Reader Bernd Felsche has a public service message for those of us living in Germany:
Summer in Germany this year will be on August 2, 2011, from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm.
A whole 2 hours. Sorry, but that’s all that’s in store for summer in Germany this year.
Germany over the last weeks has been gripped by unusually cool and wet weather, and so many are wondering whatever happened to summer. The forecast for the days ahead according to the English-language The Local doesn’t look good either as rain and cool with temperatures stuck in the 60s remaining the rule.
Things are not expected to improve until Monday, with summer briefly returning on Tuesday. The Local writes:
Tuesday would be the pick of next week, with highs ranging from 24 to 29 degrees and plenty of sunshine right across the country.
Cold and wet for the next 4 weeks
Are the barbecue summer conditions going to persist? The Local writes:
And the good news? There isn’t any, said DWD [German Weather Service] meteorologist Andreas Friedrich.
‘A look at the meteorological crystal ball, meaning predictions for the next four weeks, offers nothing good for anyone who still hopes for steady and warm summer weather,’ he said. ‘For the period to the end of August, we can only infer trends but, well, this shows the arrow regarding temperatures pointing further downward’.
Long-term forecasts, Friedrich reminds us, are only 60% accurate, and so there is still some hope that we may end up getting some nice weather to salvage the summer before it ends.
Peddling quackery
Speaking of the DWD (German Weather Service) – which has become one of the key propaganda arms of the German global warming movement – it says here Germans will be able to enjoy nicer summers by the year 2100. The DWD writes in its July 26 press release:
Climate simulations show for Germany further warming of 2 to 4°C by the year 2100. Drier summers and wetter winters and more extreme weather events are anticipated.”
Here they are not talking about plain old longer-term weather forecasts over the next 4 weeks, but of “climate simulations” for the next 90 years. Their accuracy, scientists claim, with the DWD agreeing, are really worth taking to the bank!
Forget it folks. Nobody can make such predictions. That’s pure utter quackery.
Unfortunately, this year’s German summer is turning out to be just the opposite of heat and sunshine (once again!).
The same is true for the US Pacific northwest and western Canada – summer has made at best a brief appearance. Environment Canada, perhaps more pro AGW than the DWD, has been silent as far as I know.
Fortunately here in New England where I’ve been vacationing, we’ve been having plenty of sunshine and warm weather – precisely the way summer is supposed to be…so eat your hearts out! 🙂
The same DWD says that spring 2011 has been the second warmest on record.
http://www.haz.de/Nachrichten/Wissen/Uebersicht/Deutschland-wird-immer-waermer
I wouldn’t trust them any more than i would trust Hansen.
When people asked me in Germany (during May/June) what the weather was like in Australia where I live at this time of year, I said pretty much the same as here, though the rain can be a bit colder. Some thought that I was talking about summer.
Yet another massive NH winter?
http://www.landscheidt.info/?q=node/224
Pierre, if it has been cold and wet and will remain cold and wet for September, how is the crop situation coming along?
Looks like about 15% less wheat and rape than in the long term average. Does not feature prominently in the German news by now; i’ve seen the first harvester yesterday in my area.
I’m not sure as I’ve been in the States over the last three weeks. I would guess less than optimal. We had a very dry spring, now followed by a cool and wet July. Will know more next week.
The harvest is just getting started in the north, too – sbout 4-5 later “than usual”. There have been a few notes in the local papers about wet & cold June/July weather, still framed in “farmers hope for better weather” terms. The prices featured on agro websites right now should be taken with a pinch of salt – they are influenced by spot bidding and Futures trading and so reflect expectations rather than actual market values.
2 notes – 1) Driving around the north you can see the next Big Fail in the making: about half of the fields have been sown with maize (“corn” to you Americans); it’s obvious that this was done in expectation of turning that into biofuel. Since the mandatory switch to E10 fuel this spring turned out to be a complete disaster, there will be a glutting of the market with NO buyers in October-November, prices hitting bottom, and farmers screaming for compensation (“We’re all Greeks now.”)
2) Googling “Landwirtschaft Ernte Juli 2011” turned up this story from Welt Online, 01 Aug ’11: “Überbevölkerung ist größtes Problem der Menschheit” (“Overpopulaton: Humanity’s Greatest Problem”), citing figures of 9.3 billion people in 2050 and 15.7 billion in 2100. “[M]it der schieren Zahl wachsen der Konsum, der Energieverbrauch, die Zahl von Autos und die benötigten Flächen für die Landwirtschaft. Zugleich schrumpfen der Wald, intakte Riffe und die Artenvielfalt insgesamt” (“Increasing sheer numbers mean growing consumption, energy use, the number of cars and areas needed for agriculture. At the same time forests, intact reefs and biodiversity decline”). Yo, Parson Malthus rules: “Dass das starke Wachstum zu einem riesigen Problem werden wird, ist spätestens seit der Schrift “An Essay on the Principle of Population” des britischen Ökonomen Thomas Malthus aus dem Jahr 1798 bekannt,” (“It has been known at least [!] since the British economist T.M. published “An Essay on the Principle of Population” in 1798 that forceful growth will turn into a gigantic problem.”). NO caveats here at all. Come back, Paul Ehrlich, all is forgiven.
Ehrlich never went away. Ehrlich is, BTW, a German name, ironically meaning “Honest”.
The same is true for the US Pacific northwest and western Canada – summer has made at best a brief appearance. Environment Canada, perhaps more pro AGW than the DWD, has been silent as far as I know.
The harvest is just getting started in the north, too – sbout 4-5 later “than usual”. There have been a few notes in the local papers about wet & cold June/July weather, still framed in “farmers hope for better weather” terms. The prices featured on agro websites right now should be taken with a pinch of salt – they are influenced by spot bidding and Futures trading and so reflect expectations rather than actual market values.
2 notes – 1) Driving around the north you can see the next Big Fail in the making: about half of the fields have been sown with maize (“corn” to you Americans); it’s obvious that this was done in expectation of turning that into biofuel. Since the mandatory switch to E10 fuel this spring turned out to be a complete disaster, there will be a glutting of the market with NO buyers in October-November, prices hitting bottom, and farmers screaming for compensation (“We’re all Greeks now.”)
2) Googling “Landwirtschaft Ernte Juli 2011″ turned up this story from Welt Online, 01 Aug ’11: “Überbevölkerung ist größtes Problem der Menschheit” (“Overpopulaton: Humanity’s Greatest Problem”), citing figures of 9.3 billion people in 2050 and 15.7 billion in 2100. “[M]it der schieren Zahl wachsen der Konsum, der Energieverbrauch, die Zahl von Autos und die benötigten Flächen für die Landwirtschaft. Zugleich schrumpfen der Wald, intakte Riffe und die Artenvielfalt insgesamt” (“Increasing sheer numbers mean growing consumption, energy use, the number of cars and areas needed for agriculture. At the same time forests, intact reefs and biodiversity decline”). Yo, Parson Malthus rules: “Dass das starke Wachstum zu einem riesigen Problem werden wird, ist spätestens seit der Schrift “An Essay on the Principle of Population” des britischen Ökonomen Thomas Malthus aus dem Jahr 1798 bekannt,” (“It has been known at least [!] since the British economist T.M. published “An Essay on the Principle of Population” in 1798 that forceful growth will turn into a gigantic problem.”). NO caveats here at all. Come back, Paul Ehrlich, all is forgiven.