By P Gosselin
A weather site’s amazingly sloppy measuremnt goes viral across Germany…
Much of Europe has been enduring a heat wave and below normal precipitation. Not surprisingly, the media are busy using the hot weather to further promote climate alarm and get more clicks however they can.
One way to accomplish this is to use sompletely bogus measurements to get viewers to believe the end of the world is near. The latest example is brought to you by Germany’s donnerwetter.de – a weather site no less!
Likely with the aim of magnifying the drama of Germany’s drought situation and the recent hot weather, donnerwetter here at Facebook posted a video showing the Rhine River’s alleged dire situation:
“28°C water temperature”, proclaims the gentleman from donnerwetter.de, after dipping his thermometer in the Rhine yesterday. Germany is cooking!
That footage of the Rhine’s temperature measurement has since gone viral across Germany, but not because of the Rhine’s 28°C temperature. The video has made a splash across the German Internet because of the obviously totally shoddy manner the measurement was performed!
2 cm depth
Firstly, the measuremnet was made in ridiculously shallow water — so shallow in fact that the man was able to walk to the spot with his running shoes on. Perhaps he didn’t want to bother taking them off. Maybe he forgot to bring boots along. No need! 2 cm depth is close enough!
The 1 sec. dip
Next, he dips the end of the thermometer in the water, but holds it there for just a second, second and a half, never allowing the instrument a real chance to react. The 28°C reading was probably the air temperature- This would make sense judging from the shadow the man casts–indicating the measurement was performed on the East side of the Rhine and the time being around 10 – 11 a.m. The video itself was posted on Facebook at 12:32 pm.
Time to heat up
The extremely shallow and still water had ample to time to heat up for hours under the bright morning sun.
Shoddy quality on display
According to its website, donnerwetter is located in Bonn, so the measurement was probably taken at the Rhine there.
Donnerwetter.de is run by meteorologist Dr. Karsten Brandt, a man we could expect to have good knowledge on how to properly take accurate measurements. It’s a real mystery how such shoddy quality got passed him. Brandt’s partner at donnerwetter.de is Michael Hoffmüller-Klein.
As of 3 pm today, donnerwetter.de still has yet to take down this embarassing video at Facebook.
At Facebook, donnerwetter.de wrote:
#Rhine: The low water levels are at 26–29 degrees Celsius—Impact on the Economy
Our forecast: The prolonged low water levels on the #Danube and especially the #Rhine will have a massive economic impact on the German economy, as they are expected to persist for weeks.
Unless the weather changes, it may not be until September that water levels reach their lowest point, well below current levels.
www.donnerwetter.de
Welcome to the new “normal” in #Europe”
