Arty Reading in December
Patrick Heron
Kurt Jackson's Sketchbooks
Niko Draws a Feeling
My blog about painting, sketching, days out, mainly in southern England along coasts, streams, rivers and other relevant issues. This compliments my Water and Art blog which is now mainly visual with examples of my recent work.http://artywater.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/spring-exhibitions-2015.html
Friday, December 21, 2018
Thursday, September 27, 2018
Notes from the North Pennines September 2018
This is about the second week of our trip north during the half of September 2018. The first one I spent in the Lake District, mainly painting at Higham Hall. More about that, with photos of the scenery and my paintings, on my Water and Art blog - Art in the Lake District.
To see the sketches I did this week, and the paintings developed back home afterwards, again please visit my Water and Art Blog - Art in the North Pennines.
To see the sketches I did this week, and the paintings developed back home afterwards, again please visit my Water and Art Blog - Art in the North Pennines.
Notes from
the North Pennines September 2018.
Sketch of the countryside near Alston - Copyright Joan Lee (2018) |
Stayed at a very comfortable cottage: Lord
Mayor’s Barn a couple of miles west of Alston. Mixed weather, but generally
mild, with a good deal of good weather for walking / getting out. Pleased to
report the South Tyne and other nearby rivers running well and recovered from
the prolonged summer drought. Rain on Monday night raising the River Tees made
for plenty of flow over High and Low Force on the Tuesday.
-------------------------------------------
Tour of Britain Stage 6, near Higham Hall |
On Friday 7th
September, my painting course finished in the morning. I thanked Robert Dutton
for a good course: intensive, but lots to take home, including potential
material for future painting and printmaking. I liked painting in a different,
wilder part of the country. Mostly painting / drawing Honister Pass, including
a Plein air session there on the Tuesday. I left, generally was well motivated
to up my game.
My Cycling Man came over to Higham from the North
Pennines around midday, to pick me, and all my painting stuff up. It so
happened that Stage 6 of the Tour of Britain was passing close by. Rolling road
closures. Bunting and a bicycle outside the gates of the hall. We walked up the
hill to where the road levelled out and watched it there. Chris Froome, last
year’s Tour de France winner taking part as part of Team Sky. Peloton preceded
by 20+ high speed police motor cycles and team cars. Encountered the Tour
again, waiting on the A66 just outside Keswick on our journey east.
An great view ascending Hartside Summit, on
the western escarpment of the Pennines. Had seen this escarpment from Cat Bells
the weekend before. Had appreciated how long and steep the climb was. Highest
point just over 1900ft. Views all the better in the late afternoon light, with
the sun's rays shining through the clouds towards the watershed between the
Vale of Eden and the Lake District. Lakeland Fells visible in the distance, as
were the Solway and Galloway coast to the NW.
Saturday 8th
September – Hexham
The Tyne at Hexham |
River Tyne walk to / from Waters Meet. Light
lunch in the town. Pleased to see the River Tyne revived, having
hit near rock-bottom during the heatwave drought of May-July, especially the
South Tyne. Account to the Environment Agency (Monthly Water Situation Report
for NE England, July 2018), the mean monthly the flow at Haydon Bridge just
upstream of Hexham was just 1.4 cumecs (cubic metres per second). The North Tyne was less affect its flow
is regulated by releases from Kielder Reservoir. In flood, the Tyne is one of
the most powerful rivers in England. This was the first time I'd seen the Tyne
since the December 2015 floods (Storm Desmond). Then, the peak flow at Bywell
upstream of Newcastle was 1730 cumecs (CEH / NRFA report on the Winter 2015/16
floods in northern Britain, published December 2016). That’s the second highest
flow recorded in England, the first being 1740 cumecs on the Lune at Caton
during the same event; and one of the highest in Britain. Without the
mitigating effects of Kielder Reservoir, the flow would have been even higher.
Though this was during particularly extreme weather / rainfall, the Tyne has a
history of devastating floods, most notably in 1771, when all or nearly all the
bridges were washed away. The flow then would have been well in excess of the
above. Even when the Hexham bypass (Constantius Bridge) was built, a late
summer flood in 1975 disrupted operations.
Reflected branches above the weir at Hexham |
Today the river was benign, with branches
reflected in the water, coxes doing Saturday rowing along the broad stretch
through Tyne Green just above Hexham Bridge. The large weir immediately
downstream of the bridge was clearly built to take a lot of water. Upstream,
sizeable branches / trunks caught on the decaying pillars of what we took to be
a railway crossing. Since our last visit (2008), it had gotten very overgrown
at the Waters Meet confluence of the two Tynes, there no longer being a clear
view.
Meeting of the Waters - North and South Tyne rivers |
I first came to this area in June 1991),
during a week's holiday in Northumberland with my parents and brother who'd
just finished at university in the north. We stayed in a deceptively large
townhouse in Hexham. On the first evening, I walked round the town with Dad,
starting higher up near the Abbey, park with the bandstand. When we saw
chimneys steaming down the hill, it put Dad off heading down to the Tyne. “I
think you're in for a disappointment.”. Back then, our images of the Tyne and
NE England were still shaped by depressing news reports from the early Thatcher
era and a film I'd seen at school as a seven year old about the “polluted”
River Tyne. By then, though, the Tyne was much cleaner, with salmon. If it
hadn’t been for the guy spotting us dithering on the pavement outside his house
(well-spoken southern, not local), asking if he could help, we might not have
been introduced. The factory is still there, with a particularly prominent
chimney “steaming”, with a plume visible from Hadrian’s Wall at Once Brewed. It
is a chipboard factory, owned by an Austrian company, EGGER. Most of Hexham's
shoppers gravitate to the retail park down the hill, with Tesco, Waitrose, Next
etc. My Cycling-Literary Man was pleased to see the independent bookshop, still in the high street up
the hill.
Sunday 9th September – walked the
classic section of Hadrian’s Wall between Once Brewed and Housesteads Roman
Fort, where the Wall passes over the Whin Sill. The sun shining through broken
cloud made for ever changing light. Most of the showers stayed to the south,
but a couple of heavy ones during the afternoon. We got wet during the second
one, but quickly dried out as it was very breezy and mild. Since our last visit, they’d built a swanky
new visitor centre at Once Brewed, called The Sill, after the Whin Sill. Other
than rebuilding YHA Once Brewed and car park / car flap control, not clear what
it was for; the interior having an overly corporate feel and lacking in
content.
------------------------------------
Monday 10th
September – Weardale
An interesting, if steep and fiddly drive up
to about 2000ft and down again into Weardale. We went to Stanhope first,
parking outside the Durham Dales Centre and walking up the hill to follow the Geotrail around Ashes Quarry.
There, for seventy years until the late 1940s, they quarried the Great
Limestone, part of the Carboniferous strata making up the Pennines. Before they
could get to that, they had to dig out overburden, many metres deep. There was
some machinery, such as a compressor, but most of the digging was by hand. Hard
back breaking work, “hellish in a hot summer”.
The quarry was now reverting back to nature. The mounds of overburden now grassed / grown over forming an interesting abstract pattern of ridges and slopes. There was also a mile long hole where limestone quarried out the limestone. Hole now partially filled with ponds, where there were herons and vegetation.
Ashes Quarry, Stanhope |
The quarry was now reverting back to nature. The mounds of overburden now grassed / grown over forming an interesting abstract pattern of ridges and slopes. There was also a mile long hole where limestone quarried out the limestone. Hole now partially filled with ponds, where there were herons and vegetation.
Views down to Stanhope, across Weardale, to
the hills separating it from Teesdale. Mine works.
The quarry extended up to Crawley Ledge and further down the hill nearer the village, with a tunnel under East Lane, with a couple of houses precariously close to another big hole and sheer limestone cliff.
We then went down to the River Wear, which
until now I'd only seen in Durham. Here we were well up river – various streams
feed into Wearhead, further up the dale; and also the Becks and sikes around
Killhope further up again. The water was low and shallow, filling only half of
the riverbed in places. Either flowing around banks of boulders, or wider and
shallow.
The quarry extended up to Crawley Ledge and further down the hill nearer the village, with a tunnel under East Lane, with a couple of houses precariously close to another big hole and sheer limestone cliff.
River Wear, Stanhope |
Ford and stepping stones, Stanhope |
This September's show just finished, but there were still signs up directing any terriers and lurchers looking for somewhere to park and corralling Judges and Officials straight ahead, Dogs, furs and feather off to the left. Followed the road along the river north out of the town. A railway track. Gypsy caravan parked on the river bank near stone bridge. Their horses chained up in the semi-wooded area near a quarry pond and another sheer cliff of limestone. The river here was narrower and flowing through a small gorge.
Quarry lake (with "tidemark" near the Wear above Stanhope. |
Killhope Lead Mining Museum
Visited on the way back, close to the main road. We had a cuppa in the cafe and then looked round the lower part of the site, with the 33ft water wheel. This was fed by Becks, sikes and lazy rivers channelled to it from further up the hill, where there was a reservoir. It powered the machinery used to progressively sort and separate the lead ore from the waste. Because the rain was setting in, we didn’t get to the areas higher up, with the red squirrel hide, but we had a good look round the indoor displays. Spar boxes, some very elaborate, made by anonymous miners. A good geology display, with cabinets containing various crystalline boulders from the North Pennines area. Sopwith laminated wood models made in 1841, to illustrate folding, faulting etc. The ore mined at Killhope was lead sulphide, galena. This crystallised out of water circulating in joints in the Carboniferous strata, forming mineral veins. Beneath the Carboniferous strata, the Weardale granite which intruded about 400Ma BP and heated the overlying strata / circulating water as it cooled slowly deep in the crust. Various other mines around the North Pennines, including Nenthead nearer Alston. Other minerals mined from the mineral veins were siderite (iron carbonate) and baryte (barium sulphide). Killhope operated until WW1. As with the quarrying, it was back breaking work, involving child labour and miners were lucky to get to 45. Apparently, there were more deaths from TB than mining accidents. Living conditions were appalling as well, as the mock-up form above the blacksmith showed, with four to a bed. Though conditions improved dramatically in Britain and the western world postwar, a sobering display in the Buddle House, showing not the case all over the world, e.g. Congo, the Philippines, Bolivia. Child labour still goes on, sometimes involving kids as young as five. In Bolivia, miners lucky to get to 40. Viewing these displays both in our fifties, was sobering food for thought. Another of those days making me think, boy don’t we have it easy now – shut up and stop whinging. Environmentally not brilliant in many parts of the world either. Mention particularly of a big toxic dump in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania during the communist Ceausescu regime. Well after the regime collapsed (1989), it still posed big problems, with a series of cyanide and heavy metal spills into the River Tisza, killing all the fish and affecting at least three countries.
--------------------------------------------
Tuesday 11th
September – Teesdale
One of those days when it seemed the water spirits were with me, timing the weather just right for what I wanted to see. The barn where were were staying was detached and situated fairly high up above Alston, meaning we heard the wind and rain much more than usual. On Monday night, lots of it and it sounded heavy. Tuesday, though dry, mild and increasingly sunny for our walk in Teesdale. As noted above and seen before when we've been in the north, Pennine rivers notorious for their rapid response to rainfall, transforming within a few hours from low and slow like the Wear at Stanhope into frothing torrents the colour of Theakston's Old Peculiar / brown ale. Then dropping back equally quickly after the rain stops. Today's was a typical short-lived spate, affecting rivers throughout the North Pennines and at the northern Lake District. The peak of the spate on the South Tyne and Tees was early on Tuesday morning, according to the Environment Agency's Rivers and Sea Levels pages. Glimpsing the South Tyne when we crossed it at Alston bridge, it had transformed completely and subsequently dropped after a sharp spike on the hydrograph. Things looked good for high Tees at High Force.
Low Force |
But for the bit between the Tees and YHA
Langdon Beck, we essentially did the walk my other half had done the Thursday before,
but in the reverse direction. We started and finished at the car park near the
Bowlees Visitor Centre. Crossed the Bowlees Beck; a white breasted dipper, like
the one pictured on the Teesdale Way signs. Then across the road past the VC
into the woods on the left bank of the Tees close to Low Force.
Here some very reflective obelisks and figures cast in stainless steel. This was an art installation by Rob Mulholland. More about him in the catalogue at the VC café over a cuppa at the end of our walk. Similar installations in southern France and in Scotland, on the theme of people as part of a landscape through time. Designed by catch the light and reflect the surrounding trees etc. These here best appreciated when no other people about. Busier on our way back, so as well we got it in early.
Here some very reflective obelisks and figures cast in stainless steel. This was an art installation by Rob Mulholland. More about him in the catalogue at the VC café over a cuppa at the end of our walk. Similar installations in southern France and in Scotland, on the theme of people as part of a landscape through time. Designed by catch the light and reflect the surrounding trees etc. These here best appreciated when no other people about. Busier on our way back, so as well we got it in early.
We crossed the one-at-a-time suspension
footbridge and followed the path along the right bank of the Tees past Lower
Force. This in itself was impressive with the raised water level. Cycling Man said there'd been nothing much to see here during the more subdued flow last week.
High Force was about a mile upstream beyond
the footbridge to the hotel. A slightly tucked away, easily missed view point
on the right bank. The water plunging down the main falls on our left was the
colour of froth on top of beer. More unusually, but not exceptionally, a more
slender stream of water on the right. Cycling Man said only the main one last week and
even that had been much more subdued.
The falls are formed as the Tees crosses over the Whin Sill and cuts down into the less resistant sandstone and limestone beds beneath it. From the right back, the distinction between the sill and sediment, the first much paler and more thickly layered, was clearer than on the left bank when I looked during my OU Geology summer school week in 2002. The left bank view (fee to pay) is lower down. It was a duller, wetter day than today and the main fall was further from the bank. The falls now were even more impressive when viewed from the top (video above).
High Force |
The falls are formed as the Tees crosses over the Whin Sill and cuts down into the less resistant sandstone and limestone beds beneath it. From the right back, the distinction between the sill and sediment, the first much paler and more thickly layered, was clearer than on the left bank when I looked during my OU Geology summer school week in 2002. The left bank view (fee to pay) is lower down. It was a duller, wetter day than today and the main fall was further from the bank. The falls now were even more impressive when viewed from the top (video above).
We carried on upstream, amid the noise of the
fast flowing Tees and machinery in Force Garth Quarry across the water, where
they were quarrying and crushing the Whin Sill for roadstone. Lorry movements.
Packed lunch near a tributary beck, Blea Beck coming out opposite the quarry,
with its own waterfall. Continued across two more Becks joining the Tees in
quick succession, then up the hill past a meander round the quarry rock.
Quieter here, upwind of the quarry and the upper slopes of it blocking the
noise.
Down hill again past a farm, to a footbridge taking the Pennine Way over the Tees. That was just downstream of the confluence of the Tees with the Harwood Beck, on our near side. A derelict farmhouse set back from the rivers. The Tees came in on the far side, round the crag dark against the light. Beyond that and out of view, were the Cauldron Snout cascade and the Cow Green Reservoir.
Force Garth Quarry |
Down hill again past a farm, to a footbridge taking the Pennine Way over the Tees. That was just downstream of the confluence of the Tees with the Harwood Beck, on our near side. A derelict farmhouse set back from the rivers. The Tees came in on the far side, round the crag dark against the light. Beyond that and out of view, were the Cauldron Snout cascade and the Cow Green Reservoir.
Near Langdon Beck |
Turned round where the path ran close to the
bank. The level of the Tees was falling noticeably by now. Back at High Force,
water was still pouring down the lesser right channel, but less than this morning.
--------------------------------------
Wednesday 12th
September – River Tees walk, Barnard Castle
A fine, mild day for our circular walk along
the Tees. Out along the left bank for about three miles to the footbridge near
the Balder confluence; and back along the right bank.
About an hour’s drive from Alston, along
Teesdale, past High Force and through Middleton-in-Teesdale. Passed a café
called Tees Pot. Came into Barnard Castle from the east, passing the Castle on
the sandstone cliffs above the Tees. Crossed the bridge and parked in the town
centre up the hill.
We started our walk at the Castle, turning
right along a path running above the river. Past some benches with stone
carvings about drownings in the Tees. Until the Cow Green Reservoir killed it,
or rather slowed the rate of propagation of spates downstream, a wave of
water up to 2m high would race down the
Tees after heavy rainfall. This was the notorious Tees Roll. In 1942, seven soldiers drowned and dead sheep would
regularly be washed downstream. According to the local graffiti, things had
moved on from river issues to dogs cutting their paws on broken glass bottles.
Today the Tees was benign and flowing
relatively gently, but well. The reservoirs probably help maintain would
maintain healthier flows during summers like this last one, too.
Footbridge near the Castle and Deepdale Beck
on the far side, closed, with big blue water pipe snaking over it. That was
what the roadworks on our way in, and following the road in again at the end of
our walk were about. A flow gauge. Rebuilt in 2014, with a fish ladder in the middle.
The path ran through woodland beneath cliffs
of sandstone, with trees growing precariously close to the edges, some had
tumbled down. We then came out in a field on the inner bend of a meander. Here
we went down to the boulder water’s edge. An interesting froth eddy between the
main current flowing over a shallower rocky shoal and deeper area nearer the
bank, the current doubling back beneath a cliff.
Then back into the woods, steeply up the hill,
clearing the trees; contouring above the river through farmland. Past a farmhouse,
sheep being rounded up by sheepdog.
Lunch overlooking the river on the hillside
just before Cotherstone (top photo, this section). Down from there and across the footbridge near the
inflow of the River Balder on the right bank. That came in fairly steeply and
seemed to be adding quite a bit of water to the main flow as it flowed around
an islet.
Metal sculpture mimicking nature on both sides
of the bridge: a branch on the wall just across it, and a leaf filled with
rainwater up hill from the River Balder.
Up hill from there to more farmland, path
skirting round the corners of fields. Then down again into woodland. As on the
other side, sandstone cliffs, with precarious trees.
Lost the Teesdale Way dipper signposts for a
while, missing a turning through tedious pinewood and old railway route; but
found it again nearing the town. Crossed the bridge benefits the Castle and
headed up into town for a cuppa.
-----------------------------------
Thursday 13th
SeptemberSouth Tyne, Alston, near heritage railway |
South Tyne from railway bridge near the station |
The junction of the South Tyne and the Nent (top left) |
This weekend btw, the 50th anniversary of the great southeast England floods of 1968. Still the biggest flood in living memory, in much of the area, most notably along the Mole and Wey. Though not as bad as Storm Desmond in the north, bad enough; certainly for what has always been a densely populated area. Earlier that year, in the March, bad flooding in the north, including Carlisle, where the flow of the Eden hit over 1300 cumecs, prompting the building of the Carlisle flood banks, but of course not enough to contain the floods of 2015 or 2005. Photo on Wikipedia of the Tees in full force over High Force; the river pouring not only round both sides of central cliff, but over it as well. The same happened again during the Storm Desmond rains, even with Cow Green Reservoir (1971) holding back some of the flow. Back at the Nent bridge in Alston, I don’t know what repairs involved, but temporary traffic lights an unusual selection of vans, including diamond drill cutting and diving services.
From the old station, followed the trail past
the signal box and signals, the line running roughly parallel to the South
Tyne. Past the metal remnants of a steam engine. Both got talking to a couple
from Cornwall, out walking their dog. Crossed the bridge over the river; with
shallow rapids on the far side of the track and slower deeper water flowing in
pools beneath a rocky platform. Turned round shortly after that and walked up
the steep, cobbly, busy high street. The
High Plaice fish and chips opposite a gallery selling ceramics inspired by
the surrounding fells and rivers. Post Office near here as well, where Cycling Man said he posted a whole load of OS maps home to lighten the load during his 1986
End-to-End cycle ride. He'd stayed at YHA Langdon Beck the night before and was
descending Alston’s steep hill, before pedalling on into Scotland.
With the rain setting in and getting heavy, we
headed back to the cottage around midday. An afternoon of artwork and packing.
Started a MM picture of High Force, but felt constrained by not being able to
splash paint around / having to watch no spillages etc. No hair dryer to dry
paint quickly either.
Environment Agency River and Sea Levels
Ditto Water Situation Reports for England, including river flows
Notes from a Hot Summer 2
Reserved for Notes from a Hot Summer part 2
Notes from a Hot Summer 1
Reserved for Notes from a Hot Summer part one
Thursday, August 2, 2018
Hot Heatwave News 2
August 2018
1st August - After
the lull at the end of July, the heat is set to ramp up again. I hope they’re
overestimating temperatures, but probably aren’t. Though last Sunday’s rain
helped, we need a lot more of it to green the grass again and stave off
farmers’ worries about crops. It’s not good news, in Britain or further afield.
We’ll see what this winter’s like, but I really do worry the climate’s so
buggered, that it’s gone over a tipping point and sometime soon, when the
present blocked pattern will become a permanent feature, meaning water
resources won’t recharge in winter and every summer will be at least as hot and
dry as this one has been. That’s not a new fear, but I now fear it this
happening in my lifetime, maybe even the next few years, as opposed to well
after my time, when at least I won’t be here to grieve about it all. For now,
the EA are revising abstraction limits to groundwater and rivers to stave off a
farming crisis / food shortage. Heaven help us if it persists into next year
with hard no deal Brexit food price hikes on top. The EA etc have these limits
to prevent environmental damage to rivers and wildlife, but when it comes to
the crunch, all that gets torn up. In Iberia, meanwhile, it’s set to get scary.
They say records from the record heatwave of 2003 could be broken, with highs
in the high 40s celcius.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/01/uk-farmers-allowed-to-take-more-water-from-rivers-as-heatwave-continues
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2018/aug/01/the-heat-is-on-record-48c-temperature-on-the-way-for-spain-and-portugal
Met. Office - UK July stats (31st July)
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/news/releases/2018/july-2018-statistics
Hot Heatwave News 1
Hot heatwave news daily, through June, July and on into August. The turnaround in weather and water since the early spring is unbelievable. Despite a brief lull and the wet Sunday at the end of July, real worries about drought entering August. Not just in the UK, but Ireland, Scandinavia and yet again continental Europe. It's coming from a particularly persistent, blocked weather pattern, with high pressure over these areas for much of June and July and weak jetstream running further north than usual. The heatwave further aggravated by drying soils, so no evaporative cooling. Comparisons in Britain and Europe with the hot summers of 1976 and 2003. The particularly disturbing thing is the heatwave is planet-wide; the jetstream weak and slow moving all around the northern hemisphere, making for blocked weather over Siberia; 30C+ north of the Arctic Circle in Finland. Heatwave in Scandinavia, Iberia, Canada, Japan. In Japan, too, exceptionally intense rainfall bringing flooding. Wildfire in NW England, Sweden, California. Disturbing again is that this doesn't look as if it will be a one-off. Not if anthropogenic climate change predictions are to be believed, which they should be. It's crazy and scary that lots of people, including some very powerful people say they shouldn't be. The carbon dioxide shortage in June affecting food and drink industries in Britain and Europe was ironic, given that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is now above 400ppm and rising. When I started secondary school and learned about the constituents of the Earth's atmosphere in the early 1980s, it was about 320ppm. The mean global temperature is already 1C above that at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the rate of increase is accelerating. If it's not global heating that's driving the extremes of heat, drought and intense rainfall seen in globally since the beginning of this century, I don't know what else is. Somthing must be up, or down.
News / Links June - July 2018
Guardian 13/07/18 -
global heatwave / record temperatures in many areas. Climate change inducing
more blocking weather, prolonging episodes of heat and drought. La Nina this
year. Should be cooler, not continuation of upward trend seen this decade.
The 2018 Great Britain and
Ireland heat wave is a period of unusually hot weather that has led to
record-breaking temperatures in the UK and Ireland,[1] and has helped
to cause widespread drought, hosepipe bans, crop failures, and the 2018 United Kingdom wildfires.
A heat wave was officially declared on 23 June,
with even Scotland and Northern Ireland recording temperatures above 30 °C
(86 °F) for the first time since the July 2013 heat wave, something which is
rare in these places, but more common in England and Wales.[2]
The British Isles are in the middle of a
strong warm anticyclone inside a strong northward meander of the jet
stream. It is part of a
larger heat wave affecting the northern hemisphere, caused by the jet stream
being farther north than usual, trapping hot air above North America, Europe,
and Asia, and blocking low-pressure systems that would bring cooler air and
rainfall.
t is
part of a heat wave spanning the Northern Hemisphere, which has seen the
hottest night ever recorded on Earth in Oman, where the
lowest temperature was 42.6 °C (108.7 °F),[11] and the deaths of at least 33 people in Canada.[10]
In Wales and Northern Ireland, June 2018 was
the warmest June ever recorded and in England and Scotland, June 2018 ranks
within the top 5 warmest on record.[23] In the Central
England region, the CET is a long
running temperature series, with records back to 1659. 2018's temperature was
16.1 °C (61.0 °F), meaning it ranks as the 18th warmest June recorded
in England in the past 359 years, also being the warmest since 1976.[24]
Much of northern
Europe has been experiencing a heatwave - notable for its intensity and
duration. It's caused by "atmosphere blocking". Can we predict when
these blocks will come and how long they will last? Adam Rutherford talks to
Jana Sillmann, director of the Centre for International Climate Research in
Oslo, Norway, author of a new study that has modelled 40 years' worth of
heatwaves and blocking, and looked to the end of the century in attempting to
predict blocking patterns as the climate changes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Block_(meteorology)
- blocking weather
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-44885493
- satellite image of England and Wales May and mid-July
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44767497
- hidden henges etc revealed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-44850128
- NW England hosepipe ban
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-44886776
- Part of L&L Canal shut for 55 miles in north
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-44869566
- oaf accidentally drains K&A Canal, 18th July
Summer rainfall so
far, UK: Scotland 30%; northern England 18%; NI 24%; Wales 10%; southern
England 6%.
FB 20/07/18:
It was above 90°F north of the Arctic Circle on July 18, 2018 in
northern Finland -- more than 30°F warmer than a normal mid-July day.
PEOPLE are rapidly impacting the Earth's climate, and the Arctic
is the most rapidly changing place on the planet. We need to do something!!
Image tweeted by https://t.co/wZIu40AOui
FB 22/07/18
It is very very
hot in Japan right now.
Sadly,
this type of deadly heatwave is going to become more common as anthropogenic
climate change keeps marching on. (H/T twitter: @HakimAbdi)
https://www.dwd.de/DE/wetter/thema_des_tages/2018/7/22.html
- German weather service 22/07/18 - average temperatures across Germany not as
hot as summer 2003 (yet), but heat set to build this week. (Also drought
problems in Germany, Holland and Belgium.) Summer heatwave city temperatures
around Germany compared with averages from 1961 onwards: 2018 stands out high
by a large, well above average in Frankfurt and Berlin, but not all.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/22/heatwave-northen-hemisphere-uk-algeria-canada-sweden-whats-the-cause
- Observer 22/08/18 - cause of heatwaves is the jetstream weak and slow all
around the northern hemisphere, enabling blocking high pressure systems to
persist for weeks on end.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jul/26/uk-woefully-unprepared-for-deadly-heatwaves-warn-mps
Contribution to the current heat wave: FB 260718
BundesumweltministeriumLike Page
22 hrs ·
Hitze
in Deutschland – der eine freut sich über das hochsommerliche Wetter, für den
anderen können die hohen Temperaturen zur (gesundheitlichen) Belastung werde...
Heat
in Germany - the one is happy about the summer weather, for the others, the
high temperatures can become the (Health) burden. Overall, the number of hot
days has risen in recent decades, and in the future there will be more heat
waves in the future.
With the consequences, especially cities have to fight -
that is why we encourage measures to adapt to climate change, such as concepts
for more city green and outdoor cleared, an appropriate building and event, as
well as safe drinking water supply: www.bmu.de/PM7885
It is
also clear: to prevent even stronger and more serious consequences of climate
change, we must move forward in climate change. That is why we are going to put
a climate protection law on the way, which, for the first time in Germany, is
legally binding and binding on us to achieve our climate targets by 2030
Excessive heat across parts of
Europe yesterday, July 26th
July sees
extreme weather with high impacts
http://edo.jrc.ec.europa.eu/edov2/php/index.php?id=1000
- European Drought Observatory
Includes parched
grass, wildfires, dry reservoir in UK. Global extremes of supersog, superdry,
but mainly heat and drought. Dry Elbe river in Germany
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)