“Overly Overcast: Germany Weathers Darkest Winter in 43 Years”
It seems that there’s a lot of gloom in Germany this Winter, more so than usual. This article in Spiegel explains why:
“The days may be getting longer, but there’s still not a hint of springtime sunshine in Germany. Weather data shows that this winter has been the gloomiest in 43 years. If the sun doesn’t start shining soon, it will be the darkest winter on record.
Winter in Germany is typically a grim affair, dark and steeped in the kind of chilly damp that goes straight to the bones — and, unhappily, to the psyche. But many residents feel that this winter has been particularly hard to bear.
Meteorologists say that’s because it has been the darkest winter in more than four decades. Less than an average of 100 hours of sunshine have been recorded so far over the course of the meteorological winter, which runs from December through February, said National Meteorological Service (DWD) spokesman Gerhard Lux on Monday. The winter average is an already measly 160 hours of sun.”
h/t to WUWT reader Michael Schaefer
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Add to the above the recent snow blanketing and solar panels and what do you have? Misery and embarrassment. I have often raised the point about overcast winters and solar panels.
Recently, according to the German meteorologist Dominik Jung this is going to be Germany’s 5th colder than usual winter. Jung, apparently, was sounding the Warmist alarm a few years back but now he seems to have changed his tone somewhat.
richard verney says:
February 27, 2013 at 10:32 pm
“Why and how politicians have been suckered into building/subsidising inefficient solar arrays and windfarms in high northern latitutes beggars belief. Any schoolboy would know the inefficiencies and that they could never be an economical way forward towards so called green energy production.”
Yes, in Orlando Florida my solar panel heats bath water 8 months a year. The other four months the water is cold. July and August in London have about the same sunlight as December and January in Orlando. How anyone could have thought solar would be useful that far north is very hard to imagine.
How are the wind turbines doing in Germany? It seems as if between 1990 to 2010 annual mean wind speeds were falling. If correct then this just is not going according to plan. Where are the stronger storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, mega-gusts? /sarc
http://www.gl-garradhassan.com/assets/downloads
http://www.cube-engineering.com/uploads/media/1457_EWEA2012presentation.pdf/Long_Term_Wind_Speed_Trends_in_Germany.pdf
Theo Goodwin says:
February 28, 2013 at 2:46 am
richard verney says:
February 27, 2013 at 10:32 pm
“Why and how politicians have been suckered into building/subsidising inefficient solar arrays and windfarms in high northern latitutes beggars belief. Any schoolboy would know the inefficiencies and that they could never be an economical way forward towards so called green energy production.”
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On the politician front, it is known that Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron’s father-in-law has a large windmill installation reaping all the subsidies etc. on offer. Is this enough reason?
Steve T
Confirm this.
This year I bought some plant lamps for my indoor plants, because they shed leaves more than usually during this season. Here in Bavaria, each day is as gloomy and gray as the day before with only a few hours of sunshine per week.
It’s really depressing while looking out of my windows and my desire for vacation in warmer regions is growing more and more.
Wednesday Addams (original TV version) had such a lovely way of saying gloomy.
David Schofield says:
February 28, 2013 at 12:40 am
“Like living inside a Tupperware box.”
No data, just my feeling like living inside a Tupperware box also, but Cape Cod Massachusetts has had a very overcast winter this year.
I guess the unusual makes the news. If you live east of a Great Lake dark, cloudy winters are pretty normal.
in the historic words of the “Hippie-Dippie Weatherman” (George Carlin): “The weather forecast for tonight will be … Dark!”
I’m sure the Weather Channel’s “Hacking the Planet” will figure it all out! You know, the one featuring some girl who dropped out of her PhD program in Neuroscience, and dated Bill Maher (ICK!) and writes for the Huffington Post, some editor with a BS in Biology, and a “science comedian” who may or may not have even attended college, I can’t tell. Yes, this is what passes as scientific rigor on the “Weather” Channel. A disgrace in the most profound meaning of the word.
I’m in southern Germany today. It is overcast, there is snow on the ground, its cold.
It is obvious that some of the good folks in Germany have spent their entire lives indoors because of abundant energy and inexpensive electricity. Now with increased cost due to Green energy and electric feed in tariffs, they are switching off the lights and going outside.
“Ya’ know, it’s kinda’ dark out here!”
So, how dark was it 44 years ago?
I am disappointed at the adverse comments on that wonderful renewable form of energy, solar power. It works 24 hours a day in all weathers and is particularly effective at night when most power is required and during gloomy winter days when a bit more heat is needed.
Oh, sorry! I was thinking about grown up power sources like coal fired or nuclear power stations
Tonyb
The answer is simple, point a wind powered light at a solar powered fan. TaaDaa!
Germany has 15% of its people now in energy poverty (google: germany energy poverty) they are in energy poverty because of subsidies paid to the solar power and windmill manufacturers for ‘renewable’ energy systems that don’t work. It is astounding that a country that prides itself on its engineering prowess could have fallen so easily for this confidence trick.
UK is in an even worse state with a solid probability now that within 5 years there will be rolling blackouts as they are closing functional major power generation plants because they use coal and have put up non-functional windmills under some deluded scheme that they will replace the solid base load required. (and yes this may be due to the Prime Minister’s father in law getting $1500 a DAY in subsidies from windfarms on his land).
Rhys Jaggar says:
February 27, 2013 at 11:14 pm
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You are right, storage is the isssue.
In sunny climes, low grade solar thermal works acceptably well. I live in Spain and usually there is not a cloud in the sky. It is probably sunny for around 330 days a year and it is rare to have more than 3 consecutive cloudy days (does happen but rare).
With an appropriate storage tank, solar thermal will produce all the domestic water for a small household for about 10 months of the year. In the winter months it contributes something but you need to supplement with an immersion heater. With a large household and high water usage it may not cope for about 4 months a year.
The advantage of solar thermal is that it is cheap, systems can be had for as little as $1,000 (plus fitting), and hence the pay back time is only a few years. PVR is expensive with batteries and inverters and it is difficult to envisage that a system would ever pay for itself. Their use is best confined to remote areas which are not coupled to the grid.
Rhys Jaggar wrote:”Now if Washington State were developing technology, maybe they would be closer to our climate??”
There was the Fast Flux Test Facility: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Flux_Test_Facility
Murdered in it’s sleep in 2005…
“Happiness is a warm fast breeder.”
Old Hanford area T-shirt
\
Waiting for the headline “Global Warming Causes Dark Winters” should be out any minute now.
Absolutely hilarious!
Eric says:
February 27, 2013 at 8:54 pm
I wonder how all those new solar farms are doing?
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john robertson says:
February 27, 2013 at 8:56 pm
How are those solar panels putting out for you? Germany.
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They don’t know. The guy whose job it is to clean the snow off the panels has been out sick all winter. 🙂
Average 100 hours? That can’t be per day or per week, so is it per month or per winter?
REPLY: per this winter. -A
Didn’t Svensmark’s theory say that low solar activity would result in more clouds?
The Germans in the long haul are not fools. They are already redeveloping coal and making moves to recover an economy devastated by fools and economic handouts to EU wastrels. Ultimately, they will lead the fools out of the wilderness. I’m surprised its taking so long though..
It is clear that global warming causes innumeracy: the inability to compute that in a country like Germany the winters are always overcast and lousy for solar power, and some more overcast than average. It is the inability of Hansen to compute that if “eventually” we burn all the fossil fuels which “eventually” causes the ice caps to melt, this is an event nearly 3000 years distant, not a crisis for today.