Essay by Eric Worrall
The Queen of Tonga (21° South – tropical South Pacific) distributed blankets to help her people survive a dangerous outbreak of global warming.
Beanies, scarves and puffer jackets come out as near-record chilly weather hits parts of the Pacific
By ABC Pacific’s Nick Sas, Samoa reporter Adel Fruean, Tonga reporter Marian Kupu and Toby Mann
The people of Tonga know how to adapt to the extremes of the natural environment.
Key points:
- A weather system pulling cold air from south of Tonga has helped drive temperatures to near-record lows
- Members of Tonga’s royal family donated blankets to freezing prisoners and patients in a psychiatric ward
- The lowest temperature recorded in Tonga was 8.7C in September 1994
Cyclones, volcanic eruptions and the impacts of climate change are elements they’ve learnt to live with. But the cold weather? That’s a different matter.
“Right now we’re experiencing much colder temperatures than normal,” Rita Prema, a shop owner in the capital Nuku’alofa told the ABC.
“We’ve got customers coming in for coffee mugs, vacuum flasks, teapots and insulated bottles to keep their hot beverages warmer through these colder nights.”
…
But last week, the country recorded its second-lowest temperature ever, at 9.3 degrees Celsius.
According to Tonga Meteorological Services, the lowest temperature recorded in the country was 8.7C in September 1994.
…
Read More: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-05/chilly-weather-pacific-cold-snap-tonga-temperatures/102683406
The ABC article went on to blame “climate change” for making weather patterns unpredictable. The article also mentioned other tropical South Pacific islands are also experiencing cold weather.
Strangely the ABC forgot to use the latest UN buzz phrase “global boiling” to describe the situation in Tonga.
Let’s hope the world gets global warming under control, otherwise we could all freeze to death!
“”The people of Tonga know how to adapt to the extremes of the natural environment.””
So, no problem then.
SoCal folks break out the puffy jackets when it’s 70F.
I was in Cuba in the late 90s and one day it was about 65F, the poor waitress serving us was wearing a skidoo suit while I wore shorts.
It’s global boiling now. Global warming is so passé.
WE have an extreme zephyr whispering in from the Atlantic in England bringing perfectly normal August crappy weather much as I remember from my childhood in the fifties
I am here in England as well. Today I seem to be experiencing cold, wind and rain, but that’s just my wrongthink. The BBC and the Met Office will tell me it’s the hottest day on record.
We have had lots of rain and a hose-pipe ban. That’s the effect of global boiling for you Despite the rain, the water in the reservoirs must be being boiled off faster than the rain can replenish them.
It’s utter crap weather and it’s a typically English summer…
“”Climate change: July set to be world’s warmest month on record””
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66322608
Clearly the world has passed us by…
“”Excessive heat: Why this summer has been so hot””
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66143682
And the MetOrifice presenter on GB News stated that July was the wettest month ‘on record’. As usual, the question is ‘which set of records?’ The MetOrifice like to use their limited UK record in digital form but of course the paper records go back further. And then there is the England & Wales record that goes back further, which might be of relevance because we have seen Scotland see below average rainfall while England & Wales had seen much more rainfall. Depends on how honest you/who pays you I suppose.
Almost as bad as the storm of 19th June 1944
Watching MotoGP at Silverstone, and everyone looked like they are at the International 500 snowmobile race for the opening festivities (great races so far btw, Moto2 to go)
Locally it is a nice cool day so far (59F currently)
Cognitive dissonance in spades. Warmer = colder. Wetter = drier.
Also Orwellian….
The Ministry of truth has modified all the Historical records, and sent them to the BBC. Big Brother in action.
From the article linked to at abc dot net…
It starts well but then falls off the rails entirely, under the misconception that ‘clouds at night keep you warm’
Quote:““The major factor in this case will be the flow of air from further south coming up into this region bringing cooler temperatures,” Professor Janette Lindesay from the ANU’s Fenner School of Environment and Society told the ABC.
It’s also helping to keep the skies clear.
“When you’ve got clear skies like that, at night the heat that’s absorbed at the Earth’s surface during the day when the sun’s shining escapes, so it cools down overnight,” Professor Lindesay said.
Sorry hun, Night-time clouds mean you are already warm, the clouds are caused by warmth.
What you were told at kindergarten was so over-simplified as to be wrong
The other bit is right and a (present time) synoptic chart shows exactly why.
A monstrous High pressure (heat dome) sat upon Australia and to further to the east an almost equally monster low pressure system
And just look how tight the isobars (my red arrows) are where they meet – funnelling massively cold air- at quite serious northerly velocity (so it never gets a chance to warm up) right to where hapless little Tonga is situate.
Just look at how far from the south that air is coming from – it’ll have Penguin Poo mixed in it.
(Looking at that map, I’m really struggling to see anything resembling El Nino so there’s another fail from abcdotnet)
By now we all know what caused the huge heat dome over Australia: (and heat domes anywhere)
= Australia is a desert – little else could happen.
And when what precious little greenery (and thus water) it does posses is relentlessly stripped out, these heat domes will get bigger and longer lasting.
As Europe has been discovering recently.
Europe’s synoptic will look very similar except with the High pressure (heat dome) over central/southern Europe and the Low pressure (cold wet trough) sitting on the UK, Netherlands, Northern Germany Denmark and Northern Poland.
Said trough presently named = ‘Antoni’
Being = Heat Domes, they will be = hot so Global temps will be seen to rise as they get bigger and longer lasting
.
Now tell that to the Tongans (and most everybody here in the UK right now)
I am not to sure about your heat dome over Australia comment.
Based on the map provided I am almost near the centre of that high pressure zone.
It is COLD. Best it made today, 5 Aug, was 12.6deg C. Where is the heat?
It is a high pressure zone but not a heat dome.
The map also suggest a high close to/over New Zealand. That may have a bigger effect vs. the one over Australia.
NZ maps indicate the wind pushing not is more controlled by the high around New Zealand.
Wind mapping
It’s winter there, right? Shouldn’t it be colder than 12.6C?
Of course clouds come from evaporation off a warm surface and of course advection of cold air is the primary cause of this cold weather condition in the tropics. But that doesn’t negate the reality that clouds also delay night-time cooling and thus retain warmth. It’s a both-and situation not the either-or that you wish to imply due to your obstinate belief that the greenhouse effect doesn’t exist.
Just as soil erosion and cutting down trees are not the sole cause of deserts and carbohydrates in moderation are perfectly fine to eat. Everything you say is said with strident certainty. How did you arrive at this hidden knowledge?
“ How did you arrive at this hidden knowledge?”
From eating waayyy too many glazed donuts.
“But last week, the country recorded its second-lowest temperature ever, at 9.3 degrees Celsius”.
The temperature range in Glasgow today is 8 to 16 degrees. Since it is not currently raining, most Glaswegians think that this is a nice Summer’s day. The Tongans need to toughen up a bit.
Be fair, if most Scots visited Tonga on a normal Tongan day they’d melt…
“The temperature range in Glasgow today is 8 to 16 degrees”
Down here in near coastal NSW, Australia it’s still winter,
Temperature range from about 8 to 22 degrees ie… another glorious day. 🙂
But they are forecasting a good chance of rain over the next couple of days.
Need some for sure… We will see.
“The temperature range in Glasgow today is 8 to 16 degrees. Since it is not currently raining, most Glaswegians think that this is a nice Summer’s day.”
That’s very cold from my perspective. The current temperature in semi-tropical, Southern Queensland, Australia, currently ranges from 8 to 22 degrees C. I’m looking forward to higher summer temperatures.
Looks like it’s heading downwards. Where to?
So is cooling of the south central and southwest Pacific an artifact of El Niño? If the eastern Pacific is warming as in El Niño, the additional heat energy there has to come from somewhere in order for solar energy in the oceans to balance planet wide.
Here in beautiful central North Carolina at 7AM local it was 21C at the KRDU airport and just a few miles up the road the USCRN station was reporting 18C. Not a big deal but I wonder which temperature goes into all the temperature databases (except the USCRN)?
As I have said before.
We are experiencing our coldest heat wave ever.
Can’t wait for the BBC to report the readings from their Iceland station as they advice ‘Iceland is burning up’. The thermometer will be just ten yards (sorry I mean metres) from the erupting Farhgusfallungerluangerdonghelighter eruption, just to convey their story’s veracity.
Time to lance het global warming boils.
Here in the UK the last 4 weeks have been dismal. Three times the ‘normal’ rain fall and counting. And last week we were told that July was the warmest evah! We wonder what ‘colder than normal’ looks like.
Here’s what the world looks like centered on the “tropical pacific”. Makes one wonder how much area Tonga’s temperature is homogenized over….
That’s really a remarkable image. Nearly an entire hemisphere of ocean. Could oceans play a small role in climate? I don’t mean as much as the master control knob Magik Molekule ™ of course, but maybe just a tinch?
Last Sunday, we survived the antarctic blast by staying inside. I did not capture it real time, but here’s a screenshot from the archives at nullschool.net, showing the cyclone in the Atlantic conspiring with the high pressure system below Madagaskar, funneling a howling stream of icy wind into Africa.
Nature is so much cooler than the phantasmagorical horror stories of bleak dweeps in their ivory towers, no?
It was colder in 1994 (29 years ago) and likely so before that. Does anyone know?
Thus, being 0.6 of a C degree warmer now proves Global Boiling! Got it!
Summer on the Canadian prairies usually consists of nights so hot you can’t sleep without AC. Except this year when I get up my feet always land on a cold floor. The magical influence of the state broadcaster hasn’t yet worked for us; hottest month ever is just fantasy.
The only problem with this comment is that WUWT now kindly provides a chart of the UAH lower troposphere satellite data right on it’s sideboard. This shows that global temperatures in July 2023 were the warmest on record (not just for July but in absolute terms also, July being the warmest month globally, according to Dr Spencer). UAH hasn’t even started to respond to the developing El Nino yet.
As for colder than average weather in Tonga, ‘Look, a squirrel!’