Every morning I like to trawl through the BBC News website, and every morning I manage to catch something suitably fishy. Usually, it is a ‘news’ item designed to kindle eco-anxiety so that we may more readily accept a domestic heating system that will not work, wheezy cars that many won’t be able to afford, a smart metering system designed to facilitate disconnection from an increasingly unstable electric grid, and an industrialised landscape festooned with bird-munching eyesores that I am reliably informed can farm the wind on those days it dares to pass by. Given how much bullshit has already been expended fertilizing this alarm, you’d think that I would be good and ready by now to hand in my sceptical weaponry as part of the deniers’ amnesty that surely must be just around the corner. But I’m not there yet.

Not that the BBC would ever admit to being alarmist. Nor indeed would such an allegation be accepted by the Met Office or the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). Theirs is not to alarm but merely to alert. Yes, they are nothing more than alertists, and (as of the start of June) their alertist services have been extended to warn us of that thermal hell we used to call summer. Appropriately, the alarm levels – sorry, alert levels – are painted with the palette of control:

  • Green – Nothing to see here, move on
  • Yellow – If you are at death’s door then the heat may give you a helpful push
  • Amber – So hot that even the woke yoof may start wilting and the papers will start proclaiming ‘Hotter than Madrid’
  • Red – We’re all going to die

All very helpful, I’m sure you will agree. And all very necessary says the BBC because:

Will Lang, from the Met Office, said the effects of human-induced climate change were already being felt on UK summers “with an increase in the frequency, duration, and intensity of extreme heat events over recent decades”. The health alerts would help save lives, protect property and the economy “as we all work to tackle adverse weather and climate change”, he said.

He said that then, did he? Okay, but I wonder what the Office of National Statistics has been saying recently on this subject. Well, it just so happens that this is the very sort of thing that it has been collecting data on and it has published its findings in a paper titled, ‘Climate-related mortality and hospital admissions, England and Wales: 2001 to 2020’. Sounds kinda relevant, so what does the data say regarding recent trends in temperature-related deaths?

Over a 20-year period the estimated change in deaths associated with warm or cold temperature was a net decrease of 555,094, an average of 27,755 deaths per year (Table 1). A decrease in deaths from outcomes associated with cold temperature greatly outnumbers deaths associated with warm temperature.

Ah yes, I hear you say. But the decrease in cold-related deaths has nothing to do with the benefits of warming and everything to do with the benefits of improved insulation in housing. Whereas, the increase in heat-related deaths has everything to do with the perils of warming and nothing to do with a failure to improve air-conditioning.

To which I reply: What increase in heat-related deaths? According to the ONS:

“We found relatively little increase in deaths caused by warmer weather and a reduction in deaths caused by cold winters, leading to a net decrease in deaths”

Ah yes, I hear you say. But what about other countries?

To which I reply: This is not about other countries. This is about an alert system introduced in England to deal with a heat-related death crisis that does not exist in England, combined with a failure to introduce an alert system in England to deal with a cold-related death crisis that does.

Ah yes, I hear you say. But what about the future? Cold related-deaths are receding and there will come a point when heat-related deaths do start to rise and take over, even in the UK.

To which I reply: This may be true, but that would be a problem for the future. The UKHSA’s heat alert system is a solution to a crisis that is supposed to exist today. The reason why it has been introduced today (when there has never been a cold alert system) is because buy-in to Net Zero is wanted today, and that buy-in requires achieving certain levels of eco-anxiety no later than this summer.

Ah yes, I hear you say. But is Lomborg a scientist? To which I reply: I don’t remember mentioning Lomborg.

202 Comments

  1. UKHSA and Met Office have an internal ‘humour alert system’ which flashes amber or red every time a post or article is published which ridicules their OTT ‘extreme’ weather propaganda. It’s definitely flashing red now. Utter pillocks.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Jaime,

    I’d like to think they are blushing right now but I suspect there is no way anything I write will have any impact whatsoever on their thinking. Indeed, such is the thrall of the zeitgeist that no amount of data will cause them to take note. It’s not as though I deny a value in having such a system, it’s just that they call it a ‘health alert’ system and then ignore the major cause for temperature-related health concern. And they do so because they have to stick to the climate crisis agenda. It’s actually quite deplorable when you think about it. If they stopped hyping the summer and started dealing more seriously with the winter, then maybe a lot more lives would be saved.

    On a positive note, due largely to global warming in the UK, the temperature-related death toll continues to fall.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. John,

    Excess winter deaths have been climbing slightly since they reached a low point in the first decade of the 21st century, having declined significantly since the 1950s. Where they go from here is anybody’s guess but with rationing of electricity, possible blackouts, useless heat pumps and increases in the cost of living as well as energy, my guess is that they will continue to climb on average. It’s also probable that we will begin to see colder than average winters as AMO continues into its negative phase. So, if health was the concern, UKHSA and the Met Office would definitely be setting up a cold weather alert system. But of course we know that the main concern is to sell the imaginary ‘climate crisis’ so fear-mongering about a few hot days is high on the agenda.

    What’s interesting is that EWD shot up in 2020/21, but they fell right back in 2021/22. We can only speculate as to what may have caused the sharp increase in 2020/21 – the official excuse is ‘Covid’. But it seems that so many people have been dying outside of winter months since 2021, that there weren’t enough vulnerable people left to die in winter 2021/22!

    “In the 2021 to 2022 winter period, 13,400 more deaths occurred in England and Wales compared with the average of the non-winter periods (Figure 1). This was the second-lowest number across the whole time series; the lowest occurred in 2019 to 2020 (Figure 2).

    The decrease in our winter deaths measure is affected by the larger number of deaths observed during the non-winter period, particularly between August to November 2021. Previous analysis has shown that since April 2020, deaths in the non-winter months have increased.”

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/excesswintermortalityinenglandandwales/2021to2022provisionaland2020to2021final

    But even so, 13400 deaths is probably at least 10 times more than the ‘excess summer deaths’ which can be attributed directly to very hot weather and heat stress.

    Like

  4. Jaime,

    It all gets very messy when one focusses in on specific years, as harvesting effects can account for so much. Also, no-one is claiming that getting to the bottom of causation is straightforward; there are so many social considerations to be taken into account. As you say, who knows where the trends will take us from here? However, if we want to entertain the idea that any increase in summer deaths is attributable to global warming, then the same license has to be granted for any decrease in winter. Besides which, as it stands, temperature-related winter deaths in the UK still greatly outnumber those for summer.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. John,

    Nicely done. The Met Office, I am afraid, can be relied on more for climate propaganda than it can for weather forecasts.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Summer, please come and get me. We haven’t seen more than a few glimpse of the.sun in Norfolk over the past week. Mostly it’s been cloudy and cold, contrasting greatly, according to the BBC’s weather service with the sunny uplands of the west. We get occasional predictions of future sunny weather but when those occasional days arrive we wake to relentless clouds and gloom. It’s not fair!!!!!!! For us, near the North Sea coasts, the promise by the BBC to warn us of excessive heat is a cruel, cruel joke.

    Like

  7. Alan,

    We on the North East coast of England share your frustration. We long to be alerted, but two hot days on the trot is too much for us. It just feels so unnatural.

    Like

  8. But John the BBC are so deliberate in their squashing of our summer dreams. We look ahead on the BBC weather forecast to be encouraged by the vision of a solid sun symbol for say four days in the future. Then we watch as that symbol gets progressively cloud covered as the days go past and the predicted maximum temperature plummets. I’ve said it before, it’s not fair’!!!!!!!!!

    Like

  9. The Beeb, Met Office et al are clearly heeding the call to arms: “Be alert, your country needs lerts”. That has now been updated: “Be aloof, your country has enough lerts”.

    I’ll get me coat……

    Like

  10. Wall to wall sunshine here in the North West and the forecast is for just more of the same right up until June 9th. The soils are very dry now so I expect they will be introducing hosepipe bans soon. We’re currently making our way up to Scotland, whilst enjoying the glorious sunny weather, which is not too hot, just right! Sorry for those of you on the east coast, but it’s not often that the Cumbrian coast is sunnier and warmer than the North Norfolk coast!

    Liked by 1 person

  11. “UK may have hottest day of year so far as temperatures soar
    Porthmadog in Wales hits Saturday high of 23.9C and dry weather is likely to remain for at least another week”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jun/04/uk-weather-hottest-day-of-year-so-far-as-temperatures-soar

    Drumroll…

    The UK could record its hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures potentially reaching 26C.

    On Saturday a UK high of 23.9C was recorded in Porthmadog, Wales, and on Sunday temperatures are expected to be slightly higher. The dry weather is likely to remain for at least another week.

    The Met Office meteorologist Rachel Ayers said: “People can expect 24C or 25C in the warmer spots and there could even be a high of 26C in sheltered areas in the west.”

    She said there was a low chance of 26C being recorded, adding: “We’d be looking at that somewhere in the west, probably similar kinds of areas, parts of Wales, maybe south-west England.”

    It’s summer, and those temperatures are nothing to write home about. Not that it’s summer everywhere in the UK:

    There will be temperatures on Sunday on eastern coasts of about 15C or 16C, while inland areas will be warmer with highs of 18C to 20C.

    Of course, we have to be told how to cope:

    NHS hot weather advice recommends that people stay cool indoors, keep hydrated and out of the sun between 11am and 3pm, apply sunscreen regularly and avoid exercising during the hottest parts of the day.

    Like

  12. Alan, Jaime – Wall to wall sunshine also here in The Isle of Man, just in time for the TT bike races. best TT weather we’ve had in years.

    John – re head post, from the BBC post –
    “Dr Agostinho Sousa, head of extreme events and health protection at the UK Health Security Agency, said the alert system would play “a vital role”.

    “Last year saw record high temperatures across England and evidence shows that heatwaves are likely to occur more often, be more intense and last longer in the years and decades ahead,” he said.”

    had to google “UK Health Security Agency” –
    “About us, The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is responsible for protecting every member of every community from the impact of infectious diseases, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents and other health threats. We provide intellectual, scientific and operational leadership at national and local level, as well as on the global stage, to make the nation’s health secure.”
    “UKHSA is an executive agency, sponsored by the Department of Health and Social Care.”
    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/framework-document-between-the-department-of-health-and-social-care-and-the-uk-health-security-agency/framework-document-between-the-department-of-health-and-social-care-and-the-uk-health-security-agency

    looks to me like they were set up to stop another COVID-19 like pandemic, but need another panic in the mean time to ensure funding.

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  13. dfh,

    UKHSA was formerly Public Health England. They changed its name during the plandemic to make it sound more scary and it has now embraced the WHO ‘One Health’ philosophy, emphasising the interconnectedness of the health of the planet, animals, plants and people, especially the twin threats posed by the alleged ‘climate crisis’ and ‘biodiversity crisis’.

    My dogs wish they were back on the east coast! The problem is, it’s been so cold and miserable for so long (the last time the UK registered a temperature of 20C was in November 2022 and September 2022 was the last time we had prolonged warm weather) the sudden upturn in the weather has come as a shock to the system. But then, it’s called the British weather and it’s been happening like this for thousands of years. Give it a few months, and we’ll probably all be complaining about how wet it is and the Met Office will have switched from warning about drought to telling us that increased rainfall and more intense rainfall is ‘what we would expect from climate change’! Then the UKHSA will be pinging people’s mobile phones with flood warnings.

    Like

  14. To all in the sun-parched west, we in the eastern part of the realm joined you over much of the weekend with sun for much of it. Although temperatures rose, cooler air from the NorthSea kept us from even reaching the dizzying heights of 20oC, Today the gloom is back and greyness pervades our skies. It’s still not fair!!

    Like

  15. John,

    Eco-anxiety is not a mental health issue; it is entirely the result of knowing about physics and the crushing inevitability it brings to the situation:

    “It dawned on me,” she says. “The physics behind this haven’t changed in my lifetime. They’re not going to change going forward.”

    Jennifer is one of a growing number of people who have experienced “eco-anxiety” – a chronic sense of hopelessness and fear of environmental doom.

    “It presented itself as depression and anxiety,” she says. She felt completely paralysed and often unable to get out of bed.

    Thank God I’m a physics denier, that’s all I can say!

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Jaime,

    Like Jennifer, I too took a degree in physics and ended up very depressed. However, it wasn’t because it taught me of the crushing inevitability of global disaster. It was because I learnt of the crushing inevitability that it would never make me famous. Activism started to look like a better prospect but I was never the active type.

    Liked by 2 people

  17. “Hot weather: New health alert as weekend temperatures to hit 30C”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65837317

    A heat-health alert has been issued for parts of England as temperatures are predicted to hit 30C (86F) over the weekend.

    The alert is in place from 09:00 BST on Friday 9 June to 09:00 on Monday 12 June in London, the Midlands, eastern and southern England.

    People are being asked to check on vulnerable friends and family.

    It’s all rather odd. I don’t recall people being asked to check on vulnerable friends and family during the two bitterly cold snaps last winter – weather that was much more likely to damage the health of, or even kill, such people.

    Needless to say the BBC goes full climate alarmist, and uses this article as an excuse to insert all the usual propaganda:

    Last year was the UK’s warmest ever – Coningsby, in Lincolnshire, reached a record 40.3C on 19 July.

    The UKHSA expects heatwaves are “likely to occur more often, be more intense and last longer in the years and decades ahead”.

    The new colour-coded alert system, launched last week, is run by the UKHSA and the Met Office. It is aimed at reducing illness and deaths among the most vulnerable.

    With climate change, heatwaves are likely to be more frequent.

    The forecast might be right, but it might not. Where I am, we’ve just experienced days of cool, cloudy weather, having promised 20C+ and unbroken sunshine.

    The whole BBC article is sensationalist, alarmist, and potentially consists of misinformation. The headline says “weekend temperatures to hit 30C”. That’s categorical, no hesitancy or qualifications. I assume they bank on many people not reading past the headline or the opening sentences of the article. The opening sentence of this article, just to remind you, said:

    …temperatures are predicted to hit 30C (86F) over the weekend.

    Slightly less categorical (“predicted to hit”, rather than “to hit”), but still pretty confident. However, read on. The chart (covered in dark red colours, of course – scary, scary) has a 29 (C) over south eastern England and 24, 25 or 26 over the rest of the country. Then quoting BBC Weather meteorologist Tomasz Schafernaker, we are told:

    …”Typically highs will reach the mid to high 20s widely across the country, but there is an outside chance of 30C in England. This is dependent on sunshine. The forecasts point to increasing amounts of cloud and the chance of thunderstorms which will have a bearing on the highest temperatures….

    So, in reality, only “an outside chance of 30C” and only in [a small part of] England, at that.

    Where I live (no number displayed on the map in the article, but extrapolating from the numbers scattered around, I assume I should expect somewhere between 24C and 26C), the BBC forecast has the temperature potentially touching 25C for up to two hours around 3-4pm on Saturday. Sunday is forecast to be wet, with a maximum temperature of 21C.

    Be afraid – very afraid.

    PS Out of curiosity, I also checked the BBC weather forecast for Greater London (often the hottest part of the UK< due both to the urban heat island effect, and also due to geography) and I see that its temperature is also forecast to peak at 25C, but for up to four hours, on Saturday. The following week also sees highs of 25C, with 4pm on Wednesday forecast to touch 26C briefly. Where is the mythical 30C? Nowhere that I can see (I also checked the forecast for sundry locations in the south east of England, and none of them showed a high of more than 25C).

    Liked by 1 person

  18. Mark, this absurd fear-mongering re. warm weather is looking more and more like it’s coming straight out of the Covid playbook. They scared the hell out of the nation once and they obviously think they can do it again in order to ‘nudge’ people into modified behaviours concerning the supposed ‘climate crisis’. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same behaviourists responsible for the Covid ‘shock and awe’ propaganda campaign are now orchestrating the campaign to promote public alarm about perfectly normal summer weather. It’s starting to get pretty intense. They are determined to pervert the public perception of hot weather for their own ends. You can’t enjoy summer anymore if you watch or listen to main stream media.

    Like

  19. “Weekend hot weather alert escalated to amber”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65849525

    A weekend heat-health alert has been raised from yellow to a more severe amber warning in eastern and southern England, and the Midlands.

    The amber alert – in place from 09:00 BST on Friday – indicates high temperatures could affect all ages and impact the health service.

    The alert, issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), continues until 09:00 BST on Monday.

    Temperatures are forecast to hit 30C and some thunderstorms are expected….

    This purports to be a completely different report, but much has been cut and pasted from the earlier one, especially the climate change alarmism stuff.

    I am not sure why the alert has been escalated to amber, nor what justifies the claims of 30C heat said to be expected at the weekend. Greater London is now forecast to peak at 26C for a few hours on Saturday afternoon, and I haven’t succeeded in finding anywhere else in the south or midlands of England forecast to get beyond 25C. Either the BBC weather forecast is hopelessly wrong, or the alarmism is hopelessly unjustified.

    Like

  20. Mark,

    You beat me to it. I too cannot see the justification for the escalation. The article makes no attempt to. My region (yellow alert) has been promised a high of 22C by the BBC. My mother lives in an amber alert region and can look forward to 25C. This does not look like a particularly useful alert system, but the propaganda value is something else. And the best is that the ‘heat wave’ doesn’t even have to happen. The alert’s the thing.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Jaime,

    The Met Office issues weather warnings and the UKHSA issues health alerts. In my article I deliberately refer to the UKHSA alerts as heat alerts, to contrast them with the strangely absent cold alerts. If they were truly health alerts then both hot and cold extremes would be included. But I have to say it’s an odd health alert system that can change its status when the weather forecast hasn’t.

    Liked by 2 people

  22. The UKHSA do intend to issue cold weather alerts this winter, if we survive to see it. Three relevant documents are available on this page: an adverse weather and health plan, the supporting evidence for that plan, and a user guide for the weather-health alerting system.

    I have searched all three to find the temperature thresholds that define the alert levels (or the other criteria that define them) but have drawn a blank. The only definitions I can see are the alleged outcomes.

    Meanwhile the cold weather alerts will be with us from November this year, which will also see the publication of an equity report on the performance of the alert system’s summer implementation.

    The sum effect of the three documents is to portray the UKHSA as an organisation desperately seeking to head off a well-deserved severe funding cut.

    What they have done by issuing an amber alert this week is to portray themselves as a joke and England as a joke. Let us hope there is sufficient derision in response to this that the alert system quietly disappears, to be resurrected only to warn of an actual emergency, not an ordinary summer’s day.

    Like

  23. Jit,

    Well it is certainly welcome news to see that they do intend introducing cold weather health alerts, but it seems odd that this fact is absent from the news reports. As for the amber alert for an ordinary summer’s day, I can only assume that they have always been dangerous and we are belatedly being warned of this. And of course ordinary summer’s days will become more common with global warming as winter morphs into a second summer 🙂

    Like

  24. I await news that the BBC Heat Police will be interrogating passengers at U.K. airports this weekend that are destined for even hotter parts of Europe. What on earth can such passengers be thinking of? They need urgent Aunty advice.

    Liked by 1 person

  25. Alan – that’s me, Palma Nova here we come, only problem may be thunderstorms 😦

    Like

  26. “Bright Red Weather Maps and Fake Temperature ‘Records’ Drive Climate Panic”

    https://dailysceptic.org/2023/07/18/bright-red-weather-maps-and-fake-temperature-records-drive-climate-panic/

    …Come rain or shine, flood or drought, the weather is being ruthlessly weaponised to persuade us to embrace a collectivist Net Zero plan. Last week, heavy rain caused some flash flooding in Vermont. USA Today claimed that “dramatic flooding” was rare in Vermont, adding: “Expect more amid climate change.” The BBC reported the event, adding the routine house scare that “climate change makes extreme rainfall more likely”. What is missing in all this propaganda is any proof of the claims and any attempt to put bad weather into an historical perspective.

    In a paper looking at the climate variability of the American state’s natural hazards, published in 2002 by the Vermont Historical Society, it was noted:

    One of the most pervasive hazards that impinges upon and marks the Vermont landscape is flooding. Rarely does a year elapse without a flooding event of a significant magnitude being reported in at least one of Vermont’s 14 counties or perhaps state-wide, making this the number one hazard across the state….

    …In the past, Heller notes temperatures over 38°C were recorded in Alaska over 70 years ago. In 1957, the Soviet weather service reported a week of 38°C temperatures north of the Arctic circle. In Phoenix, Arizona, there were 18 consecutive days of 43°C in 1974, at a time, Heller notes, when there was a fear of global cooling. This record may be broken in the near future he continues, but it will not have anything to do with global warming, just as the temperatures in 1974 had nothing to do with global cooling. The U.S. is likely to see highs of 38°C in Texas and the desert southwest, observes Heller, but in 1936, 13 states were over 43°C and 30 passed 38°C. Illinois was over 45°C, and people were reported to be dying from the heat in Detroit at the rate of one every 10 minutes.

    The fact is that the percentage of the United States that reaches 38°C sometime during the year has plummeted since the 1930s.

    The graph above shows that since the mid 1930s, the number of U.S. weather stations recording at least 38°C (100°F) has fallen by half. In addition, it shows the trend sharply decreasing since the turn of the century. People in authority, argues Heller, are pushing for the demise of fossil fuels using fake statistics and blood-red maps. The red fires of hell, he suggests, have always been used to scare the public into conforming.

    Liked by 2 people

  27. Haha, it’s so nice to see the BBC having to eat humble pie and admit that the crap summer weather we’re having in the UK (not a chance of a heatwave happening well into August) is part and parcel of the same WEATHER system which is responsible for the (not) record breaking heatwave in southern Europe.

    “While the intense heatwave continues across southern Europe, the United Kingdom has been much cooler and wetter.

    Weather patterns have been stuck in the same position and there is no real sign of that changing.

    The UK therefore is not likely to see any of that extreme heat in the coming days or weeks.

    So when are we likely to see any warmth return?

    After the UK’s warmest June on record, the weather patterns took a significant shift.

    We said goodbye to high pressure which brings generally settled weather and a feed of warmer air from the south and replaced it with low pressure bringing rain and cooler weather.

    This change was due to movement of the jet stream – a fast wind high in the atmosphere.

    To the north of the jet stream you have the cooler Arctic air with rain-bearing weather systems being formed. To the south is where the warmer tropical air sits.

    The north-to-south movement of the jet stream dictates, therefore, how warm or cool it might be in any location.

    Right now, the jet stream is stuck in a position through central Europe and we call this a blocked weather pattern.

    The heat across southern Europe has been intensifying in this pattern with temperatures widely above 40C, peaking at around 46C in Sardinia on Tuesday.

    The longer-term weather models show the jet stream moving further north into August, which could bring the UK higher temperatures – but an intense heatwave like they are experiencing in southern Europe isn’t expected.

    Whether climate change is having an impact on blocked weather patterns responsible for the current heatwave is complex and not entirely clear.

    However, when we do get weather patterns like this, scientists are clear.”

    https://www.bbc.com/weather/features/66234637

    The Met Office looks particularly stupid. Three weeks ago, they were telling us that 40C again this year is ‘not impossible’, now they’re telling us we’re stuck with autumnal weather until mid August and there’s not much chance of any record breaking temperatures even then!

    Like

  28. I am guessing that “peaking at around 46C” means it fell a little short of 46C, and was well short of the record. The disappointment is almost palpable.

    Like

  29. >”Whether climate change is having an impact on blocked weather patterns responsible for the current heatwave is complex and not entirely clear.”

    So that’ll be a ‘no’ then.

    Liked by 1 person

  30. In North America, much is being made of the City of Phoenix breaking a temperature record. From the New York Times:
    “In the United States, Phoenix broke a nearly half-century-old record on Tuesday, with the city’s 19th consecutive day of temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius)”
    As noted here before, as record length increases it is likely “records” will be broken. Not much is being made of why the high temperature was so sustained in Phoenix in 1974.

    Like

  31. OMG, the summer heatwave climate Apocalypse is here (except in the UK of course):

    “The extreme temperatures sweeping the globe this week are the new normal in a world warmed by climate change, the UN weather agency says.

    Temperatures went over 50C (122F) in parts of the US and China on Sunday.

    The World Meteorological Organization warned the heatwave in Europe could continue into August.

    Millions around the world are under heat advisories as officials warn of danger to life from the hot temperatures.

    Night-time in Europe and the US is not expected to bring widespread relief as temperatures stay above 30C in places including Arizona or southern Spain.”

    Fredi has unwittingly put herself out of a job because she now claims 100% attribution to climate change of all heatwaves, everywhere!

    “Leading UK scientist Dr Frederieke Otto, from Imperial College London, told the BBC that “what we are seeing at the moment is exactly what we expect in a world where we are still burning fossil fuels”.

    Humans are “100% behind” the upward trend in global temperatures, she explains.

    Also, we’ll never know what the new normal climate is like until we stop burning fossil fuels, because at the moment the climate is unstable – we’re on a permanent helter-skelter ride.

    “Dr Otto says we have no idea what the new normal will look like because “we are not in a stable climate”.

    We will only find out what the new climate looks like once the world stops burning fossil fuels and switches to green energy, she suggests.”

    The world is not going to stop burning fossil fuels any time soon, obviously, so we’re doomed for sure, but politicians in the UK assure us that we’re not doomed if we can do our bit here in the UK and install a heat pump and cycle to work – it will make all the difference, they assure us.

    So this is what it’s like to live in a lunatic asylum.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66229057

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  32. John,

    Dr Friederike Otto apparently has no such doubts:

    “Europe heatwaves: Wildfires rage in Greece as temperatures soar”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66237960

    Leading UK scientist Dr Frederieke Otto, from Imperial College London, told the BBC that “what we are seeing at the moment is exactly what we expect in a world where we are still burning fossil fuels”.

    Humans are “100% behind” the upward trend in global temperatures, she explains.

    The International Energy Agency has said there can be no new oil, gas or coal projects if governments are serious about tackling climate change.

    That's 100%. No natural input at all.

    Meanwhile, note well that the IEA is a climate change campaigning organisation, and not the objective independent expert organisation that the BBC and the Guardian usually present it as being.

    [Edit: end blockquote tag corrected – rd]

    Like

  33. Travelling home at 20:00 last night we could see 4 wind farms, 2 in Ochils and 2 seen from Stirling. Not a single turbine moving, the sky was black with clouds so minimal solar ! Checked the grid performance when we got home, less than 10% for renewables. The Brave New World (except for China and India) of no power green living.

    Liked by 2 people

  34. Grid running at 22% renewables – wind 11% , solar 10% and some hydro. Who has the wind and sun , not a breath of wind here and it’s p’ing with rain, so much for the Saudi Arabia of wind power.

    Like

  35. Jaime,

    I don’t think Otto is saying that all heatwaves are 100% attributable, but she is saying that there is an upward trend that is 100% attributable. Even the IPCC in AR6 only said that they were 95% confident that more than half of the trend was attributable. So where she is getting her information from, I don’t know. I suspect that she is playing her usual trick of relying entirely upon the probability of necessity to make her point. As a co-author of the following paper, she knows better than this, and so what she does qualifies as intellectual dishonesty in my book.

    Click to access r451-reprint.pdf

    Liked by 1 person

  36. John,

    Of course, she wouldn’t ACTUALLY make herself redundant, because she’s not stupid – she knows where her bread is buttered. But allowing herself to be quoted in such a manner as to give the IMPRESSION to a gullible public that ‘what is happening’ (heatwaves occurring NOW, across the globe) is 100% due to climate change, is very irresponsible. It may be that the BBC took her words out of context, but then she would be complaining to them about doing so and taking the matter up with Ofcom if she was that bothered (and pigs might fly).

    “What we are seeing at the moment is exactly what we expect in a world where we are still burning fossil fuels”.

    Humans are “100% behind” the upward trend in global temperatures, she explains.

    Liked by 1 person

  37. Jaime,

    She wrote a paper that demonstrates how easy it is to mislead if one is not precise with one’s attribution statements. You would think, therefore, that she would be very keen not to be misquoted. I think she knows exactly what she is doing. As Dr Peter Scott of the Hadley Centre put it:

    “If the public hears that a particular weather event is consistent with climate change they may conclude that it is further proof of the immediate consequences of human-induced global warming. On the other hand, if the public hears that it is not possible to attribute an individual event, they may conclude that the uncertainties are such that nothing can be said authoritatively about the effects of climate change as actually experienced.”

    And we wouldn’t want that!

    Liked by 2 people

  38. Am intrigued by the BBC News over the last few days. Deprived of spreading news of wildfires affecting the British countryside or high temperatures that could be used to push the climate change mantra, news stories over the past few days recall such phenomena as they occurred last year. News presenters wistfully recall such heady days. I feel so sorry for them: broadcasting about fire damage, hot air temperatures and climate change in Greece of Italy is no compensation for having to resort to stories of thunderstorms in the Home Counties. Local News is really suffering!

    Like

  39. Alan,

    Listening to the weather forecast on BBC Radio 4 early this evening, I was struck by how half of the forecast was devoted to telling us how hot it was in southern Europe right now, and also reminding us that this time last year we were in the middle of a heatwave in the UK. Then reluctantly, the forecaster turned to telling us about the cool showery weather here (autumnal was the word they used).

    Like

  40. Truly pathetic. They were looking forward to a summer of misinformation, propaganda and scaremongering about the weather, but instead the weather has rained on their parade and now they’re like children deprived of their toys.

    Like

  41. and it’s called “weather” not “climate change” – they have to remind us “it was hot this time last year” just in case joe public think our july weather has been crap this year, but still be scared.

    Like

  42. After revving up the media machine to maximum in preparation for a hot summer, they got their asses handed to them by the unexpected southerly dip of the jet stream this year, which looks like it’s ‘stuck’ in that configuration until mid August. So expect the MSM to start rolling out ‘the climate change causes loopy jet stream’ propaganda in earnest very soon. There are already hints of it at Paul Homewood’s site:

    Heatwaves and the Loopy Jetstream

    The Met Office video he links to is actually quite informative (just for a change!) and correctly identifies the current northern hemisphere stationary wave pattern (wavy jet stream) as being responsible for both our washout July and the current series of heatwaves in the northern hemisphere. But me being cynical, I expect this is just a pre-empt to a renewed push to link wavy jet stream with climate change.

    Like

  43. JamesS,

    This is the sort of thing that makes it very difficult for me go along with the climate crisis narrative. It isn’t the Big Oil shills and merchants of doubt that fill my head with scepticism, it’s the Guardian, the BBC and all the other news outlets that run with such shoddy misrepresentations of the situation. #Followthedatanotthenews

    Like

  44. As usual, Cliff Mass is a rare breath of common sense and scientific accuracy in direct opposition to the climate crisis fraudsters who are engaged in an extreme campaign of weaponising extreme weather.

    “(1) Human emissions of greenhouse gases, such as CO2, are slowly warming the planet. During the past century the Earth has warmed by roughly 1°C and human emissions could have contributed much (but not all) to the warming. El Nino periods contribute to temporary warming, and local warming due to urbanization (urban heat island) is also important. Most heatwaves are predominantly natural phenomena, with minor enhancement from global warming/climate.

    (2) Heatwaves are predominantly forced by increasing greenhouse gases. The entire planet is experiencing unparalleled heat due to human-caused climate change. By reducing greenhouse gas emissions, heat waves could be greatly weakened or prevented.

    Which do you think is the correct answer? The one supported by observations and peer-reviewed science?

    The correct answer is (1). Heatwaves are mainly caused by natural variability, with humans enhancing them a small amount. Let me prove it to you and describe some of the hype and deception going on in the media and by others.”

    “Such wave patterns are quite natural. There is no convincing evidence that the atmosphere becomes wavier (thus with more heatwaves and cold waves) under global warming. I have read all the literature on this and have published on the topic myself in the peer-reviewed literature.

    The waviness of the upper-level flow was particularly high-amplitude this winter and spring, producing enhanced cooling in some areas and warming in others. Such as the cool/wet conditions in California, and warmth in southern Canada.

    Let me repeat: there is no reason to think this waviness is other than the expression of the natural variability of the atmosphere.”

    “Do you feel deceived and tricked? This was a deliberate attempt to cherry-pick statistics to push an agenda. Not good.

    But the selection of Phoenix is worse than that.

    Phoenix has perhaps the most profound and rapidly growing urban heat island in the nation.

    Phoenix has been one of the most rapidly growing cities in the US (see below) and all the construction (concrete, buildings, sources of heat) results in profound warming, something known as the urban heat island effect.”

    https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2023/07/is-global-warming-causing-massive.html

    Liked by 3 people

  45. “Europe weather: How heatwaves could forever change summer holidays abroad”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66340261

    For decades British holidaymakers have poured into resorts and islands in southern Europe for a relaxing break in the summer sun.

    But the scenes of tourists fleeing wildfires in Greece, or trapped indoors unable to enjoy baking beaches in Spain, may give some people second thoughts.

    Back-to-back heatwaves brought sweltering temperatures in the 40s to parts of Europe in July, which is expected to break records for the world’s hottest month ever….

    …How are holidaymakers reacting?

    There is no sign of immediate panic. So far this summer, demand for foreign holidays seems unchanged by the sweltering temperatures, says travel expert Simon Calder.

    The travel industry, travel agents and holiday companies say it is business as usual, he says.

    “People are still buying last-minute breaks to the Mediterranean. They want some sunshine, they want some heat, and they’re prepared to pay for it,” he adds….

    ……Simon Calder says he hopes there will be a move back to holidays like those before “the jet age of mass air travel began”.

    Places like the coast of Belgium, or resorts in the Netherlands and Ireland, could become more popular, as could travel to the UK, he suggests.

    “I would imagine that the North Sea and Baltic Beaches are going to get it a bit crowded next summer as a result of what we’ve seen this year,” he adds.

    Seriously? After a cold, wet July and no respite ahead in August according to the 14 day weather forecast, my money is on people flocking back to the Med next year as they have done for decades now.

    Liked by 1 person

  46. 16 degrees C today and constant rain. The last day of the ‘hottest July evah’, in the Era of Global Boiling. The last time it was this boiling hot, there were hippos roaming the Thames. That was the Eemian interglacial 125,000 years ago. After that, large areas of the planet were covered in mile-thick ice for 100,000 years, then we got temporary relief in the form of the Holocene, during which human civilisation thrived, then we headed into the dreaded Anthropocene, with the increasingly terrifying geological subdivisions known as ‘global warming’, ‘global heating’, the ‘climate crisis’ and finally ‘global boiling’. This is all because of ‘dangerous’ levels of atmospheric CO2 currently at 420ppm – which is odd, because for most of the geological history of life on earth, CO2 has been in excess of 1000ppm, often 4000-8000ppm.

    I woke on this grey, miserable, cool morning to news that that the British government is planning to spend untold millions of pounds capturing some of this ‘excess CO2’ up in Scotland and pumping it out to sea. That would be the CO2 which is allegedly causing The Boiling and which the banning of boilers (cos boilers cause boiling, obviously) will also help address. No, this is not an extract from a Terry Pratchett novel. And yes, this summer is really ‘getting’ to me.

    Liked by 2 people

  47. Do not fret yourself Jaime about the Anthropocene. It has not yet been accepted by the vast majority of geologists and, if I read the runes correctly, is most unlikely to be. Even though the sediments of a Canadian lake have been selected as a benchmark to define the start of the Anthropocene and a decision to make 1950 the start of the new time period. The appearance of radioactive particles in 1952, and not 1950 as demanded by the Committee given the responsibility to make recommendations, has come as a blow, hastily smoothed over. Of course the 1950 date was selected to correspond to a time when humans allegedly began to significantly affect the composition of the atmosphere and affect climate. What a pity Canadian lake sediments don’t exactly agree.

    Liked by 1 person

  48. Gosh Jaime, much of the criticism of the Anthropocene, by geologists, concerns its brevity. But now you are writing about an Era, an Era mark you! of Global Boiling that is only about a week long!

    Liked by 1 person

  49. Alan,

    >”Gosh Jaime, much of the criticism of the Anthropocene, by geologists, concerns its brevity. But now you are writing about an Era, an Era mark you!”

    Where do geologists stand on the thorny subject of ‘Ages’? For example, is it too soon to declare the Age of Hyperbole? Tom Harris and Dr Tim Ball didn’t seem to think so ten years ago when they wrote this:

    “The Age of Hyperbole: How Normal Weather Became ‘Extreme’.”

    https://pjmedia.com/blog/tom-harris-and-dr-tim-ball-2/2013/07/30/the-age-of-hyperbole-n8322

    Looking at it now, it could have been written yesterday. So we have at least ten years of the same old hyperbole on record. That surely is long enough to qualify as an age.

    Liked by 1 person

  50. “UK weather: When will it stop raining and the summer improve?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66362004

    For weeks now, the UK’s weather has been unsettled – with widespread rain, cooler temperatures and an autumnal feel.

    This is all while much of southern Europe has been enduring dangerous, back-to-back heatwaves that have seen temperatures top 40C and large wildfires.

    The two are linked – and crucially it’s down to where the jet stream is. So how long will this weather last?

    “This week and for much of next week it looks as though the unsettled weather will continue for the UK – so there will be further showers or longer spells of rain and at times strong winds,” says Gemma Plumb, a BBC Weather forecaster.

    Temperatures are set to fall below average for this time of year in many areas and remain between 15 and 20C for the coming week.

    “Any drier periods of weather for the UK next week are likely to be short-lived,” she adds.

    This Wednesday is also set to be particularly windy across southern parts of the UK – with strong winds especially likely along the south coast and through the English Channel.

    “It is quite unusual to get these types of storms in August,” says Gemma….

    …Is this year’s damp summer linked to bclimate change? The change in jet position does happen sometimes – but the extreme heat in the south is more than likely why it’s out of place this time, says BBC Weather’s Paul Goddard. Climate change makes extreme heat worse, scientists say.

    “The atmosphere is one big balancing act. Just because it is raining here doesn’t mean to say it isn’t a product of climate change,” says Paul….

    Of course!

    Liked by 1 person

  51. Paul Goddard is peddling disinformation by claiming that effect is cause. The effect of the southerly position of the jet stream is that we are getting a crap summer and southern Europe is basking in a high pressure heat bubble – not the other way round. What causes the jet stream to meander off its usual course in summer (it’s normally a lot further north at this time of year) is a matter of ongoing debate. Desperate tactics from the BBC. They should report themselves to their own misinformation unit.

    Liked by 1 person

  52. John, geologists tend to use the word age in combination with some noun or some happening. So Ice Age, Age of Fishes, Age of Space Bombardment and the time span varies enormously. It’s been ages since I have had to think upon such matters.

    Liked by 1 person

  53. Make a note in your diary – summer is going to be on this Thursday. The weather forecast is promising us 23C on that day where I live. Today hits the heights of 17C, tomorrow 18C, then on Friday it will be back to a high of just 19C and by Saturday it will be wet with a high of 17C again. Thereafter there is only one day in the forecast with a high above 17C, and that’s only 18C. Make the most of summer – make the most of Thursday!

    Liked by 1 person

  54. Jaime,

    No, but Otto has just released the results of her latest attribution study that demonstrates that dangerously pleasant Thursdays are almost impossible without anthropogenic climate change.

    Liked by 2 people

  55. BBC news at 10 the girl reporting from Portugal on the wild fires quoted a second heat wave with temps of 46c ! OMG the highest temp I could find on the BBC weather for various areas of Portugal was 35c dropping to 18c at night. Maybe she was standing in the fires lol.

    Like

  56. But DFH their Royal Warrant has been burnt to a crisp. They can no longer function (if they ever could)

    Liked by 1 person

  57. Anybody had the forecast temps yet ? We have not had a blink of sun yet, cool breeze temp hovering 13/14c . Fingers crossed for tomorrow !

    Like

  58. Yesterday we had this from the BBC:

    “TUI: Heatwaves likely to affect where and when we holiday”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66449744

    The boss of TUI has said heatwaves and climate change could prompt people to take their holidays in spring or autumn and choose cooler destinations.

    Sebastian Ebel, chief executive of the tour firm, said holidaymakers might choose to travel to Greece in November, benefiting the travel industry.

    Destinations such as the Belgian or Polish coast might become more popular, he added….

    Today we have this:

    “Last-minute summer holiday bookings rise as Brits flee rain”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66453138

    School holidays are in full swing but it can be hard to believe this is peak summer for anyone who finds themselves on a UK beach.

    Record rain has struck the UK, leading to a rise in last-minute holiday booking, travel agencies report.

    One of these last-minute bookers is Eastbourne hairdresser Kate Lodge, who said she will “pay whatever” for a holiday abroad.

    She just wants to have a holiday where she and her son can get some sun.

    Kate said many of her customers share her concerns.

    “You can’t really get cheap last minute holidays anymore,” she said.

    “But I don’t want to book time off for my holiday and for it to be raining all week. I’m wearing winter clothes and it’s August. I don’t mind what it takes, I’ll be getting on the plane.”…

    Which does make something of a mockery of all the scare-mongering about Mediterranean heat, and how holiday-makers will react to it.

    Liked by 1 person

  59. Hold on to your seats – summer may yet have a day or two left in it, according to the Guardian anyway:

    “South-east England could be hotter than LA next week, forecasters say
    Met Office predicts that after a brief period of wet weather, temperatures across the UK will be significantly higher by Friday”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/aug/12/south-east-england-could-be-hotter-than-la-next-week-uk-weather-forecast

    Tropical air could make parts of the UK hotter than California at the end of next week with temperatures forecast to possibly rise above 30C, but only after heavy rain lashes the country.

    High pressure expected to build from the middle of the week means temperatures in south-east England could reach 32C on Friday, according to the Met Office – higher than the 26C predicted for Los Angeles.

    However, heavy and persistent rain is predicted for most of the country from Sunday evening into Monday.

    A weather warning could be imposed for parts of north Wales, with about 50mm (2in) of rain forecast to fall on Monday – about half-a-month’s worth for the area.

    Met Office forecaster Dan Stroud said: “We are looking at the possibility of reaching the low 30s later in the week, most likely on Friday, probably in and around London, running into East Anglia and other parts of the south and east.

    He said that after “a miserable and wet day” for England and Wales on Monday there were signs of an improvement and temperatures would start to rise….

    …Many areas will be dry with sunny spells during the warm period, according to the Met Office, but there may be outbreaks of thundery showers.

    Stroud said the heat was likely be short-lived as low pressure would move back in, making next weekend more unsettled.

    Like

  60. The Met Office/UKHSA have managed to get in one more pathetic, limp-wristed ‘heat alert’ before this ‘summer’ ends on Aug 31st. 28C!

    Yet Another Heat Alert!

    Meanwhile, high winds and rain are predicted for the next two days. We’re due to get gusts of almost 50mph tomorrow here – in mid August!

    Liked by 1 person

  61. Mark/Jaime – It’s almost comical to watch most UK TV weather forecasters faces since June.

    you can tell this is not the “weather” they want to report & not on message with UK MMGW fears
    to scare the UK public.

    so the news before reports wildfires, just to remind the viewer the planet is still burning.

    Liked by 1 person

  62. “Wisbech farm claims UK record-breaking year for watermelons”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-66609773

    A Cambridgeshire farm has claimed a UK record after growing 11,000 watermelons this year in what it described as a “challenging” climate.

    Oakley Farms, in Wisbech, doubled its production despite finding the fruit “not that easy to grow”.

    The farm, which also grows pumpkins and courgettes, is the UK’s biggest producer of watermelons, Tesco said.

    The supermarket described this year’s harvest from the farm as “the largest yield ever produced in Britain”….

    Like

  63. I no longer trust the Met Office CET temperature data. They mysteriously bumped up the anomaly last month by 0.1C and this month, so far, the anomaly is supposedly +1.2C. I don’t think the temperature here has risen above 20C all month and it has been largely unsettled throughout with occasional sunny days – continuing the trend in July. Very different from last year. Of course, it may be the case that the reference period 1961-1990 is particularly cool, but I’m still suspicious that the Met Office are bumping up monthly anomalies to give the impression of warming which is very much not happening. This summer has been very cool in the UK but I don’t think that is going to be fully reflected in the final figures released by the Met Office.

    https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_mean.html

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  64. Jaime, I am with you regarding your doubts. The claims of record June temperatures everywhere in the UK simply fail to pass the sniff test, given how cool it was in the east of the country during that month. Even further west, where it was sunny, dry and very warm, it didn’t feel as though the temperature was so high that it exceeded every June temperature in the records.

    Liked by 1 person

  65. The last day of a cool, often wet, often windy summer in the UK. But guess what? Right on cue, as soon as the kids go back to school, it’s going to get warmer and more settled! The weather forecasting power of kids going back to school after the summer holidays is far superior to the Met Office’s world leading Cray XC40 supercomputer.

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  66. Jaime – more to the point, every holiday abroad I book to get some sun (June & September), guess what the UK weather is like 😦 the climate gods are against me.

    Liked by 1 person

  67. Temperatures of 28 and 29 predicted in London on 5th and 6th Sept – just as the kids go back to school. Expect the heat health fanatics to start issuing amber warnings again and the climate propagandists to start telling us about ‘record hot’ autumn temperatures. They’ve been grinding their teeth since the end of June waiting for this opportunity.

    Like

  68. dfhunter, Alan,

    Australia has just experienced its ‘hottest winter ever’ and climate alarmarsonists are looking forward to a bumper wildfire season ahead:

    “On Thursday, the bureau said Australia’s spring would likely see hotter than average temperatures and lower than average rainfall – a combination that would increase the risk of bushfires.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/01/australia-records-warmest-winter-caused-by-global-heating-and-sunny-conditions?ref=upstract.com

    Like

  69. Heatwave! Yippee! When the jet stream’s away, the climate mice will play. We’ve also got the August monthly global temperature anomaly yet to be announced. It would be great if that’s as high or higher than July.

    “The first full week of September is likely to contain a heatwave for some parts of the UK, says the Met Office’s latest forecast.

    A couple of factors are responsible for opening the door to some fine conditions for the first week of meteorological autumn – the week many of the schools go back. Firstly, the jet stream – which has been delivering largely unsettled spells of weather to the UK – is continuing to shift north, allowing higher pressure to build widely across the UK during the weekend and into next week. Secondly, the influence of former tropical cyclone Franklin is continuing to move into the north Atlantic, amplifying the build-up of high pressure.

    Met Office Deputy Chief Meteorologist, Chris Bulmer, said: “As high pressure becomes established from this weekend, fine and settled conditions will develop and along with this we will see a rise in temperature across most parts of the UK next week. Many places can expect to see maximum temperatures rise to 25°C or above for several days, which would bring some locations into the realm of heatwave conditions.”

    https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2023/heatwave-on-the-horizon

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  70. The long range jet stream forecast is for fine settled weather and high pressure for the first 10-14 days of September. Thereafter, the jet stream shifts south again, affecting northern parts first. The Indian Summer may be short-lived.

    Like

  71. Alan – “Going somewhere nice (and unburnt)” – Halkidiki, Greece – not to far from the “Hot Gates”, not a good omen 🙂

    Like

  72. “UK heatwave: Hottest day expected on Saturday as sweltering weather continues”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66730779

    After a miserable summer (since late June, anyway), I suspect most people are thoroughly enjoying this all-too-brief Indian summer in the UK. How extraordinary, then, in its Alice Through the Looking glass way, that the BBC can include this in its article

    …The worst conditions look to be on Friday and Saturday, before improving later in the weekend as the breakdown of the mainly hot and dry weather begins across the north-west of the UK….

    For the BBC improving weather is when warm dry sunshine breaks down and gives way to cooler and wetter weather. Put it this way: I much prefer this week’s weather to what’s forecast for my region next week.

    Like

  73. “UK heatwave: Hottest day expected on Saturday as sweltering weather continues” – in the London area at least.

    that loopy jet stream hits again (as I predicted to wifey). just as I’m on hols to Greece next week 🙂

    Like

  74. “UK has hottest day of the year, beating Thursday’s record
    Met Office says heatwave is first time temperature has exceeded 30C for five days in a row in September”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/09/uk-has-hottest-day-of-the-year-beating-thursdays-record

    Needless to say the “record” was set at Heathrow airport (again):

    UK temperatures have reached their highest point of the year, with 32.7C provisionally recorded at Heathrow, the Met Office said, beating the previous provisional high of 32.6C, recorded on Thursday.

    The heatwave in England and Wales is the first time since records began that temperatures have been higher than 30C for five days in a row in September, according to the Met Office.

    Previously the highest temperature of the year had been set on Thursday, with 32.6C recorded in Wisley, Surrey.

    Of course, this is a reflection of a very poor summer, rather than climate change or an unusually hot year in the UK. In fact the all-time UK temperature record for September of 35.6C (96.1F) was set in 1906, in Bawtry, South Yorkshire. 117 years later and we’re still 3C shy of that.

    Liked by 1 person

  75. 911 – the ‘unprecedented’ September heatwave and climate changed Indian Summer bolt-on to a very disappointing summer overall falls apart as we head into a bog standard British autumn. I think the government is offering updated flu and Covid shots tomorrow as well, just in case the summer didn’t get you.

    Like

  76. Correct me if I’m wrong, but the UK did not break the September maximum daytime temperature heat record of 35.6C, nor did it break the minimum overnight record of 21.7C. The ‘unprecedented three consecutive tropical nights in September’ which the Met Office claims can be attributed to climate change because of a very narrow attribution study focused on consecutive hot nights in July 2022 which can supposedly be used to ‘infer’ an increase in likelihood of tropical nights in September . . . . didn’t happen, right? So, after the Summer fail comes the Indian Summer fail.

    Tropical Nights in September

    Liked by 1 person

  77. The BBC has been reporting upon the ONS temperature-related deaths statistics again today. It remains the case that, since 1988 the cold has killed 4 times as many people as the heat. And it remains the case that all-cause temperature-related deaths continue to fall, courtesy, amongst other things, of climate change. So what did the BBC run with? Was it ‘Cold is the real killer to worry about, not heat, says the ONS’? Or was it ‘Climate change continues to save UK lives as temperatures climb’? No. They went with this:

    “Extreme weather: More than 4,500 deaths in England from 2022 heat”

    The BBC also thinks the only important trend to report is this:

    “And although cold is the bigger killer, the ONS said heat-related deaths appeared to have risen in recent years.”

    Tremble before your maker!

    Of course there is no mention that this trend has been more than compensated for by a reduction in cold-related deaths. Oh, but I forget. That had nothing to do with warming.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66890135

    Liked by 1 person

  78. John,

    Of course the Guardian runs this story too:

    “Heat-related deaths in 2022 hit highest level on record in England
    More than 4,500 people died due to hot temperatures, ONS data reveals, as rate increases over recent years”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/22/heat-related-deaths-2022-hit-highest-level-record-england

    …Between 1988 and 2022, almost 52,000 deaths associated with the hottest days were recorded in England, with a third of them occurring since 2016, data from the Office for National Statistics shows….

    If you persist, almost at the end of the article there is this:

    …ONS data also shows that more people die due to cold than high temperatures. More than 216,000 deaths registered in England and Wales were associated with the coldest days from 1988 and 2022.

    In 2022, about 1,200 deaths were related to the coldest days, the second-lowest figure in 35 years. The highest number of people dying due to low temperatures was in 2020, with more than 20,100….

    Having thus established that many more people die from cold than heat in the UK (though I concede that their numbers seek to suggest that it was the other way round in 2022), they conclude:

    Prof Antonio Gasparrini, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and who worked on the ONS report, said: “This is a stark warning that this will become the norm due to climate change, and it makes even more urgent the need to implement adequate climate and public health measures.

    “Finally, it is quite telling that this report comes out just days after the UK government has decided to dilute their commitment on net zero and generally on policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

    A remarkable statement, given that the Government’s tiny shift with regard to net zero will make absolutely no difference to climate change, to UK temperatures, or to the numbers of deaths from extreme heat and cold in the UK each year.

    Liked by 1 person

  79. Climate change or urbanisation/overcrowding/poorly designed housing? If you look at the graphs of temperature related risk of death for the various regions of the UK, what stands out that in London particularly, the graph is skewed towards high temperatures, whereas in the South East region as a whole, colder temperatures still present the greater risk. In the relatively non urban South West, colder temperatures are much more likely to bump you off than warmer temperatures. In the largely urbanised West Midlands, we see once again the skewing of mortality risk to higher temperatures vs. lower. This is surely a direct result of the urban heat island effect, combined with overcrowding, poor housing, poorly designed housing and NOT climate change. It leaps out at you from those ONS graphs but of course BBC and Guardian journalists can’t see it through their ideological blinders.

    I also strongly suspect that energy efficiency ‘improvements’ and eco housing developments are killing more people in hot summers than they are saving people during cold winters, especially in urban areas, more affected by extreme heat than extreme cold.

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/climaterelatedmortalityandhospitaladmissionsenglandandwales/1988to2022

    Liked by 1 person

  80. We are just one very harsh winter away from a massive reversal of public opinion on the so called ‘climate crisis’ and the government response to that supposed ‘crisis’. Watch this space.

    Like

  81. I think this is called gaslighting:

    “October warm spell likely as September breaks records”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/66957427

    With nights drawing in and Storm Agnes recently bringing strong winds and rain, the early September heatwave might seem a distant memory.

    However, that heatwave and above average temperatures generally will have made it one of the warmest Septembers on record in the UK.

    This also ties in with global average temperatures which are running at record warmth too.

    Warmer weather is expected to extend into the beginning of October.

    According to the Central England Temperature (CET) series – the longest record of temperature in the world – September was warmer than any of the summer months of June, July or August.

    The average maximum temperature has been 22 degrees Celsius, beating the previous record of 20.9C set in 1895.

    In terms of the mean temperature which averages out maximum and minimum temperatures, up to the 26 September it has been nearly four degrees above average in the CET series….

    Apart from a few days early this month when it was – admittedly – unusually warm for September, this month’s weather has been rubbish (as was the weather in July and August). It’s regularly been wet, windy and – more relevantly – very cool, unusually so, I would say for September. The central heating has been switched on intermittently for a week or two now, and I see from the weather forecast that the temperature could get down to not much above freezing in parts of Scotland over the next couple of nights.

    I’m sure it’s warm in parts of the south (especially those bits which have airports nearby), but this story just doesn’t pass the sniff test for much of the country.

    Like

  82. “UK sees joint warmest September on record”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/66957427

    As with the hype about June in the UK this year, I’m starting for the first time to doubt the official narrative regarding claimed records (I’ve never doubted that data were cherry-picked and that the narrative was hyped, but I’m starting to question the validity of the claims). September where I live saw one very warm week early in the month, and the rest of the month was mostly cool, wet and windy. It didn’t seem to me to be unusually warm overall, and indeed, were it not for that one very warm week, I’d have probably described it as cooler than usual. But this is the official version:

    With nights drawing in and Storm Agnes recently bringing strong winds and rain, the early September heatwave might seem a distant memory.

    However, that heatwave and above average temperatures generally made it the joint warmest September on record in the United Kingdom.

    This also ties in with global average temperatures which have been running at record warmth too.

    Warmer weather in the UK has extended into October.

    The Met Office has released figures showing that the average temperature in the UK throughout September was 15.2C, making it tied with 2006 as the warmest September on record.

    Breaking that down into average maximum recorded temperature, the month was 19.4C, the warmest in 127 years and joint top with 1895.

    For England and Wales, it was the warmest September on record.

    The high temperatures were partly due to the extensive and record heatwave at the start of September. There were seven consecutive days when the temperature rose above 30C.

    The UK’s highest recorded temperature of 2023 was also recorded during that heatwave. The year’s high occurring in September has only happened four times before, since records began.

    Make of it what you will. Personally, I’m bemused.

    Like

  83. My God this is getting tedious:

    “Could UK heatwaves be given names this summer?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/68160864

    “With the Met Office already naming storms, a committee of MPs thinks doing the same for heatwaves will similarly increase awareness and communication. The 2022 summer heatwave was one of the most intense recorded in the UK, and caused 4.500 heat-related deaths.”

    And on it goes without once mentioning that, in reality, temperature-related deaths continue to plummet. But the worst bit of the whole article is when, under the heading of ‘Silent Killer’, we read:

    “Some scientists have labelled it [heat] as the “silent killer” and amongst the deadliest natural hazards…The World Weather Attribution organisation suggests that heat is a more invisible threat when compared to other weather or climate impacts such as tropical cyclones or floods.”

    But what about intense cold spells? I can’t think of any more silent a killer than one that fails to even get a single mention within an article supposedly reporting accurately upon temperature-related deaths! Thanks to the likes of the BBC, cold is the real silent killer and that is obviously how the BBC wants it to stay.

    Liked by 3 people

  84. They do NOT want you to enjoy good weather anymore; they want you to FEAR it. They want you to stay inside, cowering, and not drive to the beach in your open top sports car. Naming a few nice days in summer after some three-headed devil dog in Greek mythology is part of their plan for achieving it. I’m sorry, but these people are evil and they are psychopathic.

    “There may also need to be a shift in our cultural attitudes to heat.

    Rather than viewing a warm spell as a pleasant period of weather for people to enjoy, people in the UK might need to become more aware that when heat becomes extreme, there are increased health risks.”

    We have to oust these lunatics from our public and private institutions because they are out to cause serious harm.

    Like

  85. I’m seeing a pattern here. The climate crisis loons don’t want you to enjoy decent summer weather, they want you to fear it; the geoengineering loons don’t want you to appreciate the beauty of a natural sunset, they want you to think it’s just “filthy chemicals”! Unbelievable. What next? Just Stop Geoengineering activists throwing soup over Turner paintings?

    Liked by 1 person

  86. I don’t know if summer is going to get us, but the only way spring is going to get us is by being cold:

    “When is it going to get warmer?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cp4g7ex1zpeo

    Sunday was warm in western areas of the United Kingdom, and Northern Ireland had its warmest day of the year so far with 19.3C in Castlederg.

    However, that was in stark contrast to eastern areas of the UK around the North Sea coasts where the temperature did not get into double figures.

    The week ahead will be chilly for all of us with temperatures below average.It might turn warmer into May, but we may have to wait longer for spring-like weather...”

    Liked by 1 person

  87. Warmer in the West? Not the north west. It’s barely got above 12C here for weeks on end, often even colder. There is no prospect on the horizon of any real spring warmth and strong sunshine and now they’re saying it’s going to get wet and windy again! Good grief. If I didn’t have the dogs to look after, I’d be booking a few weeks in the sun, so depressing has this endless dreary winter and ‘spring’ become.

    Liked by 1 person

  88. Funny you should say that Jaime, Isle of Man was/is the same with the odd sunny day.

    The wife wants another Hol in the sun. went to Tenerife in March & it was cloudy & cooler than we remember from previous hols.

    Seems the Jet Stream (maybe) is pushing Atlantic storms our way, only a matter of time before storm Zebedee hits.

    ps – looking up “Zebedee” found this mad link Zebedee | The Magic Roundabout Wiki | Fandom

    partial quote – “Zebedee is a good-hearted wizard who rules the Enchanted Gardens where he bring happiness and joy to the inhabitants who live there. He is quite mischievous where he tends to play tricks on others as a joke where he usually gets found out in the end by Florence and everyone else, or to try and teach Dougal a lesson for his actions. As much as he is joyful and happy, Zebedee can be quite fearful about his arch-nemesis Zeebad, who he locked away 10,000 years ago to stop him from freezing the world again, and his fear worsened when he learns that Zeebad escaped. Regardless, he faces Zeebad once more and doesn’t hesitate to battle him again until Zebedee gets overpowered.”

    Like

  89. “Warmer spring-like weather forecast in UK after chilly April

    Grey skies and persistent rain could be replaced by temperatures as high as 20C in south-east England”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/28/warmer-spring-like-weather-forecast-uk-chilly-april

    I think the secondary headline is putting a brave face on national cooling!

    Chilly April is on its way out with the coming days set to usher in warmer temperatures more akin to spring, according to the Met Office.

    The lack of sunshine, grey skies and persistent rain have contributed to it feeling unusually cold as April comes to a close.

    But forecasters expect that to change from Wednesday, with temperatures in south-east England in the mid to high teens and possibly nudging 20C and beyond later in the week in some southern areas.

    The Met Office meteorologist Tom Morgan said: “It wouldn’t be harder to be warmer, compared to what it has been like recently. Temperatures have been below average for the last couple of weeks across most of the UK and particularly chilly for the last few days.

    “So yes, it is turning warmer. But it’s not going to be too exceptional for early May. Temperatures will be recovering to close to average values by Tuesday and Wednesday, possibly a little bit above average by the end of the week so we could see highs locally up to low 20s. But it won’t be for everyone.

    “We are not going to see blue skies and wall-to-wall sunshine. There will be some sunshine, but there will also be quite a lot of cloud and some showery rain at times this week.

    “Compared to last week it will be much warmer and a bit drier too, but quite mixed weather day to day and nothing particularly warm for the time of year. [my emphasis]

    Liked by 1 person

  90. dfhunter, Mark,

    Looks like Zeebad has got free and made his way to the British Isles. According to my weather forecast, winter finally ends on the last day of April. The climate crisis will then take a break until such time as the first really hot day arrives in late May or June or July. Then it will be time to take the government to court for its abuse of our human rights.

    Liked by 2 people

  91. Who are you going to believe? Your lying eyes (and extra layers of clothing?):

    “Was April’s weather really that bad?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/crgylwnpz91o

    ...With no significant dry or warm spell throughout April, the perception has been that winter has dragged on into spring.

    April weather statistics show an interesting story that I get the feeling you will find questionable.

    While wetter and duller than average, it has been slightly warmer than average

    The overwhelming opinion I have had is that April has been cold and wet and we are desperate for some spring weather.

    There is then a disbelief when I explain that in terms of temperature, April has actually been around normal.

    Met Office statistics show that the average maximum temperature across the United Kingdom was 0.4C above the norm.

    The night-time minimum temperature was 0.8C above average.

    We tend to have quite a short memory so while the last week of April was colder than average, temperatures during the first half of April were higher than average

    I am prepared to accept that the night-time temperature may have been 0.8C higher than average, but not that the average day/night temperature was anything other than below average. The first half of April was most certainly not warmer than average – it was exceedingly cold. We have used more logs than usual this winter, and that’s because we’ve used more in March and April than usual, and that’s because both March and April were colder than usual.

    When confronted with stories like this one, I seriously doubt the validity and accuracy of Met Office data.

    Liked by 2 people

  92. I’m seriously doubting Met Office data now. Does anyone remember April 2021? I don’t. It was only 3 years ago, but apparently it was over 3 degrees colder (6.5C vs 9.6C) in Central England throughout that April, on average, than it was during 2024. This April has felt very cold and bleak to me and I’m obviously not alone in thinking that, so how come I have so quickly forgotten the very much colder April of 2021? Perhaps someone here can refresh my faulty memory? I do remember April 2020 – it was a fantastically sunny, warm month when the government locked us all in our houses and demanded that we only exercise for a maximum of one hour a day or something. I remember it so well because I spent hours and hours walking the dogs in open countryside, finding out of the way places to park the car! But the Met Office say April 2020 was only 0.9C warmer than 2024! That is not believable, it’s not credible. I think they must be massaging the figures now to ‘nudge’ public perception in the correct direction.

    https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/data/meantemp_monthly_totals.txt

    Liked by 1 person

  93. So, actually, yes, I do remember at least a few days specifically in April 2021. I was away in the motorhome and woke up to a hard frost on St George’s Day north of Skegness, on the coast. The minimum temperatures in April 2021 skewed the mean temperature downwards, even though as I recall, we had some nice sunny days.

    https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/pub/data/weather/uk/climate/actualmonthly/4/Tmin/UK.gif

    With 2024, supposedly, the night time temperatures were warmer than average, thus skewing the mean temperature upwards. But I find this a little hard to believe too, because we’ve seen some very cold nights here, near freezing, but not actual frosts. It might just be possible, I guess, that over the UK as a whole, with cloud cover so ubiquitous throughout the month, this kept night-time temperatures above average. As you can see, the days were very dull:

    https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/pub/data/weather/uk/climate/actualmonthly/4/Sunshine/UK.gif

    Like

  94. Hmmm, yes, April 2021 was slightly sunnier than 2020 even, making it the sunniest April on record, but we paid for that with some very cold nights. As we are out and about in the day much more, it is conceivable that we perceive a cold month like April 2024 more in terms of daytime temperatures and ‘feels like’ temperatures in the wind. Perhaps if we were to canvass the views of nocturnal animals they would give us a different opinion! Having said all this though, I am still somewhat slightly wary of Met Office temperature data now, simply because the pressure to promote a particular narrative is so great.

    Like

  95. Jaime,

    It’s possible, of course, that if this year’s April was cloudier than usual, that would both raise night-time temperatures and make the day feel depressingly cool, and if it has been windier than usual, it would feel colder, thanks to the wind chill factor, than if it had been calm. And I would agree that the April just ended was pretty cloudy and windy.

    However, even after allowing for all that, the claims about April 2024 in the UK having experienced above average temperatures fails the sniff test for me – it feels so wrong, that it lacks credibility. And we know from Paul Homewood’s excellent work that many Met Office sites don’t meet WMO criteria for placing reliance on them.

    I feel the BBC needed to put that article out because so many people are complaining that spring this year has been extremely cold, and that was denting the “era of global narrative” narrative. Ergo, they had to do something about it.

    Liked by 2 people

  96. Perhaps we should remember that there are a number of representative statistics at our disposal, apart from the arithmetic mean. Each has its own relevance. On this occasion I suspect that the arithmetic mean isn’t so relevant to personal experience.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average

    Liked by 1 person

  97. To be more direct, I should have said that the mode becomes more relevant when there are outliers in the dataset.

    Like

  98. Love it when the weather bods state – it is below/above average for this time of year.

    When it’s below, no big deal, when it’s above “red panic map” never seen before, open windows etc…

    Liked by 1 person

  99. Well, after another dismal spring and early summer, you can always count on the Guardian/Observer….

    “Heat health alert for most of England as temperature set to soar

    Mercury could hit 30C with potential for ‘significant impacts’ on the health and social care sector, UKHSA warns”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jun/22/heat-health-alert-england

    A yellow heat health alert has been issued for most of England, as temperatures look likely to soar to 30C in parts of the country.

    The alert has been issued for all but one region, with some areas being warned of the potential for “significant impacts” on the health and social care sector.

    The alert from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Met Office will come into force from Monday morning and remain in place until Thursday afternoon.

    Temperatures are expected to reach highs of 30C, particularly in the south east, with the strongest warnings issued for that region, the East Midlands, the east of England and East Anglia.

    The only region not covered is the north east.

    The UKHSA has warned of an “increase in risk of mortality among vulnerable individuals and increased potential for indoor environments to become very warm” for the north-west and north-east of England, the west of England, the south-west and London.

    Liam Esslick, a meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “According to the latest models, there is a chance temperatures could reach 30C. It’s not guaranteed but this will likely be towards the south-east of England, particularly London, Essex and Kent.

    “Likely to soar to 30C” according to the opening sentence of the article. Within a few paragraphs we learn that this is a grave distortion, with the Met Office saying that according to the models(!), there is a chance that temperatures could reach 30C, it’s not guaranteed, and it’s likely, if it happens at all, to be confined to the south east of England.

    Certainly, where I live, the highest temperature in the forecast for the next fortnight is 21C for a couple of hours on Monday and four hours on Wednesday, when it’s also forecast to be wet. Other than that, highs of 16 or 17C are forecast for most of the next fortnight. I’m still waiting for summer – please don’t try to scare me with gaslighting about deadly heatwaves.

    Liked by 1 person

  100. Mean CET is currently 12.7C to the 21st, colder than May, with an anomaly of -1.4C. But this snap ‘heatwave’ changes everything. People are at risk of DYING goddammit! The runway at Heathrow is sure to record 30C+ at some point and that is climate changed HOT! You can bet that our cold, miserable, non flammable June will eventually be chalked up as ‘average’ in the Met Office climate annals, with the focus firmly on its ‘hot’ ending.

    https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcet/cet_info_mean.html

    Liked by 1 person

  101. My iPhone tells me that today’s maximum will be 24C, +6C above the seasonal norm. I rather find it hard to believe that the average maximum for late June in Norwich is 18C.

    Like

  102. More insidious brain-washing from the BBC. In the UK, as in the world generally, extreme cold is a much bigger killer than extreme heat, but you would never think so from BBC reporting. The headline is “How do hot weather health alerts work?”. When you click on it, in a feeble attempt at balanced reporting, it morphs into “How do heat and cold-health alerts work?, though the accompanying photo is of some suffering individual being sprayed with suncream. No photos of shivering grannies allowed.

    The article then goes on to discuss both cold and heat alerts, but finishes with “What does hot weather do to the body?“. No discussion of the effects of cold weather on the body, naturally. I know the BBC would argue that this is because it’s summer, so discussion about heat is what’s appropriate now, but I don’t remember them running articles about the dangers of cold at other times of the year. And it isn’t even hot.

    Liked by 1 person

  103. Here comes the “mini-heatwave”!

    “Mini-heatwave forecast in parts of UK after wet start to July

    Improved weather expected in England and Wales at weekend with a potential high of 30C in the south-east”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/16/parts-of-uk-will-see-more-sunshine-this-weekend

    according to a Met Office spokesperson, Nicola Maxey…night-time temperatures could remain in the low 20s in the south-east, potentially resulting in “tropical nights” that could pose health risks to vulnerable populations.

    Give it a rest, for pity’s sake. Even the BBC has had to play it with a straight bat and admit that it’s not going to be a heatwave, which requires three days of above-average temperatures. Is a mini-heatwave now one or two hot days? Does that really justify a Guardian headline? Perhaps it does in this lousy summer:

    “Parts of UK could hit 30C but more rain to come”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c134pp1yy3jo

    …Areas that have experienced a July washout so far are now set to turn a lot drier and warmer, albeit briefly.

    But we should not be putting our umbrellas away just yet – the dry weather will be even more short-lived in the north-western areas and it could be unsettled again for the whole of the UK as soon as Saturday evening.

    It’s been a wet, chilly start to the month for most of us, with temperatures falling below, or just at the seasonal average. Some parts of the country, including Loftus in North Yorkshire and Northolt in London have already had more than twice the average July rainfall.

    The Met Office issued a yellow warning for rain on Monday, with some areas receiving 15-20mm in as little as an hour and 30-40mm over several hours….

    ...Will there be a heatwave?

    Probably not – the Met Office defines a heatwave as three or more consecutive days of temperatures above a certain threshold, which varies depending on where in the UK you are.

    In the London area, that threshold is 28C. For Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and most of northern and western England, it’s 25C.

    If temperatures reach 25C, it will be for the first time in July anywhere in the UK.

    The heat is not set to last – a thundery breakdown in the east on Saturday night will lead to temperatures dipping back to average.

    Next week, we are back to westerly winds with dry spells and some sunshine, but also showers and longer spells of rain at times, especially in the north and west.

    1976 it isn’t. Where I live the highest temperature forecast during the “mini-heatwave” is 19C (for two out of the next three days) followed by eight days with a high of 16C.

    Like

  104. A couple of days of very warm weather in an otherwise dreary, cool, overcast, wet summer, and the BBC are advising us how to keep cool during heatwaves. Gotta get the nudge in during that (very) brief window of opportunity. Pathetic.

    Liked by 3 people

  105. When is a heatwave not a heatwave? When it’s a mini-heatwave, apparently. Here’s another one. I can’t say I noticed the last one:

    “UK weather: mini heatwave predicted with temperatures up to 30C

    Conditions looking warm into early next week, with Met Office saying some areas may reach ‘heatwave criteria’”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/26/uk-weather-mini-heatwave-predicted-with-temperatures-up-to-30c

    Parts of the UK could experience a heatwave with temperatures expected to soar this weekend and next week, the Met Office has warned.

    The south-east, particularly London and the home counties, could reach 30C on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

    Bright spells are forecast for Sunday, in what the weather forecaster described as a “fine and dry day for many”. Temperatures are expected to reach 25C in the north-east. Yorkshire is the northern limit in terms of the area expected to reach “heatwave criteria”, the Met said, with 25C temperatures continuing into early next week.

    Saturday is predicted to be sunny with showers, heaviest in parts of Scotland, northern England, Wales and the Midlands, and isolated thunder possible….

    The Met Office has issued a warning, because “…[b]right spells are forecast for Sunday, in what the weather forecaster described as a “fine and dry day for many”.…”. There was a time when after an unrelentingly cool and miserable spring and summer the Met Office would have joined with the UK population in celebrating the prospect of a fine and dry day. Why we have to be warned about unremarkable summer weather is a mystery to me.

    Liked by 1 person

  106. The BBC’s pushing the alarm:

    “UK’s hottest day of the year expected as heatwave nears”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1vd1d9r1wxo

    The UK’s hottest day of the year could be seen in some areas on Tuesday, potentially bringing an official heatwave. [My emphasis]

    “How to keep your home cool in hot weather”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62209480

    I can honestly say this is the first year that I can remember when it has never been warm enough where I live to even think about trying to keep my home cool – keeping it warm has been much more important. This is the first summer I can remember when the lightweight summer duvet has remained in the cupboard.

    Liked by 2 people

  107. Mark,

    I love that they say the alert will “cover all of England — except for the Northeast and Northwest”.

    So that makes it all of England except for half. Is this climate change arithmetic again?

    Liked by 2 people

  108. What happened to Britain? I thought we were a United Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Or doesn’t that apply when it comes to heat health alerts and heatwaves? The BBC gives the game away:

    If nowhere in Scotland reaches 25C on Tuesday, it will be the first July since 2010 that temperatures there have not reached this level.

    Scotland and northern England are going to bring the UK average for July right down. The ‘summer that isn’t’ in the north of England means that CET was still slightly below the 1961-1990 mean as of July 27th (and that climate normal reference includes the cold 1960s and 1970s). But the Met Office and the media will try anything to keep spinning the global boiling narrative so all we’ll hear about is the ‘official’ heatwave in the south east.

    Liked by 2 people

  109. Well, they got this year’s hottest temperature – at 0.1C above the previous high – at Heathrow and at Kew Gardens, so they’re both very reliable locations (sarc):

    “UK swelters as hottest day of the year confirmed”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1vd1d9r1wxo

    Except the “UK” didn’t swelter today – a small part of the south and south east did. As the BBC itself admits:

    In a post on X, external, the Met Office showed the differences in the weather between some parts of the UK on Monday, with Charlwood in Surrey basking in 29.6C heat while Sennybridge in Wales shivered in just 4.9C.

    Even that’s poor reporting. That 4.9C was the overnight low. Still, this is the reality of the “heatwave”:

    But the heat might be short-lived – with a yellow alert for thunderstorms issued by the Met Office across large parts of both nations later in the week.

    Liked by 1 person

  110. From that BBC link –

    Partial quote –

    “A Yellow Heat Health Alert has been issued for all areas of England – except for the North East and North West – by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

    This is the second of four tiers of alerts – below amber and red – and means the heat is “unlikely to impact most people” but could affect the elderly and vulnerable.

    The UKHSA has warned the hot spell may make an “observed increase in mortality across the population likely, particularly in the 65-plus age group or those with health conditions, but impacts may also be seen in younger age groups”.”

    As you say “Except the “UK” didn’t swelter today”, nice warm/hot weather in the IOM for a change. got the grass cut.

    Like

  111. This is just so desperate from the BBC. We’re having a crap summer – after a crap spring – and there hasn’t been one official heatwave at all so far, so they’re having to grasp at straws whenever it gets hot for a day or two, as it will do in East Anglia and the south east:

    For it to be called a heatwave, the temperature criteria has to be reached for at least three days in a row.

    But by Tuesday the jet stream pattern in the Atlantic will have straightened and we will be back to more changeable weather with temperatures nearer normal. So let’s call it a “mini-heatwave”.

    We’ve seen a few of these “heat spikes” this summer.

    I’ve noticed over many years of presenting the national weather forecast that it used to be the case that we needed three or four days of dry weather to lift the temperature to 30C.

    Are things changing and these temperature rises happening more rapidly?

    It is difficult to quantify a shift like this, but it could be that we are seeing another impact on our weather patterns as a result of climate change.

    LOL. We’re getting more quick-fire rapid heatwaves because of climate change! And I was just thinking today that they’ve had so much fun with the ‘far right’ riots that they’ve left the weather alone for a while. How wrong I was!

    Like

  112. “Could a tropical storm bring a mini-heatwave to the UK?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/c2edk0yvd92o

    For most of the summer the weather has been fairly average at best. However, there is another burst of heat to come later this weekend.

    Monday could be the hottest day of the year but the hot and humid weather will be very limited and will not last long.

    ...Once again the hot weather is not for everyone.

    The heat and high humidity is focused on Lincolnshire, East Midlands, East Anglia and south-east England. Temperatures further north and west could actually fall a little on Monday because of rain and thunderstorms….

    ...For it to be called a heatwave, the temperature criteria has to be reached for at least three days in a row.

    But by Tuesday the jet stream pattern in the Atlantic will have straightened and we will be back to more changeable weather with temperatures nearer normal. So let’s call it a “mini-heatwave”....

    Yes, let’s do that – after all it fits the narrative better than accepting that for most of the UK this has been a miserably cold summer. While we’re on, let’s finish with a bit more climate change narrative, shall we?

    We’ve seen a few of these “heat spikes” this summer.

    I’ve noticed over many years of presenting the national weather forecast that it used to be the case that we needed three or four days of dry weather to lift the temperature to 30C.

    Are things changing and these temperature rises happening more rapidly?

    It is difficult to quantify a shift like this, but it could be that we are seeing another impact on our weather patterns as a result of climate change.

    And they call it science….I call it propaganda.

    Liked by 1 person

  113. Jaime – apologies. I found your comment in spam shortly after I posted in similar vein to you.

    Liked by 1 person

  114. We had a mini-flood in my town yesterday. There were even puddles on some streets. Is this climate breakdown in action — an increase of sudden mini-floods?

    Liked by 4 people

  115. John. I trust you saved some of that water. That was your allocation for the next few weeks as climate horrors gather. Norfolk still drought-prone.

    Like

  116. Alan,

    It’s not the frequency or quantity of rain that is at issue here. It’s the suddeness. One day it will be dry and the very next day it will be raining! I’m sure it wasn’t like that in my youth. It’s climate chaos I tell you.

    Liked by 3 people

  117. No. It’s the developing barren wastes of my Norfolk garden that I attribute to climate chaos. Intriguing that my neighbour’s garden shows no such affliction. Garden or climate chaos (as we call it) is so very, very fickle.

    Liked by 2 people

  118. Why is this even being reported? A short blip of ordinary summer weather in a lousy summer?

    “UK weather: ‘short but quite intense’ hot spell forecast this weekend

    Temperatures could reach high 20s and low 30s celsius in England and Wales with thunderstorms possible”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/09/uk-weather-short-quite-intense-hot-spell-weekend

    …The Met Office spokesperson Nicky Maxey said: “The hot spell is short-lived but quite intense … Temperatures are due to peak on Monday and rapidly return to average on Tuesday and Wednesday.”

    Much of the country will be cloudy and humid on Saturday morning with brighter spells and light showers in the north.

    Sunseekers will be happy to hear that this drizzly and overcast weather is expected to clear throughout the day with the mercury rising into the 20s across England and Wales as the evening approaches.

    Sunday and Monday are expected to be the warmest days with highs of 33C in London, 26C in Manchester, 22C in Glasgow and 21C in Belfast. But outbreaks of heavy rain and thunderstorms may accompany the heat in central and northern parts of the country.

    The high temperatures will bring a rise in pollen count throughout the country, along with high UV levels. The Met Office recommends covering up during midday hours and wearing sunscreen.

    According to Maxey, short spells of warm weather are not unusual and this is not considered a heatwave as temperatures would need to exceed a specific threshold over three consecutive days to meet the criteria.

    Gosh, highs of 26C in Manchester, 22C in Glasgow and 21C in Belfast (no doubt lower elsewhere round about those places, away from the UHI effect). The final paragraph of that Guardian piece really does demonstrate that this is a complete and utter non-story. I doubt any serious news organisation would have contemplated reporting on it 20 or more years ago.

    Liked by 2 people

  119. Mark,

    I fear you may be missing the point. This may be perfectly normal weather but if Otto and her team were to perform an attribution study they could tell you that climate change had made the intensity of the heat 10 times more likely.

    That’s all you really need to know 😉

    Liked by 2 people

  120. But we know this already. Climate science (thanks to Otto and her ilk) has informed each and every one of us that super-duper weather, capable of decimating wasps with rain, no rain, high temperatures, low temperatures or whatever is not to be ignored. Denier-trash beware.

    Liked by 1 person

  121. More spikes, uh? All these years of global warming and they never thought to mention it until now. 🤔

    Like

  122. UK heatwave: Full list of areas under heat-health alerts today as temperatures hit 34C – Mirror Online

    Won’t bore you with the details, but found the end bit interesting & not what I do in “Tropical days/nights”, I have curtains closed & windows slightly open all day, then curtains & windows open after the sun goes down, but that’s probably more to do with where I live –

    “It comes as households in the UK have been warned to keep their windows and curtains closed from now until Tuesday because of rising temperatures. Although people will be tempted to keep windows open, the UKHSA says they should do the opposite, as well as the curtains closed as direct sunlight on windows can cause a rapid increase in household temperature, similar to a “greenhouse effect”, as rooms and homes heat up intensely.”

    This advice must be aimed at big city folk & can see the logic behind it because of the UHI effect.

    Like

  123. Here’s a strange one.

    I came across an article this morning that was drawing attention to housing deficiencies that can lead to excessive household heat in summer:

    Millions of Brits made ill because their home is too hot, study finds – as UK faces heatwave

    https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/uk-heatwave-home-too-hot-people-ill/

    The strange thing is that the ‘study’ comes from a campaign called Warmer this Winter, which, as the name implies, is concerned with reducing winter deaths caused by cold temperatures and damp:

    https://www.warmthiswinter.org.uk/

    So why is Warmer this Winter saying that the housing stock needs urgent improvements to prevent deaths in summer? Why are they not instead emphasising how improvements can help prevent winter deaths? Why are they preoccupied with deaths caused by global warming when their focus is supposed to be on keeping people warm in winter?

    Maybe their website gives it away when it states how the poor can be kept warmer. Firstly, it calls for emergency financial support for those in fuel poverty. Then they call for home improvements. So far so good, although I am guessing they are not too pleased with Reeves right now. However, they then go on to say that we need ‘access to cheap renewable energy’ to ‘free us from expensive oil and gas’.

    Of course, they may genuinely believe that, but I prefer to think that they are just another anti-fossil fuel charity that is using concerns related to fuel poverty as a flimsy pretext for promoting their real concerns.

    Liked by 1 person

  124. John,

    “That’s because the solutions to keep us warm in the colder weather are the same as keeping us cool in summer. Better insulation, ventilation and even heat pumps that can operate in a cooling mode can all help. But the public need financial support to upgrade their homes.”

    No, no, and no again. This is a ridiculously simplistic and misleading statement and it belies the reality that homes which are generously insulated for winter can often be too hot in summer. Indeed, it could be argued that poorly designed insulation of houses (primary eco-homes and retro-fits) is one of the main reasons why houses are becoming unhealthily warm in summer and are suffering from damp and condensation problems in winter.

    Designing out overheating means controlling the performance of insulation in your home to create a more balanced environment throughout the year.

    More recently, the big focus for Building Regulations has been on improving thermal efficiency, so in turn we have insulated our homes better to reduce heat losses. This approach has been pretty successful – but one problem has come with this: overheating.

    This might seem a little counterintuitive. After all, the same insulation that keeps warmth in should also keep excessive heat out. So, to design out overheating in new homes, we need to understand why they do so initially.

    The excess heat you will want to avoid can be caused by issues such as poor ventilation, insufficient thermal mass, lack of solar shading or excessive insulation on your southern elevation.

    https://www.self-build.co.uk/designing-out-overheating-in-modern-eco-homes/

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3155640/Crazy-eco-rules-turning-modern-homes-ovens-Experts-warn-drive-green-homes-poses-potentially-lethal-risk.html

    But obviously, if you’ve got an ideologically driven ‘climate crisis’ to sell and you want to make a quick buck in the process, then a one-size-fits-all solution is the preferred answer:

    “Insulate, insulate, insulate!

    Lower bills, reduce emissions!

    Cozy and comfy during [increasingly rare] cold winters!

    Cool and comfortable during ferocious climate changed heatwaves!

    Sign up now. You know it makes sense!”

    Liked by 2 people

  125. “Current heatwave ‘likely to kill almost 600 people in England and Wales’

    Surge in deaths would not be occurring without human-caused global heating, scientists say as analysis published”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jun/21/heatwave-expected-deaths-england-and-wales-analysis

    Almost 600 people are expected to die early in the heatwave roasting England and Wales, a rapid analysis has found.

    The surge in deaths would not be occurring without human-caused global heating, the scientists said, with temperatures boosted by 2C-4C by the pollution from fossil fuels.

    Premature deaths will occur across the two countries but the highest mortality rates are expected in London and the West Midlands. Most of the deaths – 85% – will be people over 65 years old, who are more vulnerable to the extreme heat. People in inner-city homes are also at high risk.

    More than 10,000 people died before their time in summer heatwaves between 2020 and 2024, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The government’s preparations to protect people from the escalating impacts of the climate crisis were condemned as “inadequate, piecemeal and disjointed” by official advisers in April.

    The 32C heat that will be endured by people in the south-east of England on Saturday will have been made 100 times more likely by the climate crisis, scientists said on Friday.

    The Guardian and the BBC are pushing these claims with absurdly intense desperation now. I wonder if the reason is because apart from a few summer-like days, the summer has been nothing to write home about so far. Indeed, the BBC 14-day weather forecast for where I live has the “heat” (top temperature of 24C forecast here today) breaking down, with the rest of the next fortnight seeing top temperatures between 15C and 18C, and a lot of rain. Of course, that should come as no surprise – the Met Office summer weather forecast said the odds were that this summer would be hot and dry – just as its last 3 months forecast said this spring was likely to be wetter than usual. The narrative does seem to be clashing with reality.

    Liked by 2 people

  126. It’s at times like these that I wheel out this figure. It says nothing about heatwaves, but it is suggestive that summer overall is a safer time of year.

    Liked by 4 people

  127. Most of the deaths – 85% – will be people over 65 years old, who are more vulnerable to the extreme heat. People in inner-city homes are also at high risk.

    What the hell are they complaining about? Politicians just voted to bump off the elderly and the vulnerable (as well as unborn babies) who have become a burden to themselves and the state, so the ‘climate crisis’ is doing their job for them already!

    Like

  128. The people at the BBC just can’t help themselves. The clickbait on the front page of the news website has a headline:

    “Heatwave over – but temperatures set to soar again in parts of the UK”.

    However, click on it, and the headline changes to:

    “Fresher start to the week but heat returning for some parts of the UK”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cj0mr0l5d9eo

    Which strikes me as rather different. The story is pretty anodyne too. But never mind – the headline should serve its desired purpose.

    Liked by 1 person

  129. The BBC weather forecast for where I live has top temperatures between 15C and 18C for the next fortnight.

    Like

  130. Otto et al at Imperial College London look pretty stupid right now: a couple of hot (though by no means unusually hot) days followed by a return to the cool and blustery conditions which have characterised the British summer so far this year. Those couple of hot days they told us were made 100 times more likely by climate change. Will this deter them (and their cheerleaders at the Guardian and the BBC) from making similar future prats of themselves? Very unlikely. They rely upon the public having very short attention spans and paying virtually no attention to detail. 😦

    Liked by 2 people

  131. Jaime,

    It’s not just short attention spans that they rely upon, it is also a failure to think about risk properly. Remember this is all about what Otto, etc. would call “the social amplification of risk”. This involves judicious framing. The heat alerts give the Beeb etc. license to remind us how many folk will die prematurely. The ‘100 times more likely’ figure combines in a way that plants the image in everyone’s mind that just about every one of those deaths is down to climate change. Every hot summer’s day is a new opportunity to perpetuate the narrative that climate change carnage is going on throughout the summer, in ways the public thinks it never has done before.

    Job done, as far as Otto is concerned. The summer’s gonna get you.

    Liked by 2 people

  132. And yet the reality remains that it’s winter that will get most vulnerable people, and by a very large margin in the UK.

    Liked by 1 person

  133. “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story” springs to mind –

    “The phrase “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story” is often attributed to the American author Mark Twain. It reflects the idea that sometimes the emotional impact or entertainment value of a story can be more important than strict adherence to factual accuracy. Twain himself was known for his storytelling skills and often blended fact with fiction in his works.”

    Like

  134. By Ben Pile, once of this parish:

    “Heatwave Hysteria Strikes Again”

    https://dailysceptic.org/2025/06/24/heatwave-hysteria-strikes-again/

    Spring in Britain (or at least the parts of it I have visited) was one of the best I can remember. Farmers have complained about it being a bit dry (in contrast to recent years being extremely wet), but for the rest of us, the warm but mild temperatures and fresh conditions were welcome. Early summer has also brought us some exceptionally nice weather. But towards the end of last week, the heatwave began to intensify. And rather than allowing us to bask in the glorious rays of a flaming June, the miserabilists were mobilised to pour misery on our delight. What we were enjoying, claimed these green grinches, were portents of doom. People were going to be killed by it. But this echo of Greta’s I-want-you-to-panic catechism lacks objective, scientific foundation.

    The first and most ridiculous of this species of claim was that produced by the go-to outfit for every obedient climate journalist, the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group, largely based out of Imperial College (of dodgy Covid mortality projections fame, using very similar methods). ‘Deadly weekend heat in England “100 times more likely” due to climate crisis,’ proclaimed the Guardian’s Environment Editor Damian Carrington, following the WWA’s analysis. But ‘attribution’ of weather events to anthropogenic climate change is profoundly unsafe, and indeed, unscientific. It is a media stunt, intended to drive commentary, not reveal knowledge about weather.

    ‘Attribution’ owes very little to objectivity and fact. Rather than basing estimates of the influence of a warmer planet on observational evidence, researchers like those at the WWA instead compare the outputs of computer simulations with different starting points for atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The “100 times more likely” claim emerges from the comparison of the outputs produced by the two simulations. This is unscientific, because simulations are not the real world; the simulations include all of the assumptions that ideologically-motivated researchers programme into them. Ideology in, ideology out. Actual science requires a comparison of a hypothesis’s claims against evidence obtained by observational evidence – experiment. WWA is consequently little more than a machine for producing BBC and Guardian propaganda articles….

    Liked by 1 person

  135. The Beeb’s at it again:

    “Temperatures above 30C expected as a second June heatwave looms”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cx2g8vw8v0jo

    Looms, mind you, as in looming over of us as something terrifying.

    The second heatwave of 2025 is set to send temperatures soaring back over the 30C mark this weekend.

    Soaring back over 30C. But probably not by much, so is it really soaring?

    ...with the possibility of recording the highest temperature of the year so far….

    Yes, that’s how summer generally works.

    Meanwhile, the highest temperature forecast where I live for the next 14 days is 19C for two glorious days, with the other 12 days seeing top temperatures below that.

    Liked by 1 person

  136. Then there was this from the BBC a couple of days ago:

    Cause of major power cut under investigation

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2lqx22d15o

    It is obvious from the following what the journalist wanted the expert to say:

    Speaking to BBC Radio Tees on Monday, Carl O’Burn, the firm’s regional manager for the Teesside area, said it was too early to know whether high temperatures were the sole cause of the power cut. Asked if “extreme weather” had been to blame, he replied: “We don’t know. We’ve taken the equipment away that failed to do some investigations.

    Of course, the correct answer to the question would be:

    No, because we haven’t actually had any ‘extreme weather’ on Teesside over the last few days. Only some higher than average temperatures for the time of year, but well within the norm that is routinely experienced every single summer without any blackouts. I’m actually surprised that you thought that high temperatures played any role at all, let alone possibly being the ‘sole cause’”.

    The BBC just never gives in.

    Liked by 2 people

  137. “Second 30C day for London ahead of Monday’s UK heatwave peak”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2l77w5pl7o

    At least they’re acknowledging that this is mostly a London phenomenon. We briefly hit 21.5C today, 21C is forecast tomorrow (for an hour) and after that the forecast here is for a couple of days peaking at 18C and the rest of the next fortnight will see highs of 16C and 17C.

    This is also an interesting snippet from the BBC piece:

    …The country’s current record high for June rests at 35.6C, set in Southampton’s Mayflower Park in 1957 and met again at Camden Square in North London in 1976.

    Liked by 1 person

  138. “UK sees hottest day of 2025 as heatwave peaks”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79qqx1r5yyo

    The BBC just won’t let it rest, even though the temperatures must be well below those they wanted to report, and no records have been set (save for the claim that its been the warmest June and the warmest spring). I don’t deny that it’s been a warm (and very pleasant – certainly not crisis-ridden) spring, but I am surprised by claims that it’s the warmest June on record, because it certainly hasn’t been unusually warm where I live.

    However, the bit I particularly take issue with is the section with maps purporting to show increasing numbers of areas affected by heatwaves this year. It says:

    An official heatwave is declared when locations reach a certain temperature for three consecutive days.

    The thresholds vary from 25C to 28C in different parts of the country.

    I’m pretty confident that my county hasn’t seen three successive days of temperatures above 25C in June, yet the map shows my county in red, as though it has “suffered” a heatwave. I think we need BBC Verify to check this out.

    Liked by 1 person

  139. I copied a couple of bits of the BBC’s news website yesterday, just for the lols.

    on the front page led you to:

    Breaking news! An airport got really really hot!

    Liked by 1 person

  140. In terms of maximum daytime temperature in England, 1976 and 2023 were hotter. 2025 has been the warmest on record for night time minimum temperature.

    England – Mean daily maximum temp
    June

    England – Mean daily minimum temp
    June

    This bumped up the mean.

    Why are night time temperatures rising so rapidly? Urban heat island. The concrete, bricks and asphalt which absorbed heat during the day, releases it overnight, driving up night time temperatures. Many thermometers are sited in weather stations which suffer from urban encroachment. Even during the day, UHI increases temperatures relative to rural locations. Not climate change, just more people, generating more heat and a lot more buildings and hard surfaces. Plus, a clear increasing trend in solar insolation since 1990, which moreover mirrors quite closely the variable trend in maximum temperature recorded since 1910:

    England – Sunshine
    June

    Liked by 3 people

  141. Once again, the BBC’s partial reporting is misleading:

    “Spain and England record hottest June as heatwave grips Europe”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70rrlexnwzo

    ...Spain and England have recorded their hottest June ever, as scorching temperatures continue to grip Europe….

    In England, the Met Office said June’s mean temperature of 16.9C set a new record for that month, while the UK as a whole saw its second warmest June since records began in 1884

    According to provisional data, the Met Office said the UK’s mean temperature of 15.2C for June was the second highest on record for that month.

    It was “only surpassed by June 2023, which recorded 15.8C”, the agency said.

    The reality, though, is that, despite the hysteria in BBC coverage over the last week or two, it’s not that highs have been unusually high, but that lows have been higher than average, and this has pushed up the month’s mean temperature. This is what the Met Office says:

    “Record-breaking June 2025 weather stats: A regional breakdown”

    https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2025/regional-weather-stats-for-june-2025

    New provisional stats released by the Met Office today revealed England recorded its warmest June since records began. While the UK overall experienced its second warmest June, narrowly behind 2023. Minimum temperatures were particularly notable, with the UK, England, and Wales all registering their highest June minimums on record. Northern Ireland followed closely with its second highest and Scotland its fourth.

    Daytime maximum temperatures were also significantly above average. England recorded its third highest June maximums, and the UK its sixth. [My emphasis]. Sunshine levels were above average for England, while rainfall was slightly above average overall, though with marked regional variation….

    As for those regional variations, here’s what it says about where I live:

    This district saw a slightly cooler average maximum of 18.9°C and a mean of 11.2°C. Rainfall was significantly higher at 133.3 mm, though sunshine remained strong at 177.2 hours.

    Like

  142. The Met Office can’t be bothered to do an attribution study for the ‘heatwaves’ in June – just like Otto. They hand-wavingly say:

    Met Office Climate Scientist, Dr Amy Doherty, said: “While we’ve not conducted formal climate attribution studies into June 2025’s two heatwaves, past studies have shown it is virtually certain that human influence has increased the occurrence and intensity of extreme heat events such as this.  

    “Numerous climate attribution studies have shown that human influence increased the chance that specific extreme heat events would occur, such as the summer of 2018 and July 2022.

    I looked in detail at the 2018 attribution by WWA. It was the usual pseudoscientific nonsense:

    https://cliscep.com/2018/08/03/attributing-the-2018-northern-european-heatwave-to-climate-change/

    Extreme weather attribution analyses, shaky as they are, are nonetheless highly specific to the actual event, its duration and its location. To just state that a Scandinavian heatwave 7 years earlier somehow proves that a few hot days in June 2025 in East Anglia and the South East is because of climate change is beyond absurd.

    Liked by 2 people

  143. The TV weather people are crafty, one time it’s UK heatwave, next it’s back to SE England (again).

    They really think we are thick. Only good thing is when they interview the public expecting a horror story & get “we are enjoying the sun, sun cream on the kids & having a great time”.

    Like

  144. Front page “news” on the BBC website:

    “Are we getting another UK heatwave or did Storm Floris end summer early?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cy8jqn546gjo

    After multiple heatwaves early on this summer, many areas of the UK have seen cooler and wetter conditions dominate.

    Storm Floris then made it feel like autumn had arrived early as it swept the country on Monday….

    I think the claim of “multiple heatwaves” is borderline misinformation. I’m not convinced we’ve had one where I live, even on the rather dubious definition of three consecutive days with the temperature at or above 25C. Even down south, I think the most they’ve had is three, none of them was long-lived, and none saw unusually high temperatures. Summer here in Cumbria has been very poor (after a stunningly good spring).

    Liked by 1 person

  145. Mark – love the way they switch from – “Are we getting another UK heatwave” to “After multiple heatwaves early on this summer, many areas of the UK have seen cooler and wetter conditions dominate.“. So when the SE gets hot it’s news (happens most years) & when it’s a bit crappy up north, never mind your time will come.

    Like

  146. “UK to bask in 30C heat on bank holiday Monday”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6yp0j7znxo

    Yet another misleading and sensationalist headline from the BBC. The UK isn’t going to bask in 30C heat on Monday. A small part of the south of England might briefly hit 30C. According to the BBC’s own online forecast, London, Nottingham and Oxford might reach 26C. Southampton is forecast to reach 24C, and Bath has 25C in the forecast. The hottest forecast I have found is for Birmingham, at 27C. Scotland seems likely to peak at 23C, which is also the highest temperature forecast for where I live (for one hour on Monday afternoon). Cardiff is forecast to reach 25C and Belfast 21C. I suppose there must be somewhere with 30C in the forecast, but I can’t find it.

    …While linking climate change with specific individual weather events can be difficult, scientists say that climate change is generally making bouts of hot weather longer, more intense and more frequent.

    Four summer heatwaves in quick succession after an unusually warm spring suggests climate change is having some effect on 2025’s weather.

    Or not.

    Liked by 2 people

  147. My local Met Office forecast for Monday was 25C this morning. It’s now notched up 1 degree to 26C. Definitely a man-made heatwave developing!

    Like

  148. Has someone had a word with the BBC?

    The article headline has now changed from UK to bask in 30C heat on bank holiday Monday to UK could hit 30C on bank holiday Monday ahead of rain.

    Like

  149. Meanwhile, the BBC’s on a roll, determinedly pushing the climate change propaganda. Front page news story on its website this morning:

    “Has the British summer changed beyond recognition?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/cd9jn8pg2ldo

    Be afraid – be very afraid:

    While there is no doubt our summers have changed, you may well argue that they have not yet shifted beyond recognition.

    However, changes look set to accelerate in the coming decades….

    Liked by 1 person

  150. What? No 30C?

    “Bank holiday delivers record temperatures for parts of UK”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj6yp0j7znxo

    Parts of the UK have enjoyed their hottest August bank holiday on record, with Wales hitting the highest temperature of the day.

    Hawarden, on the border near Chester, hit 29.6C – the highest recorded in Wales on the August bank holiday. Magilligan in Northern Ireland also enjoyed a record high of 24.5C….

    Hottest August bank holiday on record? That’s a consolation prize for them, I suppose. But the August bank holiday is a moving feast, and this year it fell on the earliest day it could. It’s not so difficult to set records when you play that game. I wonder if it was also the warmest August day on record (of course not) or even the warmest 25th August? Nope – not that either. That was in 2019 when the temperature hit 33.3C at – wait for it – Heathrow airport:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49466596

    On that occasion, never an organisation to knowingly miss an opportunity for a “record” high temperature headline, we were treated to “UK weather: Hottest late August bank holiday weekend on record“. That article also said this:

    BBC Weather said that, on Monday, the south east of England could experience temperatures of between 32C and 33C, which would be a national record for the late August bank holiday Monday.

    Well, either that was false, or today wasn’t a record. Or was today a record only in Wales, and the BBC is playing fast and loose with its headlines? Who knows? It seems this is a war, and the truth is the first casualty.

    Liked by 2 people

  151. I should have read the BBC article more carefully – get past the misleading headline, and in fairness it is clear that the “record” bank holiday August Monday temperatures were for Wales and Northern Ireland. However, just as UK records are regularly set at the Heathrow heat island, so the Welsh “record” was set at Hawarden, another heat island where “records” are regularly set. I am aware that this Met Office site has come in for criticism. Any comments, Ray Sanders?

    And what next in the desperate search for new heat records? The hottest 17th December morning ever recorded in Rutland?

    Like

  152. It’s official:

    “Summer 2025 confirmed as UK’s hottest on record”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/c1kz18d3wjro

    Interestingly, though, it confirms what Jaime Jessop has been saying, namely that it’s warmer overnight temperatures that have led to high mean temperatures this summer, rather than higher daytime temperatures (which haven’t been especially high, despite the breathless talk of four heatwaves):

    …However in terms of mean temperature, when overnight temperatures are taken into account, the summer of 2025 was warmer overall.

    As for 1976, yes we do remember it correctly, and it did have a lot of very hot days:

    The summer of 1976 is famous for its heat and remains the UK’s hottest on record in terms of daytime maximum temperatures alone.

    But that’s not all. The BBC’s headlines have to keep upping the ante, even though the article beneath the headline disappoints:

    “Is a UK heatwave in the weather forecast for September?”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/articles/c8jp4dm2mv2o

    (The answer is “not really”):

    There is quite a lot of rainfall in the forecast this week and into the start of next and it will remain quite blustery with the potential for localised gales on Wednesday.

    Temperatures this week will mostly be around the early September average of 17 to 22C but warmer air will move in from the near-continent over the weekend.

    By Sunday, temperatures across England and Wales should get into the twenties with 25 or 26C possible in south-east England.

    Some media reports are suggesting a heatwave or ‘Indian summer’ but temperatures are not expected to reach the official heatwave criteria….

    (As usual, the highest temperature in the BBC forecast for the next 14 days in the part of England where I live is just 19C).

    Like

  153. Well, the Guardian’s certainly got the bit between its teeth, as has the Met Office:

    “Summer 2025 was hottest on record in UK, says Met Office

    Unprecedented average temperature made about 70 times more likely by human-induced climate change, says agency”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/sep/01/uk-experienced-its-hottest-summer-on-record-in-2025-met-office-says

    The Met Office said it had conducted a rapid analysis that found the record-breaking summer temperatures had been made about 70 times more likely because of human-induced climate change.

    Why exactly did the Met Office feel the need to rush out a rapid analysis? Should it not be taking time to ensure that any analysis isn’t subject to uncertainties resulting from it being rushed? It looks like strong evidence that our suspicions that the Met Office is now a climate change propaganda organisation are well and truly justified.

    Liked by 2 people

  154. Looks like I’m going to be kept busy these next few days unravelling all the Met Office propaganda and bullshit re. ‘hottest evah summer’ 2025. I wish I could do rapid debunkings as fast as they do rapid attribution analyses! And get the Guardian and BBC to publish it.

    Liked by 2 people

  155. Mark/Jaime – from the comments under Mark’s 1st BBC link –

    “icecoldstevet at 15:56 26 Aug.

    One thing that the BBC is forgetting here when comparing temperatures is the ‘heat island’ effect which they reported on not a few weeks ago. Since the 60’s the country had been massively developed with roads, houses, airports, etc. (just check satellite pictures over the last 50 years) which will of course lead to HIGHER temperatures (not withstanding any ‘climate change effects). So comparing the temperature at Heathrow or Manchester airports today with those 50 years ago is NOT a VALID COMPARATOR. up votes 184 down votes 79″

    “AndyC55516:42 26 Aug

    OK. The climate is warming. Can spending billions on green energy stop this? Unlikely. China, the US and India are merrily pumping out CO2 which dwarfs any reduction in the UK’s output. How, exactly, will climate change affect the UK? In 20 years? In 50 years?

    Would these billions be better spent on ways to adapt to a warming climate?

    Solar and wind are intermittent. We HAVE to have back-up. Would it be cheaper just to have the ‘back up’ and not bother with solar and wind?

    Has the government done a cost-benefit analysis of those questions?

    Questioning a headlong rush to green energy doesn’t mean denying that the climate is changing, only our response to it.”

    Liked by 3 people

  156. It was the hottest summer on record – but nothing bad happened. Did anyone in the scorching south east actually prefer 2024’s washout? I tend to think shouting about these statistics, real or not, is not advantageous for the alarmist cause.

    Liked by 2 people

  157. It was the ‘hottest’ summer on record whilst you were sleeping. It was nowhere near the driest or sunniest.

    Summer

    UK – Sunshine
    Summer

    Once again., 1976 comes out on top. The Met Office:

    The summer of 1976 remains iconic, with 16 [consecutive] days exceeding 32°C, compared to nine [not consecutive] days in 2025. The persistence of the 1976 heatwave means that 1976 still holds the record for the highest average summer maximum temperature, while the persistent warmth of 2025 means it holds the record for mean temperature. 

    Rapid analysis by Met Office climate scientists using peer-reviewed methods described in this technical report has shown that a summer temperature as high as 2025 has been made around 70 times more likely because of human induced climate change.

    “Another interesting finding from our analysis is the context of this summer against other record-breaking summers, like that of 1976. Our analysis suggests that while 2025 has set a new record, we could plausibly experience much hotter summers in our current and near-future climate and shows how what would have been seen as extremes in the past are becoming more common in our changing climate”

    Climate change is reshaping our understanding of what constitutes a record-breaking summer. As baseline temperatures steadily rise, so too do peak temperatures and the frequency of warm spells. What was once considered exceptional is increasingly becoming typical. Against this elevated climate backdrop, higher temperatures are no longer anomalies, they’re becoming the new normal. 

    Not a single mention of the fact that the only reason why summer 2025 has been a ‘record’ warm summer is because overnight temperatures were very significantly above the previous record overnight temperatures set in 2003.

    UK – Mean daily minimum temp
    Summer

    Just oblique waffle about the mean daily temperature, which is not a direct observation, it is a simple statistical calculation derived from direct observations of minimums and maximums.

    The main reason why it was warm at night? Bricks, tarmac, and concrete, not bloody ‘climate change’! We are being royally conned.

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  158. “Exposing The Pseudoscience Behind The Met Office’s Attribution Of The Nothingburger Summer Of 2025 To Climate Change”

    https://jaimejessop.substack.com/p/exposing-the-pseudoscience-behind

    Summary

    Summer 2025 was a hot summer, but not unusually hot (in terms of maximum daytime temperatures), or dry or sunny. The only reason it was a ‘record warm summer’ is because of the extraordinary jump in minimum night time temperatures – most likely largely due to the release of heat overnight from bricks, tarmac and concrete, affecting poorly sited stations where urban encroachment has biased temperature readings. The Met Office acknowledge that the summer was very warm when the sun was shining, i.e. during the day, because of the persistence of high pressure, but then they ignore this fact.

    The Met Office then proceeded to publish a rapid attribution analysis claiming the record warm summer was made 70 times more likely by man-made climate change, completely ignoring the fact that the four heatwaves which occurred from beginning June to end August were caused by weather, i.e. periods of stationary high pressure.

    The scientific methodology used in the Met Office’s attribution analysis specifically ignores weather (dynamics) and either ignores, or fails to accurately quantify, the effect of multidecadal internal variability which can affect atmospheric dynamical trends.

    A study published in 2022 demonstrates that all of the accelerated trend in hot summers from 1979-2020 in Western Europe (including most of the British Isles) was due to a double jet stream over Eurasia, and hence the Met Office’s rapid attribution analysis – lauded by the likes of the BBC and the Guardian – is basically junk.

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  159. Chris Morrison is on the case at the Daily Sceptic with this ‘ground-breaking’ revelation.

    Following a Freedom of Information request, the UK Met Office has confirmed that it calculates the daily average temperature at each of its 403 weather stations by dividing the highest and lowest recordings by two. A small technical point of interest only to meteorologists, it might be thought. In fact, this disclosure, which has never been made clear across Met Office published sources, is the ‘smoking gun’ that calls into question all the claims of ‘hottest evahs’ that the state meteorologist uses to promote the political interests of the Net Zero fantasy. It might even stop the constant demotion of the glorious summer of 1976 in the record league table, pushed down to a lowly sixth place by the more dubious claims of recent summer scorchers.

    https://www.climateskeptic.org/p/exclusive-new-foi-revelation-casts

    Er, yeah, thanks Chris. Basically what I said four days ago:

    Not a single mention of the fact that the only reason why summer 2025 has been a ‘record’ warm summer is because overnight temperatures were very significantly above the previous record overnight temperatures set in 2003.

    Just weaselly references to ‘persistent warmth’ and oblique waffle about the mean daily temperature, which is not a direct observation, it is a simple statistical calculation derived from direct observations of minimums and maximums.

    I worked that out all myself without needing to do a FOI request. Pity, it’s a paid article so I can’t read the rest and comment.

    Liked by 2 people

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