Yes they can. Go watch their museums on it. Or become a Scuba Diver and go dive there. Or drive with a Bicycle around Zeeland on the dikes to see for yourself how the see is higher than the land.
No
To stay. Right now, nothing much must be done for +2m sea rise. They have it covered already, those 2m. They will probably improve it for another few meters of sea rise though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 26 2019, @11:38PM (1 child)
Hello, monsieur Belgique.
Would you be so kind to check the correct spelling for the unit of temperature you use? Granted, it wasn't quite your neighbour, but his country is on the same street as yours; and it shows good manners to use their names properly.
(fucking shit, one can accept it from a redneck American, but it's intolerable to see such a crass ineptitude from an European).
(Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Saturday July 27 2019, @09:46AM
Anders Celsius was Swedish though. That's not really on the same street as mine. There is an entire sea (the North Sea) in between us. Plus Denmark and Norway must be passed.
You're right about that such a crass ineptitude from an European is unacceptable. I'll try to remember the way to spell the guy's name from now on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @11:46AM
I'm a republicunt!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Coward, Anonymous on Saturday July 27 2019, @02:33PM (2 children)
The nature of random variables like temperature is that every record high will be eventually exceeded by a new maximum.
(Score: 2) by SparkyGSX on Saturday July 27 2019, @07:40PM (1 child)
Yes, however, the nature of such variables is that record breaking measurements (both high and low) should asymptotically become less frequent as time goes on. Lately, however, it seems we set a new record for the number of records broken each year. This is not just about temperatures, it's also about rainfall (or lack of it), storms, etc.
While each separate record being broken isn't particularity impressive, as you stated, it naturally happens with random fluctuations, a large number of records broken in quick succession, long after record keeping has begun, definitely is cause for alarm.
If you do what you did, you'll get what you got
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 27 2019, @08:51PM
In R, for 200 years of daily records:
This is the days until a new max is observed
So the time between records goes up and down, it isn't monotonic.