DWD German Weather Service Says UHI Effect As Much As 10°C! …Judith Curry Puts Heat Waves On Ice

Germany’s and Europe’s first real heat wave (more than 3 days long) of the summer has pushed temperatures well above the 30°C. A so-called omega high pressure system centered over Eastern Europe is pumping hot air from the Mediterranean and Africa up across much of Europe.

Europe temp 07 04 2015Source: wetterdienst.de

Not about to pass up any opportunity to exploit single weather events for the global warming cause, the online SVZ here cites the DWD German Weather Service, which warns that climate change will further exacerbate summer heat waves in cities, especially because of all the concrete, steel and asphalt that act as heat storage sinks that in turn serve to slow down nighttime cooling and absorb more heat in the daytime on hot days.

The DWD advises cities to find ways to incorporate more green vegetation to help offset the growing urban heat island effect brought on by climate change, the SVZ writes.

Can boost temperatures by 10°C!

What’s interesting here is that in the article the DWD also confirms that the urban heat island effect is real and profound, claiming that it can boost temperatures in cities “by up to 10°C”. The SVZ.de cites DWD Vice President Paul Becker, writing:

Temperatures in the city as a result could be up to 10°C higher than in the surrounding rural areas where we find bodies of water and vegetation.”

So what should this tell us about readings taken from the many weather stations located near airports and cities? Of course they have been generating exaggerated results for years. And worse, the adjustments made to the temperature record over the past years are dubious at best, especially when rural stations of the past are corrected downward and recent urban data corrected upwards.

Data supporting more heat waves weak at best

On the subject of heat waves and their frequency, also read Judith Curry’s latest here.

By the way, Western Europe being on track for a record heat wave, like the media are claiming, is a bit of hyperbole. In Germany, the heat wave is scheduled to be over already over by Tuesday, making the heat wave about a whole 5 days long. That pales compared to the heat wave of 2003.

Naturally the alarmist Potsdam Institute here (also unable to pass up the chance to exploit the hot weather) is sure that heat waves are getting more frequent and intense because of global warming. But then again, the Potsdam Institute also claims that global warming is causing more wintertime cold waves. So you be the judge on whether or not they can be taken seriously.

27 responses to “DWD German Weather Service Says UHI Effect As Much As 10°C! …Judith Curry Puts Heat Waves On Ice”

  1. Ed Caryl

    Oh! So now global climate change/warming causes UHI! Wow! (Give. Me. A. Break.!)

  2. Mike Haseler (Scottish Sceptic)

    It’s only a matter of time before they start saying that global warming causes global cooling – or that CO2 is causing the sun to get hotter … or time travel, or aliens.

  3. David Johnson

    Sod says “build more wind turbines or we’re doomed”

  4. John F. Hultquist

    Not to put too fine a point on it (pun here somewhere), writing clearly has declined with the growth in keyboard usage. “Lazy writing” leads to a failure to communicate. Were you to ask the writer if he/she really thinks CC → UHI the convoluted answer will likely translate as ‘no’.

    http://writingishardwork.com/2012/04/13/lazy-writing-and-how-to-avoid-it/

    1. DirkH

      “writing clearly has declined with the growth in keyboard usage.”

      ….by people who have no business being anywhere near formulating a thought.

    2. Steve C

      I know I’m just an aging pedant, but it seems to me that, even though he is a professional writer, the author’s writing has apparently also declined … his paragraph no. 3:
      “… judge it’s grammar”
      O me miserum. As you can probably tell, I entirely agree with your point, John!

      1. Jeff

        British English: it’s
        American English: its

        Two countries separated by a common language…

  5. Curious George

    Extremely simple – in the absence of green plants, 100% of solar energy is converted to heat. Green plants convert some 5%(?) solar energy to a chemical energy. At noon, that’s 65 W/m2.

    1. sod

      ” in the absence of green plants, 100% of solar energy is converted to heat. ”

      This is false. But at least you should love solar panels then as well? and green (planted) roofs?

      1. DirkH

        “But at least you should love solar panels then as well?”

        Sod, we love solar panels AND electric cars – only not enough TO PAY OTHER PEOPLE TO OWN THEM.
        You want solar panels and land on which you can put them? Go ahead, buy it with your own money, you have my best wishes. Don’t come begging to me if these are so great moneymakers.

        Currently the only money that one can make with renewables and electric cars is taxpayer money.

        That’s also why this regime will end – they have outlived their usefulness.

        1. AndyG55

          Peak renewables will be when they run out of tax-payer money and the ridiculous subsidies and feed-in rules are removed.

        2. Jeff

          I have a feeling the (il)logical extension of this will be when
          the greens push for solar panels with vegetated roofs underneath them, with solar-powered grow lamps to keep the plants growing (since they’re shaded by the panels)…

          Practical? Economical? Realistic? Possible?
          Doesn’t matter to the greens…..

      2. Curious George

        What makes it false? I guess that you imply that because solar panels in a city can convert up to 20% of solar energy into electricity, that electrical energy is converted to heat in a rural area. Possible but rather unlikely.

        1. sod

          “What makes it false?”

          For a start, albedo.

  6. DirkH

    Pope enlists Naomi Klein to help dismantle capitalism.
    – NOT – A – JOKE –
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/06/28/pope-recruits-naomi-klein-to-fight-climate-change-and-capitalism/

    1. Jeff

      I’m kind of wondering if it’s the other way around – the puppeteers
      pulling Klein’s strings are pulling Pope Francis’s as well…

      He seems to be much more of a puppet than a pope. Just change the hat a little…then it would fit in with:
      “Wer war der Thor, wer Weiser, Bettler oder Kaiser? Ob Arm, ob Reich, im Tode gleich.” (“Who was the fool, who the wise man, beggar or king? Whether poor or rich, all’s the same in death.”)

  7. patrick healy

    Some days ago here in the UK, Pravda – sorry I meant the BBC, triumphantly proclaimed the highest eeva July temp.
    Unsurprisingly it was measured in the middle of Heathrow Airports asphalt jungle.
    No mention of urban heat islands, but definitely a harbinger of things to come due to evil CO2.

  8. dennisambler

    “making the heat wave about a whole 5 days long. That pales compared to the heat wave of 2003.”

    It pales even more compared to this:
    http://www.godutch.com/newspaper/index.php?id=474

    “Dutch records show that the year 1540 was one with an even hotter summer than the heat wave year of 2003. “This Europe-wide heat wave lasted for seven months, harvests were destroyed and thousands of cattle died, leading to wide spread famine and death.

    The Rhine dried up and it was reported that people could walk upon the Seine riverbed in Paris without getting their feet wet.”

    Or these years:
    “High temperatures and droughts have also been documented in Europe going back over centuries. For example, ecclesiastical documents from Spain referencing the period 1506 to 1900 in Toledo and Madrid, show that “the most severe droughts were recorded during the period from the end of the 16th Century up until the 18th Century”.

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081217192739.htm
    “The Church, tracking the climate”, (Note to Pope Francis)

    “Ceremonies carried out at the Cathedral of Toledo were controlled by strict protocols set by the Church, and varied according to the gravity of meteorological conditions. In Spain, the cathedral archives of many dioceses hold relatively continuous records from the 16th Century onwards.

    The data on rogativas analysed by the scientists come from three sources – the 121 volumes of capitulary records from the Cathedral of Toledo, which record daily life from 1466 to 1599, the book started by Juan Bautista de Chaves Arcayos (who summarised the capitulary books from 1434 to 1599 and incorporated his own updates), and the 331 volumes of capitulary books (1464-1914), which fill in the gaps between the capitulary records.

    This series of rogativas contains 341 prayers for rain, 36 pro-serenitate prayers for fine weather, and 94 Masses of thanks (ceremonies to celebrate the ending of the climatological phenomenon that had necessitated the rogativa).”

    California never had it so good:
    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/02/000208075420.htm

    “Paleo-climatic evidence shows that a “mega-drought” in the 16th century wreaked havoc for decades in the lives of the early Spanish and English settlers and American Indians throughout Mexico and North America.”

    https://sites.google.com/site/medievalwarmperiod/
    “The most striking aspect of the period of American climate, between the 2nd and 16th Centuries, is the incidence, extent, prevalence, duration and severity of droughts, throughout the Americas; particularly – but by no means exclusively – over western and central regions of the Americas.

    These droughts often lasted for a decade or longer and have been dubbed megadroughts. Two droughts, in California and Patagonia, each lasted for well over 100 years and have been described as epic droughts.”

  9. Paul Maxit

    “…A so-called omega high pressure system centered over Eastern Europe is pumping hot air from the Mediterranean and Africa up across much of Europe…”.

    Just hilarious.

    How can high pressure in the north suck hot air from the south ?

    The real reason of the heat wave is several strong (for the season) mobile polar highs (cd Marcel Leroux) originating from North American down to Morocco and pushing warm air north where temperatures were as low as 22°C in Casablaca while 40°C. Since those MPHs route were quite vertical, cold air did not spread in western Europe.

    https://twitter.com/PaulMaxit/status/616187185566490624

    Nothing magic there.

  10. Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup #186 | Watts Up With That?
  11. Brian G Valentine

    I guess the real message here is, we should return to the arboreal existence of our simian ancestors.

    Few leftists who I know will have difficulty adapting

  12. Johannes Herbst

    As far as I know (from EIKE) DWD Weather Service does not correct Data of their stations. But they do also not account or correct for UHI-Effect.

    Despite of this, in Germany we have a slight downward trend for the last 17 Years.

    http://www.eike-klima-energie.eu/uploads/RTEmagicC_neue_1.png.png

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