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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Tom G(ologist) says:
May 1, 2012 at 11:52 am
Someone on another thread today asked why we (In the States) can’t find another Reagan. Well, Brits, where is the 21st Century Maggie T? (BTW: Live here in states – actually Canadian – wife English from [dare I admit it] South End).
Tom, I know we are “a people separated by a common language” (as Chuchill put it) but it is not South End. It is, to give it its full title, Southend (all one word)-on-Sea. (Which it isn’t – it is really on the River Thames estuary).
BargHumer says:
May 1, 2012 at 1:10 pm
I think the battle of Britain victory was due to the use of foreign pilots, especially Polish.
That is NOT true. A large percentage were British young men, often straight out of school or college, who were drafted for the “war Effort” Many of the fighter pilots killed in the “Battle of Britain” (1940) were in their early 20s.
John from CA says:
May 1, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Its getting to the point where I feel sorry for the Met Office. They freely admit their models are only capable of a 5 day forecast and hope to some day achieve a 30 day forecast. They also freely admit the same models are used for climate projections.
Why are they so determined to undermine their own honesty by making foolish predictions?
It just doesn’t make any sense.
Because they are a bunch of “Civil Servants” aka bureaucrats doing as they are told by their “betters”, including a “Chairman” (Why does a department of the Ministry of Defence need a Chairman at a presumably inflated salary) who was formerly CEO of WWF (or was it Greenp…?) Europe? They even get paid bonuses on top of their excessive salaries, not for getting the forecasts right but for pushing the CAGW message.
I agree, you couldn’t make this up! No need to feel sorry for them. We who live here don’t.
Wucash says:
May 1, 2012 at 4:55 pm
It’s been droughting heavily in April and it looks like May will be more of the same.
I wonder when or if the hosepipe ban be lifted. In a few days time ground frosts are supposenly making a comeback… in May. That’s pretty unique no matter what the Met might say.
Hardly. I can recall a County Cricket Match being abandoned at Chesterfield in June……because of SNOW on the ground!
Robert of Ottawa says:
May 1, 2012 at 3:43 pm
AllanJ says @ur momisugly May 1, 2012 at 2:28 pm
(remember Glen Miller?)
He took off from Bovingdon Aerodrome heading for France and was never seen gain. I grew up over the road from Bovingdon Aerodrome; many of the sixties air war movies were filmed there. As a kid, I had Spitfires and Meschermitts dog-fighting over my house. Cool 🙂
As a kid I saw Spitfires and Meschersmitts dog-fighting over Bushey Arches….with real ammunition!
Joseph says:
May 1, 2012 at 11:29 pm
Eduardo Ferreyra says:
May 1, 2012 at 1:08 pm
“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.
—————————————————————————————————————————
Pathetic comment, clearly Eduardo has no clue what he is babbling on about, the British Royal Family are extremely popular with the citizens of the UK, they also bring vast amounts of money into the economy and they each perform on average 250+ official engagements every single year, in the Queens case over 300+ which is not bad for someone who is aged 85, tell me Eduardo what have you done in your life that comes close to matching the achievements of the British Royal Family?
I know quite a few Americans who would willingly take our Royal family. The only trouble is they insist on giving me Obama in return!
Hey Ryan,
They will have to do something about this borehole problem down South. How about a bit of fracking? That will get rid of the immigrants and poison the politicians.
I was stunned and lost last month as I entered into a “New town”. Lost was the sleepy little old place, now replaced by massive business units, big new roads and new buildings full of “white flighters” covering well over 2 sq km area * rainfall at 0.8m/year and we are talking of draining away 1.6 million tonnes of water in a year (averaging over 3 tonnes a minute) into one small river.
And they talk about floods and drought. Must be global warming.
It’s a dry rain. (Kinda like the dry heat one hears about in Arizona.)
”
Despite the rainiest April since records began, government minsters are openly speculating that total mains cutoffs and standpipes in the street may be required next year.
And yet, astonishingly, it would require only a small investment – far less than has been spent on fixing leaky pipes in recent years – to render the capital’s water supplies completely and utterly drought-proof, forever. All the fresh, drinkable water the city’s population requires for its taps, its showers and its hosepipes could be produced without taking a drop from rivers, aquifers or reservoirs, at minimal cost and with only a tiny impact on energy use and carbon emissions”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/02/water_vs_energy_analysis/
The models say it is dry and the debate has ended. Get over it.
Hardly. I can recall a County Cricket Match being abandoned at Chesterfield in June……because of SNOW on the ground!
June ’75. Six inches on the pitch at BUXTON. At a reasonble altitude above sea level. Elsewhere, including central London, it snowed heavily but did not settle.
http://www.lccc.co.uk/news/this-day-in-1975-snow-stopped-play/2894
David Jones says:
May 2, 2012 at 4:31 am
I agree, you couldn’t make this up! No need to feel sorry for them. We who live here don’t.
Absolutely. They will not feel sorry for you, the british taxpayer, when they take the next £60m for a suplurflous next super computermabob.
BargHumer says:
May 1, 2012 at 1:10 pm
I think the battle of Britain victory was due to the use of foreign pilots, especially Polish.
NOT TRUE. There was one Polish wing. That’s it. But we are never the less very grateful for their efforts.
David Jones says:
May 2, 2012 at 4:04 am
Tom G(ologist) says:
May 1, 2012 at 11:52 am
Someone on another thread today asked why we (In the States) can’t find another Reagan. Well, Brits, where is the 21st Century Maggie T? (BTW: Live here in states – actually Canadian – wife English from [dare I admit it] South End).
Tom, I know we are “a people separated by a common language” (as Chuchill put it) but it is not South End. It is, to give it its full title, Southend (all one word)-on-Sea. (Which it isn’t – it is really on the River Thames estuary).
David – is it possible Mrs Tom actually came from – South End, in Croydon? There might be others [Huish Episcopi, Greensted-juxta-Ongar, Moreton-in-Marsh, or elsewhere], but that is a real South End. Of course, it’s likely that it was Southend . . . .
I see sadbutmadlad was only a driveby.
Sad.
Speaking as a Brit, Stephen Brown seems to have it right.
I think this has been well covered here. There is no drought, just mismanagement.
The reservoirs closed I think was because of their small capacity.
There was a proposed new reservoir about the Didcot/ Abingdon area but it was rejected, purportedly because of excessive leakage in the Thames Water Authority area.
Now they’re asking people to save water!
Water is abundant on this planet. The only way to save it is to store it in a reservoir until it is needed!
As I said on EUReferendum., The infrastructure can be relieved by using water run-off from roofs to supply non-drinking water and using subsequent waste for flushing toilets
DAveE.
The FAIL is unnecessary. The original photo says it all.
global warming has now produced the wettest drought on record !!
We now have a hose pipe ban in UK – does it mean they will flip it to hose pipe OBLIGATION if it does not stop raining soon?
Will it be our patriotic duty to go out there, in the rain, and water our lawns, and wash our cars, at least once a day?
Will we be fined a £1,000 for not watering our potatoes on our soaking wet vegetable patches?
I foresee adverts on buses urging “Take a long shower twice a day – we are in Flooding”…
Oh, boy…
“Stephen Richards says:
May 2, 2012 at 1:15 pm
BargHumer says:
May 1, 2012 at 1:10 pm
I think the battle of Britain victory was due to the use of foreign pilots, especially Polish.
NOT TRUE. There was one Polish wing. That’s it. But we are never the less very grateful for their efforts.”
For the sake of Brevity here are the numbers of foreign and commenwealth pilots recognised as participating in the Battle of Britain :
Poland 145
New Zealand 135
Canada 112
Czechoslovakia 88
Australia 32
Belgium 28
South Africa 25
France 13
Ireland 10
United States 7
Ceylon 1
Jamaica 1
Southern Rhodesia 1
Unknown 7
2353 British pilots participated.
89 Polish pilots formed 302 and 303 squadrons, with the rest serving in other units.
303 Sdn claimed 126 enemy aircraft destroyed (more than any other Squadron) Top Polish score in the Battle was held by Witald Urbanowicz with 15, Tony Glowacki was one of only 2 pilots creditied with 5 kills in one day, Top scorer in 303 Sdn was Josef Frantisek who was a Czech. Top RAF scorers in the battle were Eric Lock with 21 and James Lacey with 18. 30 Polish pilots were killed during the battle Total RAF/RN casualties were 544 killed, 422 wounded.
Don’t focus the precipitation. It’s just raw data!
It gets worse ..a recent BBC2 Horizon program called “Global Wierding ” seriously put the case for extreme weather events such as the recent rain here to be caused by CAGW..
Andyj said:- ” Politicians should of been impaled at traitors gate.”
Educational standards down the pan as well.
Len your right keep up the fight we will win