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
