Hot and dry

[Gary in Aus]

Had a relaxing Christmas at Thirroul, swimming and lazing around the beach.

 

Spent New Years at my older brothers farm north west of Walgett and just home after a long hot drive.

 

Bureau of Meteorology on radio recorded 49.1 in Walgett but according to the car thermometer we hit just over 51 degrees about 80 kilometres north of town.{Car is fairly accurate}

 

The annual rainfall on my brothers farm in 2013 was 215mm , (the average is 420mm } with no rain recorded since mid winter around June.

 

They are watering stock from tankers and feeding from trucks.

 

My farm at Sofala has no water and we have destocked , my farm is purely hobby and for tax purposes so it's not that crucial but it looks like the current summer is going to be challenging .

 

2013 has been our hottest year on record and 2014 is predicted to be even hotter .

[Kathy R]

Thanks for reminding me that -4 degrees and 15" of snow in the past 24 hours is countered by your side of the planet. I'm planning to snowshoe later today.

 

I live in an area that is largely agricultural. Up until three years ago we had shortages of rainfall that affected farming for a few years. Then two years ago we had a 2 week warm up in March, followed by a week of snow, that killed 90% of the buds on all the apple trees. Then we had an unusually wet couple of months that further devastated the fields.

 

We had a near perfect year for weather in 2013. Each season was straight out of a Currier and Ives calendar painting. The crops were spectacular. The lake I live near, and get my drinking water from, is full. I'm bundling up and going out to shovel now, before the 30mph wind gusts begin.

 

 

[CVA-42]

Meanwhile back here in the northern exurbs of Atlanta, the official rain total for 2013 was just a hair under 78 inches. 14+ inches in July alone. Third wettest year on record.

[Lmar]

No Cold here! -32 for a low tonight, -28 for a high tomorrow and -36 for a low tomorrow night.

 

Welcome to Alberta!

 

[Bill_Walker]

Meanwhile back here in the northern exurbs of Atlanta, the official rain total for 2013 was just a hair under 78 inches. 14+ inches in July alone. Third wettest year on record.

 

That's climate change for you. We can expect drier drys and wetter wets. Fewer years with many days of moderate rain, and more years with fewer rainy days, but more extreme rain, due to more moisture in the atmosphere and changes in the jet stream. There will still be new cold records set (weather still has lots of natural variability), but there will be a lot more high records, and especially more record high lows (e.g., "it only got down to 85 last night").

[Gary in Aus]

I once experienced -21 in the Mongolian Territories over 35 years ago and have diligently avoided anyplace colder than about 10 degrees since !!!!!

 

I am sure that some on this board have experienced colder.

 

As a volunteer aid worker ,I lived under a tarpaulin / torn tent for nearly 5 and a half months in the jungle north of Banda Aceh off the road to Medan after the 2005 Tsunami and since then have stopped complaining about extreme weather conditions , now I just make observations!!!

 

We travel to the northern hemisphere in June to avoid winter as much as we can , last year in July and August we went to Paris then train to Amsterdam , cruise to top of Norway for 3 weeks then a 3 week cruise of Baltic.

 

August/September 2013 spent 6 weeks in the Philippines {Manilla , Tacloban, San Juan , Coron , Palawan and El Nido} and if you are following the thread so far the warmer it is the happier we are!!!!!

 

Weather extremes on the media ,while they can catch your attention , don't really impact upon you until you experience them. Seeing the damage to the Philippines from the cyclone only months after we had stayed/driven through those regions , reinforces how much the media can inform but also isolate from the actual events.

 

I now live in a extremely benevolent climate on the New South Wales coast south of Sydney , where a 10 degree minimum is a chilly winter night and we enjoy warm but not too hot summers, 25 to 35 seems the norm.

 

TV news has been showing the current freezing conditions that parts of Canada and US have been experiencing and it is hard to imagine that one day we may experience similar conditions here or that my piece of paradise will become like the north west coast of West Australia.

[Kathy R]

 

[Sonor]

Here in the SE of the USA, we are going to experience the coldest temps for the day. Tonight's temp is scheduled to be in the high single digits: 8 or 9f, not Celsius. So on a Celsius termo it would be around -14 degrees. The coldest for this day in recorded history is 11f (or -12c). But not to worry, this weekend it is supposed to be back up to 60 degrees (16 c).

 

My heart does go out to all of those farther north and into New England. Ya must be about sick of winter already.

[CVA-42]

Meanwhile back here in the northern exurbs of Atlanta, the official rain total for 2013 was just a hair under 78 inches. 14+ inches in July alone. Third wettest year on record.

 

That's climate change for you. We can expect drier drys and wetter wets. Fewer years with many days of moderate rain, and more years with fewer rainy days, but more extreme rain, due to more moisture in the atmosphere and changes in the jet stream. There will still be new cold records set (weather still has lots of natural variability), but there will be a lot more high

records, and especially more record high lows (e.g., "it only got down to 85 last night").

 

I don't think these regional extremes of precipitation and temperature are understood by the general public as being a result of global warming. Tonight in North Georgia, we will experience the coldest temps since 1983 and, predictably, there is a cartoon on the editorial page of today's paper ridiculing the "theory" of Global Warming.

[Bill_Walker]

I don't think these regional extremes of precipitation and temperature are understood by the general public as being a result of global warming. Tonight in North Georgia, we will experience the coldest temps since 1983 and, predictably, there is a cartoon on the editorial page of today's paper ridiculing the "theory" of Global Warming.

 

The fossil fuel companies and their allies have gone to great lengths to keep the general public from understanding global warming. Just like with the tobacco companies and the link between smoking and cancer, "doubt is our product" is the motto.