Tuesday, December 26, 2006

phew, what a scorcher!

It's been an extraordinary year with the hottest month ever in the UK (July), the warmest year globally and now an almost unique situation in both Europe and North America with temperatures closer to late autumn rather than winter prevailing everywhere. December rain in Moscow, Helsinki and much of the Alps, no snow yet in southern England, almost frost-free ...

The real losers currently are the European ski resorts, basking in unusual warmth with spring flowers already appearing. Only artificial snow on the upper slopes and gloomy rain-lashed villages at the foot of them.

But this may all be very misleading. There may still be a very cold snap this winter which'll catch almost all of us unawares, in the longer term the faltering of the Gulf Stream will probably plunge western Europe into a run of very severe winters.

The Climate Change scenario is worse than anyone has imagined already - the future looks like it's going to be a nightmare of severe weather, economic meltdown and huge population changes. But as always there'll be opportunties as well as sob stories. You read it here first!

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