Weather
Europe swelters. England uses a snorkel. There IS something happening with our weather. Is it CO2? Notwithstanding Al Gore and the crazies on the left, I doubt it. Is it the sun acting variably? Maybe. Little green men on the moon twisting some knobs to see how we cope? Why not?
Or is it some more complex phenomenon related to ocean temperatures, anti-currents, deep currents, Amazon deforestation, Chinese pollution ... and more in the cocktail. Sounds good.
But these weather oddities are still not totally out of the ordinary. England has enjoyed 20 years of so of unusually brilliant summer weather (not 1998 where it rained all summer, just not in large amounts), and now it is cold dark and wet again. I spent 7 years in an English boarding school -- and it rained ALL the time. It was cold, dark and wet. Always. So I cannot be so shocked when I read of the rain there. It is only the quantity that is really out of the ordinary. But the average Brit has forgotten that. Even so, I remember our games field being flooded on a regular basis by the pathetic river that flowed through our school grounds. Not just flooded, mind you, but 10 feet deep. Every year. Now everyone is shocked.
In the Med, not 5 summers ago people were dying like flies because of the heat. It was 105F in Menorca, and didn't cool down the whole two weeks I was there. Hundreds of people perished in France because of heat stroke and dehydration. And yet -- here's news -- it is happening again. I will say, however, that 115F in Athens is hotter than it should be. But not totally exceptional: just to the North of Greece in Macedonia, there is a desert. A real, bona-fide desert with cactus, scorpions, rocks and dust. Not much in the way of plant life. Google Earth some of the Islands near Turkey (try Levos) -- those are baked. It so happens that the Germans didn't know that in WW2 -- they sent some SS battalions to march and secure some of these areas -- without sufficient water. And they died without ever firing a shot. The locals who were watching them the whole time, but were not caught (this being their home turf) laughed their asses off, then sent their women down to loot the dead Nazis ... and some other less pleasant things.
Net? Things are weird -- something is happening, but mostly what you expect to happen.
Or is it some more complex phenomenon related to ocean temperatures, anti-currents, deep currents, Amazon deforestation, Chinese pollution ... and more in the cocktail. Sounds good.
But these weather oddities are still not totally out of the ordinary. England has enjoyed 20 years of so of unusually brilliant summer weather (not 1998 where it rained all summer, just not in large amounts), and now it is cold dark and wet again. I spent 7 years in an English boarding school -- and it rained ALL the time. It was cold, dark and wet. Always. So I cannot be so shocked when I read of the rain there. It is only the quantity that is really out of the ordinary. But the average Brit has forgotten that. Even so, I remember our games field being flooded on a regular basis by the pathetic river that flowed through our school grounds. Not just flooded, mind you, but 10 feet deep. Every year. Now everyone is shocked.
In the Med, not 5 summers ago people were dying like flies because of the heat. It was 105F in Menorca, and didn't cool down the whole two weeks I was there. Hundreds of people perished in France because of heat stroke and dehydration. And yet -- here's news -- it is happening again. I will say, however, that 115F in Athens is hotter than it should be. But not totally exceptional: just to the North of Greece in Macedonia, there is a desert. A real, bona-fide desert with cactus, scorpions, rocks and dust. Not much in the way of plant life. Google Earth some of the Islands near Turkey (try Levos) -- those are baked. It so happens that the Germans didn't know that in WW2 -- they sent some SS battalions to march and secure some of these areas -- without sufficient water. And they died without ever firing a shot. The locals who were watching them the whole time, but were not caught (this being their home turf) laughed their asses off, then sent their women down to loot the dead Nazis ... and some other less pleasant things.
Net? Things are weird -- something is happening, but mostly what you expect to happen.
posted by Zaphod at Wednesday, July 25, 2007
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