Monday, June 25, 2007

Europe - Continent of stark contrasts.

25th June 2007

In Europe there were stark contasts between Northern areas encompassing the British Isles and the Southern-Eastern nations such as Greece and Turkey. In the latter named, the influence of the recent heat wave was undiminished, and temperatures of 43 degrees centigrade or higher, were a fair reflection of blazing winds that poured off the deserts of North Africa.

Meanwhile in Britain, and other areas of Northern Europe cool and wet conditions were the result of a complex weather system that swirled around the region with swiftly alternating temperatures, and a very unsummery outlook that was definitely no ones definition of Global Warming. I mean 14 degrees centigrade? What sort of temperature is that for a good summers day in England?

Apparently its entirely normal as the experts tell us!!!


Certainly there was no need to invoke either Global Warming, or Climate Change, to see the origins of this situation for what they really were - simply winds that happened to bring either devastatingly hot conditions, or the unpredictable variations far to the North.

With regards to the Greek heatwave it was interesting to note that not all of the nation was equally affected. In fact some regions recorded much lower temperatures - at least 10 degrees centigrade lower than others, simply because they weren't immediately in the track of the hot winds coming up from North Africa.

In fact this is a perfect illustration of the way winds of one direction or another can cause sharp variations of temperature within comparatively short distances. And once again there is not a whiff of carbon dioxide in sight - apart that is from the little that's escaping from my Coca Cola (trademark) as I write this bulletin.