I’m a bit hampered today by a head cold, and so today’s post will be a short one.
The preliminary report for September weather in Switzerland is out. Hat-tip: Kurt in Switzerland.
According to the Swiss Meteorological and Climatological Office, September was 0.8 deg. Celsius colder than the norm for the month, based on the averages for the period of 1981-2010. A blast of polar air early in the month saw temperatures plunge to as much as 7°C below normal. Snow fell at elevations down to 1800 meters.
Later in the month temperatures fell once again, dropping to as much as 7°C below normal in the Alps. The snow fell to elevations as low as 1400 meters on the north side of the Alps.
Interestingly in Swtzerland this year the autumn crocuses blossomed more than week earlier than the 1981-2010 mean. The Swiss Met office writes that “in many areas the blossoms were already observed in August“. Also foliage colors from a variety of trees were observed to be earlier than normal, writes the Swiss Met.
Holland sees coldest September in 15 years
Also reader Vermeer writes in a comment that the Netherlands had it coolest September in 15 years. The mean temperature in De Bilt was a nippy 13.4 °C , 1.1 °C below average. There were only two days with a maximum above 20°C. Highest only 20.2 °C. This was the lowest high September maximum in 50 years. Source: KNMI : http://www.knmi.nl/over-het-knmi/nieuws/koelste-september-in-15-jaar.
Over here in New England (Pierre has ties to Vermont), the first part of September was consistently warm and fall foliage was running nearly a week late. The last week or two have been closer to normal, and I had frozen dew on my cars a few days ago. The foliage is scrambling to catch up.
The Vermonter Amtrack train derail a couple days ago, no major injuries. I think a lot of people seeing an aerial photo of the scene thought “Nice foliage.”
http://wcax.images.worldnow.com/images/8948247_G.jpg
Thanks for the report!
12 crazy persons walk from Flensburg to Paris for the climate shindig in November, calling themselves pilgrims. and “ecumenical”.
Maximizing their carbon footprint by using an energetically ineffective means of transportation (walking) and sleeping in hotel rooms for months instead of simply taking a train to Paris.
http://www.nwzonline.de/oldenburg-kreis/wirtschaft/fuer-das-klima-zu-fuss-nach-paris_a_30,1,2507934456.html
FYI –
According to Bauernregel [farmer knowledge, based on decades, indeed centuries of observation], an early blossoming of the “Herbstzeitlose” (Autumn Crocus, or Meadow Saffron) is a clear indication of a harsh winter ahead.
This year, the Herbstzeitlose blossomed over a week in advance of the 30 y norm (1981-2010).
Yet that doesn’t stop the taxpayer-funded media from beating the drums of a “sizzling 2015″…
http://www.srf.ch/meteo/meteo-news/wird-2015-das-waermste-jahr-in-der-schweiz
The “pause” this century is horribly inconvenient. This leads to cherry-picking of short-term information which “supports” the premise. For example, “Im Tessin waren die ersten 9 Monate rund 0,8 Grad wärmer als im Vorjahr.”
Notice the choice of words here: “Neue Warmphase ist wohl kaum zu leugnen.”
But there is a complete inability (unwillingness?) to compare the actual (measured) long-term temperature trend with the forecast (modeled) long-term temperature trend.
Are they hoping/praying for a warm winter onset, in order to scare participants into a “successful” COP in Paris in two months’ time?
I was going to say ‘One has to wonder if they will walk Home, also,’ but we already know they’ll be home by fossil-fueled vehicle within hours of leaving the conference.
@Pièrre
Let me correct you. Being Dutch and not from the province of Holland I find it bordering to an insult when my country is referred to as Holland. It’s (the) Netherlands. In fact in my province the term Hollander is a derogatory term.
How would you feel if we would call every German a Saxon or Bavarian? How would Americans feel if we called every American a Texan or Georgian?
if people observed the real temperatures in the north sea this that peaked at 6 c below last year as opposed to the nonsense on the noaa global sea surface temperature anomaly maps the above would not be so surprising.
currently in scotland the rowan trees have a huge amount of berries on them ,in the past people thought this was indicative of a coming cold winter.
“When berries are many in October, beware a hard winter”