September 2023
It interests me that last summer, the British Isles experienced record breaking high temperatures and a drought. This year, temperatures have been generally below the average norm. Also, it has been unusually wet. So what is happening to the climate? These islands have not experienced any general disaster this year so far. The fact is disasters have been experienced elsewhere. For example, More than a million displaced people and dozens dead after record rain drenches north-eastern China.
May 2023 was the world’s third warmest May on record in 174 years. We are already seeing devastating fires in North America. Global sea ice has reached a record low. This will reduce the albedo effect. Ice reduces global heating by reflecting the sun’s rays into space. July 2023 was the hottest global month on record. Global average daily sea surface temperatures (SST) hit 20.96 Celsius in early August, breaking the record of 20.95°C, reached in 2016, according to the Copernicus climate modelling service. Scientists say the record will continue to be broken. It is usual for oceans to be at their global hottest in March, not August. This is because most of the global ocean is in the southern hemisphere.
It is encouraging that the BBC is beginning to regularly mention climate relevant facts on the news, because I feel too few people in Britain are aware of them. We have heard many reports of how thousands of British holiday makers have gone on holiday to Mediterranean countries only to find they need repatriating to Britain because of the heat and fires. It also helps us to understand that many folk from “hot countries” are trying to migrate to Britain because of our more temperate climate. Sadly, rich people in those countries invest in air conditioning in their homes, which incidentally, contributes to climate change by using fossil fuel generated electricity to export heat from their rooms to the world outside. But poor people who maybe cannot afford such a luxury decide to migrate north.
The British Isles has its own air conditioning system that may keep us warmer than our continental neighbours in the winter and cooler in the summer. This is called the Atlantic conveyer, or the North Atlantic Drift. This is a current of water that flows from the Caribbean Sea to the British Isles. This is accompanied by our prevailing, rather wet, SW winds.