mike Meehan

The fog, I recall, knocker was in December 1962 - at that time I was working as a scientific assistant in the Met Office at Heathrow - I do recall that it was freezing and for a few days at least the temperature remained at a constant -5C with the frost gradually building up on trees and air con intakes. I believe the vis was as poor as in 1952 but I don't think its was so wide spread as 1952 but at the same time it was the most severe freezing fog that I can recall experiencing. At the time I had lodgings in Hounslow but one night I recall it was so bad that I spent the night the night in the Lady's Hostel on the airport with my then girl friend (now wife), sleeping on the floor, being unable to travel home. In December 1952 I do not recall there being much in the way of severe smogs - at the time I was living with my grand parents in a village called Woodville in South Derbyshire, which has an elevation of 140 metres. Extract from Wilkipedia: 02.12.1962 A week of severe smog began in London, killing at least 106 people over four days, and causing the hospitalization of over 1,000. Most of the persons whose deaths were blamed on the fog had had pre-existing heart and lung problems, with 66 dead in the first three days. In 1952, at least 4,000 people had been killed over nine days by the combination of factory pollution and fog.

Can't say I altogether agree with what you said Ed - I take the view that in the big scheme of things we know very little of what there is to be known - we don't know what black matter or energy is and I don't think anybody can fully describe electricity although we have a pretty full understanding of how it works - we do not know fully about quantum mechanics, though we use these in our everyday lives and new things are being discovered everyday. I would like to see these generators properly evaluated by independent scientists and technicians with research into the force which keeps them going. Should this system be verified it would be a Godsend to the world inasmuch as power could be generated literally out of thin air, so it seems, which would make a fantastic difference to our use of carbon fuels, which we could use to run our homes and our cars as much as we like with a clear conscience. Don't get me wrong, I am aware that there are charlatans about, this is why I suggest a thorough investigation - when you compare the cost of this against the potential rewards I think it is a no brainer. Lets face it the likes of Saudi Arabia, the US, the UK and other western states are bound to be against it since it would turn technology upside down, making some redundant and a lot of money would be lost, so they would be disinclined to alter the statu quo.

It's all a bit technical for me with my little brain Knocker but I am very interested in this subject and have thought a great deal about it. Effectively, I believe that the difference in sea level between now and the height of the ice age is something like about 130 metres but it does not seem as though if was a consistent rise over time but came in stages by the different ice caps melting at different rates and was retarded by the younger Dryas for a time when the cold advanced for a while. In the northern hemisphere we had the Laurentian ice cap, the Greenland and ice cap and the Scandinavian ice cap which at its peak covered a good part of the UK. As far as I recall the UK was still attached to the continent for a few thousand years after the start of the melt and 'Doggerland' still existed until about 6000 years BC until it was finally deluged. The things which I find intriguing are the biblical flood and other flood legends about the world. It seems sensible to me that these were caused as a result of sea level rises due to the melting ice caps - I believe that during the ice age the Mediterranean was land locked and so was the Black Sea. I wonder of it were the case that as the sea level in the Atlantic rose it eventually overflowed the land bridge between the south of Spain and North Africa, gradually building up the level of the Med until such a stage that it eventually overflowed the other land bridge at the Bosphorus and then went on to increase the level of the Black Sea. By that time there would have been ancient settlements along the south Black Sea close and was in fact pretty close to the 'cradle of civilisation' and that it was the rising of the waters here which could have given rise to the Biblical account. As it is some think that the Ark was grounded in the region of eastern Turkey, so as a theory it all seems to fit. Any comments?

I'm crossing my fingers and my toes for this - it is about time we developed a world leader again

We set off from Capestang in France to return to 'Soggyland' via the A75 on 06.11.2015 - as we approached the start of The Massif the car thermometer showed a reading of 25C. We had mostly clear blue skies with patched of cirrus. We stopped for lunch at a service station about 20 miles north of the Millau Viaduct where the height would have been about 700 metres but it was pleasantly warm sitting outside with a temp of a little over 21C. The temperatures remained in low 20's for the rest of the journey except for a small part where they dropped to 18C at the north end, still at a height of a 1000 to 1100 metres and the higher hills had kicked off a bit of Cu. We stopped at Clermont Ferrand for night where the temperature where still about 20'ish C later in the afternoon. The following day we set off from Clermont Ferrand with the temperature gradually rising so that by the time we reached a point 50 miles north there was a reading of 24C, though it slowly dropped back but not much, at 100 miles it was still 23C, then settled in the low 20's until we reached Rouen where it was 21C on arrival about 1700 hours that evening. Once above the Loire, the cloud cover gradually increased, so that by Rouen it covered most of the sky. The following morning turned out to be misty but the temperature was still about 15C. This gradually cleared and we had some broken sunshine and at Calais the reading was 18C. It was still pretty mild over the other side, though mostly cloudy. Car thermometers are not the most accurate of instruments but at the same time I believe that mine gave a pretty good indication of the temperatures and how there varied en route. As far as my defective memory goes I can never recall temperatures this high at the end of the first week of November, though on the odd occasion they have reached to mid to upper teens in the south of England.

I am not sure what the weather will be like over the winter period and would really expect an average type of winter with possibly some snow and ice, some rain and wind with the occasional milder day. Any prolonged spells of intense cold and snow appear to have been a rarity these days, so I am not really expecting any different but you never know your luck, a Scandy/Siberian high may establish itself and give us a period of the lovely dry snow with some nice sunny days Don't really like the slushy stuff, grey skies and drizzle But what I am confident of is that until 15th December the sun will be setting earlier with the earliest time being about 15 hours 51 on that date and gradually the evenings will become lighter, yippee! - roll on Spring. Strangely enough the mornings will continue to get a little darker for about a fortnight after this date.

Personally I think it is a terrifying thought because effectively the bottom of the food chain is affected here and without the bottom of the food chain what are the creatures further up going to eat? The nightmare scenario is that as far as us human gaining much needed protein from the sea, it will diminish depriving us of valuable food - couple that with diminished land suitable for agriculture we could end up in difficulties feeding an ever increasing global human population leading to strife and migration the like of nothing we have seen so far, Of course the deniers, just as supporter of the OUT campaign from the EU, will accuse us of spreading scare stories but I believe the question we should be asking ourselves is, 'should we really be risking the lives of future generations in this way?' Like pretty well everything else money and greed is the underlying cause of anthropogenic global warming and the acidification of the oceans but in the long term it is going to cost far less to take remedial action now.

Paul, I've got a similar problem but different - trying to change the photo on my profile but it is not coming through. I am selecting a photo I already have on my computer and I am sure it is larger than 200 pxs. Have you any advice please. Mike

In the Daily Express today it was suggested that El Nino events tended to shunt the jet streams south leaving us with frigid winters. Doe anybody know of any research which indicates the veracity or otherwise of this?

With the way we are currently polluting the planet several species of life have already become extinct and others are on the endangered list - the thought then occurs is this likely to include human life? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11687091/Earth-has-entered-sixth-mass-extinction-warn-scientists.html

It looks like the ill fated Beagle has now been found on Mars, so it is not necessarily a complete disaster. https://uk.news.yahoo.com/beagle-2-found-partially-deployed-mars-100431727.html#W0ikaM7

Jet Streams were first suspected during the 1920's and during the first half of the 20th century there was further anecdotal evidence to suggest their presence but it was not until the advent of high flying jet air liners that we were really able to keep tabs on them to the extent that these aircraft will routinely seek them out or avoid them depending whether they will assist or detract from their ground speed. The effect of Jet Stream is now much more in the public domain where they are often referred to when giving weather forecasts and we are informed that the jet streams separate warm and cold masses of air and that they spawn areas of low pressures. Depending on the position of the jet stream in relation to the UK it can mean that we are in cold air if it is to the south, in relatively warm air if it is to the north and bloody wet if it is tracking straight towards us. Sometimes it appears that these jet streams can get stuck in a particular position and nothing really moves them until such time as an increasing, or decreasing solar energy at the changes of the seasons can give them a nudge. This can lead to vast differences in the winter weather in the UK - if we go to the winters of 1947 and 1963, although the jet streams were not so well observed or documented at that time, I think it is pretty safe to say that they were to the south of us leaving us in a cold air mass which generally came from northerly and easterly quadrants and that these did become stuck, giving us several weeks of snow and ice. During the last winter 13/14, they were pretty well coming directly at us, giving us the wettest period in living memory, whilst at the same time just north enough to ensure we remained in predominantly mild weather. This position, we are told, is because of disturbances originating in the area of Indonesia causing the jet to whisk in a north easterly direction across the Pacific, then south easterly bringing the majority of North America into the influence of cold polar air masses, hence the dearth of brass monkeys over there. Having travelled south east the jet then reached the Atlantic where it does a left turn to travel north east again with a pretty large temperature gradient between frigid North America and the relatively warm Atlantic and 'voila', it became macs and welly boots time in the UK with brollies blown inside out. There is little doubt in my mind that global warming is intensifying these events because warmer oceans and air masses hold more water vapour and energy and that this type of weather will become more of a feature in our climate. But snow lovers do not despair - it occurs to me that just as we ended up with a north easterly jet last winter, we could end up with a south easterly jet travelling to the south of us and with this persisting the likes of '47 and '63 could be repeated but alas this does not appear to be the case for this current winter which is now reaching its halfway point with the jets seeming to have found their home between Scotland and Iceland. Keep living in hopes, it is bound to happen in another future winter.

We had made arrangement or my sister who is deaf, 74 years of age and recently had an operation on her leg to travel down to Watford tomorrow for a family get together - she now feels that she is unable to travel in view of the conditions - my feeling is that there has not been any snow at all at Watford and if she and her husband can get to their car, they should not have any problems but of course I cannot see the situation at Loughborough first hand, so I wonder if there is anybody in the Loughborough area who could do a quick ob for me please.

Out of interest I have been checking the 150 day forecasts from TWO and they can vary wildly from day to day, so I am wondering whether these are totally automated forecasts derived from the models. Can anybody confirm this?

News > Languedoc Languedoc Red weather alert for the l’Hérault Monday night Scoop, Sep 29 French meteorologists have issued a red alert - the maximum warning - to residents in the l’Hérault due to heavy storms and flash flooding. Some forecasts are showing as much as 20cm of rain on high ground overnight. It's also fair to say that the forecasts are changing wildly in the space of just a few hours. The only safe conclusion is that there will be a lot of rain, about three months’ worth of rain in 24 hours. Heavy rains that have been falling since midday on Monday left local authorities concerned enough about the risk of flash flooding that they put out the alert, which warns people they are facing an exceptional danger. The rains have forced officials to shut down trams in Montpellier and certain sections of roads and motorways are blocked due to the results of the downpour. The department was placed on red alert at 4pm by Météo France and it is valid until 10am on Tuesday morning. Similar Stories Languedoc Rainfall batters the region - again As if we needed any more rain to wreak havoc in the Languedoc after the last couple… MidiLibre/Scoop, Sep 29 Languedoc Aude storms: 3 rescued from stranded cars Aude, and particularly Narbonne, has been hit by the rain this Monday,… MidiLibre/Scoop, Sep 29 Languedoc Kayaking through the streets of Montpellier It's hard to find any levity in the current flood crisis, but a handful of locals… MidiLibre/Scoop, Sep 29 Languedoc Roads closed due to flooding. News > Languedoc Languedoc Red weather alert for the l’Hérault Monday night Scoop, Sep 29 French meteorologists have issued a red alert - the maximum warning - to residents in the l’Hérault due to heavy storms and flash flooding. Some forecasts are showing as much as 20cm of rain on high ground overnight. It's also fair to say that the forecasts are changing wildly in the space of just a few hours. The only safe conclusion is that there will be a lot of rain, about three months’ worth of rain in 24 hours. Heavy rains that have been falling since midday on Monday left local authorities concerned enough about the risk of flash flooding that they put out the alert, which warns people they are facing an exceptional danger. The rains have forced officials to shut down trams in Montpellier and certain sections of roads and motorways are blocked due to the results of the downpour. The department was placed on red alert at 4pm by Météo France and it is valid until 10am on Tuesday morning. Similar Stories Languedoc Rainfall batters the region - again As if we needed any more rain to wreak havoc in the Languedoc after the last couple… MidiLibre/Scoop, Sep 29 Languedoc Aude storms: 3 rescued from stranded cars Aude, and particularly Narbonne, has been hit by the rain this Monday,… MidiLibre/Scoop, Sep 29 Languedoc Kayaking through the streets of Montpellier It's hard to find any levity in the current flood crisis, but a handful of locals… MidiLibre/Scoop, Sep 29 Languedoc Roads closed due to flooding across the… Several dozen roads in the region were closed on Monday due to severe rainfall overnight.… MidiLibre/Scoop, Sep 29 Link to Midi Libre: http://www.midilibre.fr/2014/09/29/pluies-orageuses-herault-aude-et-pyrenees-orientales-en-vigilance-orange,1057979.php All this happened whilst I was still in 'Nodland', so I missed it, however the ash bucket we used for the barbecue was almost full of water and although it cannot be considered an accurate rain gauge I would not think 6 inches would be far off the mark - as it happens Midi Libre was reporting 150 mm to 200 mms. Since my back garden is higher than the floor of the house I am so pleased that we made the terrace lower and inserted a drainage system - it worked

The below link shows that the sea temps around the UK are pretty well up on average. http://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Brighton_1/seatemp

I have just watched a most remarkable film which I recorded some days ago - for those in the UK it is still available on I Player for the next 3 days - it has the same title as this thread and was broadcast on 23.07.2014 on BBC channel 4 - for others it appears to be an Elzévir film and I suspect originally French, though I am not sure how you could get hold of it. For the first two thirds of the film, I felt tempted to rename it, 'The Rape of the Planet' - it deals in small bites the evolution of our planet and the life thereon, then beginning some 12,000 years ago the start of man's agriculture and building up to modern day and progressively how we have indeed raped the planet, including the oceans of many vital elements which mother nature had been keeping in balance throughout the ages. Significant was the depletion of water supplies, aquifers being drained, depletion of fish stocks, forests, agricultural land and resources being depleted generally for what it seems to me is man's innate greed, then going on to global warming, with the melting of the Greenland icecap, the water of which could raise sea levels by 7 metres. The dangers relating to the release of methane should the permafrost be melted of which the said the possible results are unpredictable. It really conjured a frightening picture of what could be and the absolute disregard, selfishness and thoughtlessness we had towards the preservation of our one and only planet. Towards the end there were some rays of hope - the Danes had developed a coal fired electricity station where the carbon was placed directly into the earth out of harm's way, wind power, geothermal power and power from the movements of the waves. I just hope that it is stemmed in time before things really get out of hand but really to get the best results we need all of mankind to learn to co-operate together regardless of race, nationality, boundaries, religion, creed or colour. When I see the recent news I am somewhat pessimistic as to whether this will ever be achieved but by the same token there are many good people around the world working their proverbials off to achieve this end. For those who can get a chance to see this program I commend it to you.

I wanted to post this in the thread re man made global warming but find that it is now locked, so starting this new one: http://unsdsn.org/climate-letter/signature-added/ http://unsdsn.org/climate-letter/ Above are links to a petition designed to influence world leaders to pull their finger out in what is becoming a more and more urgent situation with the passage of time. It is self explanatory but perhaps those of you who feel strongly about this subject may care to sign it.

Dancer, I tried your 'Piriform' - it ain't made no difference. - Still baffled.

I clicked the multi quotes and ended up with an English Language version of the small ads at Montpellier

Stodge, Yes there is a wind similar to the Mistral which blows between the Massif Centrale and the Pyrenees - it is called the 'Tramontane', whereas the Mistral blows between the Massif Centrale and the Alps - The Golfe de Lyon is that corner of the Med included in ,say, Montpellier to Perpignan and the coast line, originally going east to west, does a left hander to go from north to south. We have been down here since 15.05.2014, the first couple of days were great with temps 28C, but it went gradually down hill after that with a couple of days of rain and the Tramontane picked up, making it feel cold at times especially in the evenings but in the middle of day it was great with the temps, say about 20C with the warmth coming from the sun and sheltered from the wind. Now although it has been gusty today, the wind is gradually dying down and should be down to a gentle breeze by Monday when I hope to go gliding at Narbonne; the temperatures lifting next week to the low to middle 20's with just one cloudy/possible some rain about the middle of the week. By road we are 25 kms from the Med, our nearest beach being Valras Plage, this being in the Golfe de Lyon.

It is very worrying and ocean acidification is one of the lesser known effects of global warming since it is affecting pretty well the whole of the food chain right up to us when we get our fish and chips. When these type of things have happened in the past, crustaceans have had more in the way of 1000's of years to adapt through evolution rather than just a few hundred years as is the case at the moment, which I fear will be too much for them to handle.

Cleared my browser - that must have done something because I had to log on again - but the problem still exists - it's not the end of the world though I can still do these things on lap top - the problem is with a PC I keep in France.

For some reason I am unable to copy/paste, or copy a post by using the quote function on this particular computer on NW site - it works with other computers and I can copy paste using other programs, for example 'Word' - Any Ideas?

The further north you go on a globe the lines of longitude become closer together so that eventually at the poles they meet but on a two dimensional chart they are parallel, meaning that at the northern latitudes the areas are depicted wider than what they actually are. There is a device, a bit like a wide plastic see through ruler which can give you different readings of distance at different latitudes, depending on how you place this on the chart. I think you would need the device calibrated for the particular chart you are using.