Readers may recall my story from last night about the Met office and their spectacular failure of a forecast for April. See Met Office April Forecast: “…drought impacts in the coming months are virtually inevitable.”.
Today I got confirmation of the PR being foisted on the UK public surrounding that forecast, and I don’t think even Josh could outdo this one, it is one for the books.
This is British humor at its absolute finest (FAIL added by AW):
Photo by Delemere Lafferty with a h/t to commenter RichieP
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Some readers who visited Eastern Europe before The Iron Curtain fell in 1989 may remember those statements on buildings, buses, coaches, in railway stations, in soccer stadiums, anywhere. it was all one thing, citizens were encouraged to be political correct.
Wow – stunning display of misinformed opinion all around. Climate and weather are two completely different concepts. It could continue raining every day for the next 2 months, and we’d still be suffering drought. Thank you all for giving me a good laugh at the end of the day.
atlas isn’t going to shrug, is he? there is no atlas there.
and the bleat goes on…
Hide the de-rain!
Robbie:
“This is certainly their
finestfunniest hour!”There, fixed it.
Aye, no one could accuse us Brits of not getting irony.
sadbutmadlad says:
May 1, 2012 at 11:59 am
“A huge downpour will not fill the resevoir. In fact a lot of the rain will just go into the rivers and out to sea as it’s coming down too fast to soak into the ground and provide a long term supply of water for the resevoirs.”
Does the UK really rely largely on underground reservoirs for its water supply? In places with above-ground reservoirs — dammed streams and rivers — downpours are just what you want to fill them quickly.
sadbutmadlad says:
May 1, 2012 at 11:59 am
You really are sad aren’t you?
Unable to fill your swimming pool except by bucket?
Sadbutmadlad, see en.wiktionary.org/wiki/drought
drought (plural droughts)
1.A period of below average rain fall, longer and more severe than a dry spell
What is happening in the South East of England is overuse of water resources caused by overpopulation and lack of investment in the water utilities by the, usually, foreign owners.
sadbutmadlad:
I cannot decide if your post at May 1, 2012 at 11:59 am is – or is not – sarcasm. It begins;
“Yeah, but you can have a huge down pour and still be in drought. Drought is when the resevoirs are not their usual levels, sometimes caused by using too much compared to it’s input or at other times wasting it via leaks.” etc.
Everything in your post has been refuted in the previous thread at.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/04/30/met-office-april-forecast-drought-impacts-in-the-coming-months-are-virtually-inevitable/
I commend that you read all that thread. As a taster (and to answer your point which I have quoted) I copy a post I made in that thread as the end of this comment.
Richard
———————————–
richardscourtney says:
May 1, 2012 at 2:54 am
Ken Hall:
Words matter. It is Orwellian Newspeak to claim the word “drought” means other than it does. And there is no drought in England.
However, the untrue assertions of such a drought enable nonsense such as that from ‘david brown’ who says at April 30, 2012 at 11:37 pm;
“A warmer climate, with its increased climate variability, will increase the risk of both floods and droughts (Wetherald and Manabe, 2002 ] .”
His clear implication is that the “drought” in England is an expected effect of AGW.
There is no drought in England, but at April 30, 2012 at 11:36 pm you assert;
“All these things combine to create a real drought (due to a low water table) with floods if it rains heavily.”
NO! A drought is a physical impossibility in a region which is flooded.
“All these things combine to create a” shortage of stored water, but that shortage is not a “drought”.
The government has imposed an “Official Drought” to impose the hosepipe ban. But that does NOT mean there is – as you claim – “a real drought”. It only means the Ministry Of Truth has made a declaration.
The Free Dictionary defines drought as follows:
drought (drout) also drouth (drouth)
n.
1. A long period of abnormally low rainfall, especially one that adversely affects growing or living conditions.
2. A prolonged dearth or shortage.
You admit that;
“Firstly there is the low level of rain fall over the last two years. Every few decades there are periods like this.”
So, clearly you admit there has NOT been a “long period of abnormally low rainfall” and the “dearth or shortage” has not been “prolonged”. Indeed, a “shortage” does not yet exist and the ‘hosepipe ban’ has been imposed in attempt to avoid such a “shortage”.
A shortage of stored water for the now-existing population in Southern England has resulted from increasing the population while failing to build any additional reservoirs since 1975. This shortage could be overcome by providing connection of water supplies available in the North and West of England (e.g. by renovation of existing canals and using them to provide the connection).
Words matter.
Southern England has a shortage of stored water as a result of factors which have nothing to do with altered weather and/or climate.
Importantly, Southern England does NOT have a drought.
Richard
@ur momisugly sadbutmadlad, Read this:-
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5ifZBOpWOg4huOJqwDYt5_f0xzAMw?docId=N0008081335809035803A
It’s from the Press Association. Over TWENTY reservoirs in the drought area closed, not used, declared redundant! The population in the so-called drought areas has increased by about 10% in the last 20 years.
Read this, too:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/9150638/Water-why-we-are-paying-more-and-getting-less.html
The English don’t own their own water supplies any longer, the water utilities are all foreign-owned.
MET Office: Global warming caused the drought, er um rain, um flying monkey. We’ll get back to you.
Let’s add the Met Office’s latest faux-pas, shall we?
Met Office 3-month Outlook
Period: April – June 2012 Issue date: 23.03.12
SUMMARY – PRECIPITATION:
The forecast for average UK rainfall slightly favours drier than average conditions for April-May-June as a whole, and also slightly favours April being the driest of the 3 months.
I just got back from 5 rain soaked days in London. The rain was torrential. It was miserable. The silver lining? Being forced to shelter in pubs and drink beer.
sadbutmadlad says:
May 1, 2012 at 11:59 am
Yeah, but you can have a huge down pour and still be in drought. Drought is when the resevoirs are not their usual levels, sometimes caused by using too much compared to it’s input or at other times wasting it via leaks.
Bewl water is filling up nicely (from a record low I admit).
http://www.southernwater.co.uk/environment/managingresources/bewllevel.asp
[click on graph for current level, average and minimum]
lol, really coolest pic…
Well at least someone had the foresight to put the advert on a double decker bus so that when the inevitable flood followed the drought call it could still be seen above the waters.
sadbutmadlad says: May 1, 2012 at 11:59 am
Unfortunately for your theory, almost every UK reservoir is at least 95% full.
You shouldn’t believe what the BBC tells you.
Of more significance is the fact that, since privatisation, the monopoly water companies have squandered billions on implementing largely unnecessary EU directives and more billions on fancy salaries and bonuses for management.
But population of the UK has increased by 11% since privatisation and the amount of additional storage capacity is negligible. And one water company (Thames) loses more water through leakage of poorly maintained ancient pipework than the total “drought deficit” claimed for the entire Country.
Incompetence, with scare stories siezed on by the media to try to talk up the global warming scam.
Sorry. the reservoirs are nearly full, they have been for a while now. The problem is caused by not enough storage to back-up the consumption. The storage capability has barely improved on what it was PRIOR to the water system being sold to private companies, while the population has increased considerably. Leakage leads to large losses, currently one region leaks some 210 megalitres of water every DAY.
As for the bus slogan:
http://ruletheweb.co.uk/b3ta/bus/
[IMG]http://i48.tinypic.com/wuf5gj.jpg[/IMG]
“DirkH says: May 1, 2012 at 11:15 am Why do the Brits announce droughts on buses?”
This is precious! Thank you Dirk.
“Why do the Brits announce droughts on buses?”
Because Brits are used to do the weirdest things -they still keep an expensive and useless Royal House.
DirkH says:
May 1, 2012 at 11:15 am
Why do the Brits announce droughts on buses?
We have to because otherwise no one would believe it because it’s raining all the time!
I think the battle of Britain victory was due to the use of foreign pilots, especially Polish. It is a reminder that just because the odds are against you, when you fight a “good” fight, you use everything you have got, and who knows – you might win!
The wrong kind of rain is a throwback to the paralysed British Rail network blamed on the “wrong kind of snow”. It was joked one autumn that the trains stopped because of the “wrong kind of leaves” on the track. I think Nick Park played on this with his “Wrong Trousers”. As they say in Sweden, there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. In the British case, it is bad preparation.
Buses have become popular in recent years for advertising ideas rather than just things to pay cash for. Churches had ads on buses, then the high priest of athiesm decided to use a bus to say “God probably doesn’t exist”. God probably didn’t agree with him, but perhaps it would be good for the British to use probably more often, so the bus could have said “We are probably in drought”. After all, it is probably true.
“”””” hareynolds says:
May 1, 2012 at 11:47 am
Len says:
May 1, 2012 at 11:33 am
The British that won the Battle of Britain were brave patriots. They were not loony leftists seeking to destroy Britain. We must come to recognize the danger we are in from the socialists and communists and their destructive agenda. Remember Churchill? He certainly was a great man and a great patriot.
Yes, we know. Remember, he was half-Yank (on his mother’s side), a matter of considerable pride amongst knowledgable Americans.
A bronze bust of Churchill used to have a prominent place in the Oval Office, that is until our President sent it back (to the British Embassy, IIRC). Something about lingering anti-colonial sentiment from his muslim polygamist Kenyan fore-fathers. Never mind that Churchil oversaw the dismantling of the Empire; facts should never get in the way of the frisson of a politically correct leftist gesture. “””””
I’m sure that others who are better googlers than I am, can confirm (or otherwise) that Obama’s grandfather was a Maumau terrorist who machetteed the white settlers and farmers in the dark of night and burned their farms; which then PM Winston Churchill took a dim view of, and put a stop to. That is the craw in Obama’s anti-British insults. [SNIP: Sorry, George, but we are just not going there. -REP]
If you look above the roofline of the bus you’ll see the pole mounted CCTV cameras. “We know who you are”.