Gordon Fulks writes in about this humorous headline showing how the media catastrophises even simple things like a pleasant weekend forecast:
Hello Everyone:
Just to provide a little balance to the story about snow and cold in the Pacific Northwest that I just sent around, here is a weather story out of Britain:
Source:http://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-hot-sahara-weekend-111451996.html
One comment rewrote this headline as:
‘Sahara to be as cold as the UK this weekend’
20 degrees C is 68 degrees F.
WOW, it is spring somewhere! That’s good news.
Gordon J. Fulks, PhD
Sorry, the snow visible from space in the Sahara was for 2005
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=73130
Here is one for 2012
http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEM0T5I8RXG_index_0.html
And apparently, even Egypt didn’t miss out on the snow.
http://karakoza.blogspot.com/2012/01/snow-in-egypt.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/8199197/Gale-force-winds-snow-and-sand-storms-batter-Egypt-Lebanon-Israel-and-Greece.html
It would be fun to compare the night temperatures of South England versus the Sahara. I haven’t been to the Saraha but every desert I’ve been to got pretty cold at night. I can see the headline “Catastrophic global cooling predicted (projected) as night time Saraha desert to face freezing temperatures, even in summer”.
This reminds me of a Pravda report on a car race between the Soviets and the Americans:
Also a high ranking German after WW2:
Here in Blighty, the headline forecast for maximum temp is almost always based on central London (probably the office of the BBC’s Chairman!), which is normally 10% warmer than the surrounding areas – UHI?
@Ian W
“CRU climatologists are forecasting a tipping point into an ice age.”
I lived through the ice age drama! When I look at the climatology charts covering the last 5 million years — O BOY! — it does still look a bit scary on the cold side.
I am not a skeptic. I am a supporter of a warmer Earth!
🙂
The UK media has a long tradition of sensationalizing the weather.
The satirical magazine Private Eye, used to run parodies of this kind of reporting under the headline,
Phew, What A Scorcher
Joseph Bastardi says:
March 23, 2012 at 3:19 pm
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Joe, thanks for those links
….I see your name got bondoogled too
Never mind, there’s always a snow fall after the cricket season starts.
Rosco says:
March 23, 2012 at 2:05 pm
Wow – as hot as 20 – 21 C.
Wonder how all the Brits who migrate to SE Qld survive as during most of summer 20 – 21 is our minimum night time temp ?
I emigrated in October 1979 to SE Qld. Within two weeks I had sunstroke, and then had to endure weeks of 45C daytime temperatures. So the answer is, “just barely”.
20C sound like paradise. -3C here. Low of -8C over night with snow.
Those ‘pommy’ journos are wimps. In tropical Oz, we are over 1C below average, above average rain for March and still not once down to as low as 21C… such heavenly weather.
“Rosco says:
March 23, 2012 at 2:05 pm
Wow – as hot as 20 – 21 C.
Wonder how all the Brits who migrate to SE Qld survive as during most of summer 20 – 21 is our minimum night time temp ?
Don’t see to many out nightbathing though.”
LOL.
It’s the new definition of warm by the MSM/LSM. AGW/CC re-inventing the wheel stuff. They think the average Joe is stupid and won’t know the difference.
Even temps in an average range are classed as ‘sizzling’. We had some of this crap here over our NZ summer 23-25C was classed as ‘sizzling’
The UK Met office forecast does not agree with that – see
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/uk_forecast_temp.html
“Ne’er cast a clout, ’til May be out!” Olde English saying….Never take winter clothing off until May.
Cam_S says:
March 23, 2012 at 2:13 pm
Seal pups are killed either by hunters using the ice to hunt, or a lack of sea ice?
Warm weather expected to hamper Canadian seal hunt and endanger pups
http://www.straight.com/article-642926/vancouver/warm-weather-expected-hamper-canadian-seal-hunt-and-endanger-pups
———–
They use a bit of a trick in that article, as they mention the ice conditions of the previous 2 years and seem to mislead the reader into believing the ice conditions are the same now. The ice extent, as can be seen on WUWTs sea ice page, appears to be well above normal in that area.
Here in the midwest these last few days we’ve had temperatures 20-30 °F hotter than Death Valley. I do believe that several days in a row of 80+ °F in the middle of March will set an all-time record for central Illinois.
Kelvin Vaughan says: March 23, 2012 at 2:46 pm My news paper says Britian to boil this weekend!
My newspaper says Scotland to boil some haggis this weekend.
20-21C. Not sure about you, but even up here in Canada, that is not quite what “Sun Worshipers” are looking for…
mikemUK says:
March 23, 2012 at 2:47 pm
> (I’ve never figured out how to do degree signs!)
See the bottom part of
http://home.comcast.net/~ewerme/wuwt/index.html (see link up above on the right-side nav bar)
Use ° to get °, e.g. “Monday is 15°C”
I hope I have that right, I needed to say ° in the editor. It’s “amp;”s all the way down to the turtles.
To be fair, this isn’t global warming related nonsense – it’s standard UK journalistic fare every time we get a spell of warm weather to compare us to somewhere known for its heat which is currently cooler than here.
Well it is 22.8 deg C (73F) here (central NC) with the surrounding areas a bit higher. The average for the day is 18.3 °C (65 °F) The record high is 28.3 degrees Celsius (83 °F) (2007)
I have notice for the last couple of years the increased loopyness of the Jet Streams since it has had a profound effect on the weather in my area. http://classic.wunderground.com/US/Region/US/2xpxJetStream.html
Also we have a very “Hot” SST off the coast right now. http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sst_anom.gif
The West Coast of the US is in for another major round of Winter. It is not unthinkable that last year’s “Spring” pattern (e.g. ongoing Winter until May, ongoing Early Spring until the Solstice) may repeat.
I think I have this down.
I predict that it will get darker in about 3 hours. Since this proves I am good at scenarios and predictions, I am pretty sure that tomorrow will be warmer than it was in January. Sssssssooooooooo… Global warming.
OMG I should be writing Mann’s research papers for him, let alone UK news science articles.
MUCH easier:
Hold the Alt key and enter 248 on the number keypad: °
Lots of other good stuff available that way. Alt-26 → Alt-295 ↔ Alt-1 ☺ Alt-2 ☻ Alt-171 ½ Alt-172 ¼ Alt-155 ¢ Alt-156 £
Those are just some of the ones I’ve memorized.
° → ‘ ☺ ☻
Thanks Brian H.
I really hate the pointless comparisons with other random locations, half the time it’s complete BS. A couple of weeks back the Daily Mail were claiming that the UK (in other words, London and the SE) would be warmer than Greece despite the fact Athens was predicted to be exactly the same temperature. I get the feeling they use a temperature exchange system to give a slightly better rate just like the Euro.
If they are not making it up they are cherry picking. During winter 2010 when we had below average temps the media here claimed it was colder than Alaska, which it was. In some parts in the south of the state. Northern Alaska however was completely different.