Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Swathes of southern Europe sweltered Saturday in a heatwave that has claimed several lives, cost billions in crop damage and is, scientists warned, a foretaste of worse to follow in coming decades.
At least five deaths in Italy and Romania have been attributed to the extreme conditions since the heatwave set in around the start of August.
Unusually high, sometimes unprecedented temperatures, are being recorded across an area spanning much of Spain and Portugal, southern France, Italy, the Balkans and Hungary.
The mercury has regularly risen above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across the affected areas, exacerbating the impact of an extended drought and the lingering impact of a July heatwave which sparked wildfires that claimed 60 lives in Portugal.
Hospital admissions have spiked 15-20 percent in Italy, where at least three people have died.
Italians longing for the beach have dubbed the hot spell "Lucifero", or Lucifer, after the biblical archangel said to have been condemned forever to the flames of hell.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2017-08-sizzling-summer-europe-south-future.html
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by jmorris on Monday August 07 2017, @08:33AM (11 children)
Look up some of the past heatwaves to afflict that area in the past. The body count gets so high because it doesn't get that hot all the time so a lot of homes still lack air conditioning. This one ain't even in the same league with the 2003 [wikipedia.org] heat wave to hit Europe. That one got 70K. And they go back farther. 1975, 1976, 1983, 1990, 2001 all 7-30K deaths in France.
But I know, here I go bringing facts into a religious debate. Global Warming is real, it is man caused and the science is settled by the Holy C.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @08:56AM (4 children)
Every single year since 2003 was a record breaker, even if they don't match up to it.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @10:46AM (2 children)
And even if it snowed in June throughout one hemisphere, and it is the coldest winter in decades in the other one. :)
https://sf.curbed.com/2017/6/12/15782076/snow-june-tahoe [curbed.com]
https://www.iceagenow.info/historic-cold-snow-argentina-chaos-several-cities/ [iceagenow.info]
The cold wave got here first, maybe let's discuss it instead? ;)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @12:22PM (1 child)
All I know is that it's consistently hotter here throughout the summer, by as much as 5-10 degrees. We went from temps around 20-25c to 30-40c being the norm from 1980 to the present.
Weather *extremes* become more common, that also includes extreme cold.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @02:08PM
And does the "here" location have a name, and maybe even a temperature data from some meteostation nearby that could be looked up?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by moondrake on Monday August 07 2017, @02:55PM
It depends a bit how you measure it (average, extreme, what locations, or what time periods). But generally it is true that on average, European (and global) average temperatures since ~2000 are above the long term average.
This of course does not necessarily mean we have more "heat waves" or even extreme temperatures. But there have been more of those in recent years than in the past. But this does not exclude we had them in the past (as jmorris says, but people dying from heat waves is not a particularly good metric to talk about change, it is a consequence of it, and influenced by many other factors. However, to use this metric to pretend all is normal is somewhat disingenuous at best).
Sources:
http://www.ecad.eu/maxtemp_EOBS.php [www.ecad.eu]
https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/global-and-european-temperature-3/assessment [europa.eu]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @09:29AM (3 children)
This problem would be solved by using more energy (AC), not less (CO2 reduction).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @10:52AM (2 children)
I like how you think. We could use people like you on Mars! Why don't you sign up today? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3301101/Mars-One-candidates-claim-WON-T-eat-red-planet-one-says-tempted.html [dailymail.co.uk]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @02:06PM (1 child)
Have we seen some of those people before, perhaps on a cooking show?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 08 2017, @04:53AM
If they go on SoylentNews they're hypocrites or liars.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @01:03PM
70 Kelvin is quite cold, actually. ;-)
(Score: 2) by dry on Tuesday August 08 2017, @04:20AM
Europe is a big place, those records were more north then these. Like comparing the record temps here in the great white north compared to Arizona.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bradley13 on Monday August 07 2017, @12:15PM (2 children)
This summer in Europe has had a nice hot phase, but nothing unusual. We've had it hotter, and for longer, numerous times in the past.
tl;dr: stupid warmists trying to keep panic alive
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @12:24PM
35-38c being common in a place that seldom pushed 30c two decades ago (with temps usually being at most 25c) is everything but normal. You must be very young or delusional if you think the current temps are normal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @11:48PM
stupid warmists[1] trying to keep panic alive
Failed Integral Calculus, did you?
Earth Temperature Timeline [xkcd.com]
[1] ...or perhaps "warmingists".
Failed English too?
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Monday August 07 2017, @12:34PM (2 children)
Temperatures in the Netherlands have been below average for almost a month now.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @01:32PM
not outright 'Warming up' of everywhere on Earth.
That is one of the key points that needs to be discussed more in regards to Global Warming: Long term, what will the effects of a 2 degree increase be, but in the meantime, if the weather pattern changes are in fact due to global warming and not natural occurences: how dangerous are the weather patterns in the intervening years until that global rise is reached? And once that global rise is reached, will different areas meet our current expectations of a livable environment, even if traditionally temperate regions no longer do.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @04:30PM
By the standards of the past twenty years or so, this spring and summer so far have been around average, maybe a tad below, I would say.
But by 20th century standards, the temperatures this year have only very occasionally been below average. I suggest you ask someone who has consciously experienced the local climate pre-1990s for reference, they will confirm.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Monday August 07 2017, @03:15PM (1 child)
Here in Ontario, we've seen rain, rain, rain. Accompanying that has been flooding, especially in the spring.
Cloudy, rainy, cool at times like a spring or fall day. Very different from the norm of my childhood, but seems to be the norm for now (can't complain too much, i guess: winters have been milder with less snow to shovel, and less fuel used to heat, so......)
Don't know what England is like, really, but from what i've heard about rain and weather changes, it seems like we got England weather this summer. (Grass and garden doing well, except probably too much cloud and rain).
Not up on the rest of Canada and the world, though. Too tired and too much working make Gaaark something something.....
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dry on Tuesday August 08 2017, @04:18AM
On the other hand, here on the wet coast, it hasn't rained worth mentioning since summer began, temperature records have fallen, the interior is burning up, which has saved us from the heat due to the smoke. Air quality has been 8 out of ten locally, worse then China, better then Kamloops which hit 49 on a scale of 1-10, thousands evacuated due to those fires. Last winter I had 8 feet of snow where I live, after 5 years of about an inch each winter (normal is 1-2 feet). Damn near rioting in Vancouver over salt etc. It's been a weird year.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07 2017, @04:52PM
I appreciate them explaining the origin of the nickname. I thought maybe it was a reference to my ex at first.