Despite the current quiet weather conditions, people have been complaining about their TV reception. The internet is awash with people grumbling that their Freeview picture is freezing, breaking up, or in some cases, not working at all. People can understand when a severe storm interrupts their viewing pleasure, but the recent benign weather is causing a little more confusion.
The first indication of an interest in the weather was after listening to a wintry weather forecast on the radio, and asking “Have we got any high ground in our garden, mummy?” The forthcoming snow was confined to the hills.....but a lifetime of amateur observing was beginning.
The waters in the Pacific Ocean have reached the temperature required by the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for an El Niño event, but an El Niño hasn’t been declared. What’s more, NOAA is saying the temperature will remain this high for the next few months, but confusingly it doesn’t expect an El Niño event to occur. El Nino is the warming of the surface water of the tropical Pacific Ocean, as detailed here.
A New Year brings new records.
Just two days into 2020, a new high temperature record was set in Norway. In the small town of Sunndalsøra, the weather felt more like mid-summer than the bleak depths of winter, as temperatures soared to 19.0°C. This was the highest temperature ever recorded in January in Norway, beating the previous record of 17.9°C reported in Tafjord in 1989.
Thousands of people were left without power in Iceland on the 10th December as a weather bomb slammed the country.
Last week, the Indian Ocean suddenly exploded with tropical activity, transforming it into one of the most active Indian Ocean Cyclone Seasons on record.
The cockpit of a small aeroplane is the perfect vantage point for an environmental scientist. Flying above the rainforest canopy of tropical Far North Queensland, the view to the horizon shows the forest across rolling hills to the horizon.
The recent horrendous bush fires in Australia and the extensive flooding in East Africa are likely to have the same root cause – the Indian Ocean Dipole. We are currently seeing the strongest positive event that has been recorded in the last sixty years, but despite meddling with the world’s weather, the phenomenon is largely unheard of.
