About Face

I’ve previously mentioned that there is a difference between long term climate change and transient weather patterns, whatever the global warming denial lobby would have us believe. Today, there is an excellent example of this available to anyone prepared to look at available data.

Last night, it was cold in the north west – very cold indeed. As I’ve said before, this is down to the north easterly airflow at the coldest time of the year. However, the “blocking” high pressure area over Greenland has relented a little, to the extent that we now have the – rather stubborn – high sitting to the north of the UK (and therefore still bringing winds off the cold continent). This in turn has allowed a low pressure area to move to the north west of Iceland, bringing that country into what is known as a warm sector.

The result, as a check of the Met Office pressure chart and a cross check of the Beeb website’s five day forecast shows, is that, while the UK freezes, Iceland (way to the north of Scotland) enjoys a temperature range of 4 to 7 Celsius (and those are plus figures).

I commend this information to the denial lobby, but do not expect recognition of it, and far less any coherent debate.