成人快手

Gardening Blog

芦 Previous | Main | Next 禄

Talking about the weather

Post categories: ,听

Michael Fish Michael Fish | 07:00 UK time, Wednesday, 11 May 2011

Michael Fish

I am not really a gardener.

I potter and act on instructions from the 鈥楤oss鈥�. I get sent to buy the plants, but am not allowed to suggest where to plant them.

Mind you, with only a 鈥榩ostage鈥� stamp size garden it鈥檚 not too difficult. I have, however, in the last couple of years been promoted and honoured with the task of looking after my daughter鈥檚 allotment, as she says she no longer has the time (or is too lazy!)

However my first 'proper' attempt at being a gardener has turned out a disaster. Despite my best efforts, last year everything either went to seed or was eaten by rabbits, foxes or caterpillars. This year is no better:听the seeds I planted are just sitting there dying through lack of moisture. And that's all down to the听鈥榝unny鈥� weather鈥� we've been having. Now there I do know what I'm talking about.

So is this what global warming means, you ask? The answer could be yes and could be no. There is no doubt that the of the earth is changing, and will continue to change, as we can do nothing to stop it: only slow it, if we act soon enough and decisively enough right across the world.

We can see how the seasons have been changing in this country:听 is much earlier these days, so听the growing season in the UK starts almost听two weeks earlier than it did (and in some other parts of the world up to听six weeks earlier, with disastrous effects on local birds and insects).

We have seen drought and record-breaking high temperatures this April: echoes of 2003, the 鈥榢iller鈥� heat wave听when听temperatures reached 37.8掳C (100掳F) for the first time ever.

We can also see that the overall temperature of the Earth has been slowly but surely increasing more or less year by year - and there is NO doubt in my mind听that this is being caused by human activities such as burning immense quantities of fossil fuel.

In theory, the climate of the British Isles should be becoming much milder and wetter in the winter, and hotter and drier in the summer.

watering a garden with water from hosepipe

This has not been the case this year - but then it has always been thought that there would be variations from year to year, rather than a steady progression.

There is also a further unanswered question as to what might happen to the North Atlantic Drift, otherwise known as the Gulf Stream. Some scientists believe it could be cut off or change its route, and so give us colder winters.

It has not changed yet, so we must put the coldest December for over 100 years down to natural variation - or something else. The something else could be a change in the atmosphere鈥檚 circulation in the northern hemisphere, caused perhaps by La Nina.

In my career in the I have undoubtedly seen an increase听in what we call in the trade, 'blocking situations'. This is when the normal west鈥揺ast progression of jet stream weather systems grind to a halt, or is even reversed. This undoubtedly caused the unseasonable cold in eastern America, Europe and parts of China, while other parts were unseasonably warm.

It has also caused our record-breaking dry, warm April, but this time the block was in a slightly different place so as to feed up warm southerly winds instead of cold easterly or northerly ones.

Still: whatever happens, we should continue to have a relatively benign and lovely climate. Imagine gardening in听the devastating cyclones, hurricanes, tornadoes, searing heat waves, bone-chilling cold and听mega floods听that other parts suffer. At least we don't have to cope with that lot....听yet!

MBE听is one of the听成人快手's best-known听weathermen,听famously failing to predict the notorious 1987 hurricane. He gives talks on听global warming and meteorology听around the country.

Comments

Be the first to comment

More from this blog...

Categories

These are some of the popular topics this blog covers.

成人快手 iD

成人快手 navigation

成人快手 漏 2014 The 成人快手 is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.