Historic heatwave hits Europe

We have unusually warm temperatures in Europe this autumn. This year?fs summer was also unusually hot too as mentioned before in this thread. It has been the hottest autumn recorded or something, this time last year in the mountains it was already covered with snow. My husband still wears short sleeve shirts to work.:106: :D

Unusually warm weather and lack of snow are a worry to the ski industries. People here are waiting for a cold snap. It looks like the Europeans would need to change their habits or reply on higher altitude resorts.
 
I have just seen in the news that they are still growing strawberries, as well as late-summer vegetables like aubergines and paprikas in the south of France at the moment. There will be fresh French strawberries for Xmas ! Unbelievable when one knows that strawberries normally grow in May in France.

Euronews also mentioned that parts of Switzerland which normally have over 1m of snow at this season are still all green. They fear that the international federation of ski moves to North America because of climate change.

Today in Brussels it was 15'C, that is 10 to 20'C above the seasonal average.
 
Yup, it's unseasonably warm in the UK as well. :worried:
Not that I was thinking so while I was walking to work this morning in the really, really cold and pouring rain this morning - but usually at this time of year there is frost on the ground and it's much much colder than it is right now, even though I complain. :souka: Normally it's misty too, and we haven't had much mist this winter yet. We also had very high winds these last couple of nights.
 
Christmas is nearing and there is still no snow in Moscow. Temperatures at this time of the year should be around -10'C or -15'C, but are only around 0'C now. Moscovites have never experienced such a warm year end.
 
It's started to get colder in England now. :shiver: Finally frosts... and a lot of fog. :souka: Many flights (including all domestic flights) grounded, and therefore chaos at the airports and on trains. :eek:kashii:
 
Interesting, we have also had a lot of fog here in the last few days.

However I heard that people still cannot ski in the Alps because the snow hasn't come yet. It's unusual for the year-end holidays.
 
Cherry trees are blossoming in New York, where the temperatures are a full 8'C above the seasonal averages.

5 to 10 years ago, I considered global warming as a very important issue to tackle. Now, I think that it can be beneficial to countries in northern latitudes. Russia and Northern Europe have especially a lot to gain from it, as long as oceans don't rise (even then high dykes should be enough to prevent floods in the few hard-hit areas like the Netherlands and Flanders).
 
Little update. Trees have been blossoming in some parts of Belgium as well, due to the unprecedently mild temperatures for January, reaching 15'C yesterday (warmer than on some normal summer days !)

I also watched a documentary on ARTE that explained how quickly the ice is melting down in Northern Canada. A new shorter route between Europe and East Asia should come into existence as early as next summer, along the previously impassable Northwest Passage. Scientists were once again baffled by just how fast the Arctic ice is disappearing.
 
I had thought that maybe here we'd have a very cold jan and feb to contrast with the warm nov and dec... but it's not happening... and they say very strong winds comin over the uk pretty soon (and have already started, i feel it today! o_O)
 
It was reported in the news today that Belgian people had so far been consuming 15 to 20% less in heating this winter than usual. Temperatures in January have been osciliating between 10 and 15'C, beating again all records. I have noticed that all the cherry trees in front of Brussels Central Train Station are in full blossom - the normal blossoming season here is early May ! Spring is 4 months early. That's global warming like we have never experienced it before.
 
This month of Januray was again the warmest in recorded history in Belgium, with a average of 7.1'C, no less than 6 degrees above last year's average. Several varieties of trees have been blossoming unseasonally.
 
February has beaten all records again in Belgium. This winter (meteorologically, December to February) has been the warmest in recorded history. The average temperatures are a full degree above the previous 20th-century record (winter 1989-90).
 
Monthly update : March 2007 has not the hottest ever, but not far. Average temperatures have reached 8'C, 2.5'C above average. Maximal averages were at 12.1'C (3.1'C above the normal), the warmest since 1938. Only minimum temperatures were normal. However, the past month has been very unusually sunny, and flowers and blossoms were at least 1 month early.
 
It's just the start of april but at some point I already feel as if summer is already here....
 
Here, it has been really nice and warm weather these last few days. But I heard that we will get thunderstorms on friday or saturday.......... o_o
 
The seasonal warming continues and intensifies in Belgium. April has beaten all records again, but this time they have been in average 5.2 degrees above the 2nd hottest month of April since 1832 !!! (that means even more compared to a normal month of April)

Indeed, record temperatures have reached 30'C in the shade, and over 35'C in the sun - temperatures rarely experienced even in summer in Belgium. Almost every day max. temperatures have exceeded 20'C. Never has April been nearly so hot.

Not a single drop of rain has fallen the whole month, with blue sky everyday but for a few hours on 2 or 3 occasions. April is normally one of the wettest month in Belgium, which means a lot in a country known for its foul, rainy weather.

VRT News : Warmest, driest and sunniest April ever

VRT said:
This month of April will enter history books as the warmest, driest and sunniest April since records began in 1833. Three weather records have been broken in one single month.
...
One day before the end of the month, average temperatures totalled 14.2 degrees Celsius, compared to 9 degrees in a normal month.

The previous record dated back to 1987, with 11.9 degrees Celsius. The record is really spectacular, as previous marks are usually only beaten by 10ths of degrees.

On average, April sees 158 hours of sunshine, but this time it will be about 100 hours more.
 

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