Weather.... late 2009

[cohan]

Luc,

That's the phallacy about Global Warming...... it has to be called Global Climate Change as it is just that the weather will become more extreme.  Extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme storms etc.  The fact that there are unusual cold snaps actually supports it, not denies it. 

The average world temperatures are going up and have been since the Industrial Revolution. I don't think the coldest winter in the UK for 20 years will change that? Scotland's summers are going to get colder and wetter; England's are going to get warmer and drier.

i guess its often hard on the ground to discern overall temperature trends-in many parts of canada, we don't always feel the rising average winter temps (though statistically they are) but the (more?) frequent swings we surely notice...lol--i guess one need to  look at number of cold days etc, not just the extremes..
my area is supposed to have wetter summers with expected climate change trends, and the first year i moved back here (07) was the wettest in 50 years, but this year was dry; we also expect a longer growing season, yet this year there was frost in every month!...

[Anthony Darby]

This seems to be the definitive web site: http://royalsociety.org/General_WF.aspx?pageid=5322&gclid=CIrGtdud7Z4CFWlr4wod513HJA

[David Nicholson]

Luc,

That's the phallacy about Global Warming...... it has to be called Global Climate Change as it is just that the weather will become more extreme.  Extreme heat, extreme cold, extreme storms etc.  The fact that there are unusual cold snaps actually supports it, not denies it. 

The average world temperatures are going up and have been since the Industrial Revolution. I don't think the coldest winter in the UK for 20 years will change that? Scotland's summers are going to get colder and wetter; England's are going to get warmer and drier.

Anthony, I read somewhere that one of the effects on the British climate will be to alter the Gulf Stream flow and that we would loose its modifying effect on our climate, and get colder and wetter. Is this theory still in vogue?

[Lesley Cox]

Michael, you may well be surprised at the reaction of some of your Soutyh Africans to -5C. I regularly get that here and only a couple of Massonias didn't like it. The general run of Fressias, Ixias, Lachenalias, Romuleas, Gladiolus, Sparaxis, Oxalis and many many others cane cope very well.

[Anthony Darby]

Anthony, I read somewhere that one of the effects on the British climate will be to alter the Gulf Stream flow and that we would loose its modifying effect on our climate, and get colder and wetter. Is this theory still in vogue?

I think that was a hypothetical worst case scenario David? Contrary to popular belief, the Gulf Stream follows the eastern seaboard of America. It is the North Atlantic Drift, the current that is one of the northern extensions of the gulf stream, that affects Europe. It was supposed that the increase in cold water from the melting ice at the North Pole (Winnie the Pooh has a lot to answer for) that would stop the current, or at best, divert it south. I've not heard anything lately on this theory.

[Susan Band]

Lesley, I am glad to hear that about the south Africans as I have lots of the ones you mentioned germinating now. My answer to adapting for climate change 
Susan

[Lesley Cox]

Mmmm. I hope they do well for you Susan though I'd be surpised if the east coast of Scotland comes to resemble South Africa very closely. Good heavens, we'd have Maggi and Ian planting out gladiolus species instead of erythroniums

Rhododhypoxis are a good indicator. They have proved very hardy here so if you grow those outside, many others should be OK as well.

[iann]

Its become a popular pastime for many people (and an obsession for some!) to swarm during every colder than average month and proclaim that global warming is dead.  It is very easy to forget at times such as this that the other 11 months of the year were all warmer than the average for 1961-1990 (except the south of England in January) and Scotland has had a particularly warm year relative to the average.

[Anthony Darby]

-8^oC outside our north facing back door 5 minutes ago (11.20 p.m. or 23.20 GMT, not what it says on the post!). 

[mark smyth]

We had an OK day until 5.30pm. Bins frozen closed and Nerines stiff as boards.

[Sinchets]

We were about 6C yesterday, and about 8C today, with the sound of dripping from melting snow everywhere. Kyustendil in western Bulgaria- not far from Serbia and the Western Border Mountains- reached 17C!

[Michael J Campbell]

-6C here this morning and no snow cover. Everywhere else in the country would appear to have snow but as usual there is none here. Even a few inches would have given some protection and stopped  the soil from freezing solid.

[cohan]

-6C here this morning and no snow cover. Everywhere else in the country would appear to have snow but as usual there is none here. Even a few inches would have given some protection and stopped  the soil from freezing solid.

i was talking to simon about this issue of soil freezing, the other day  ( of course michael, no comparing your climate or plants to mine, very different set of expectations)-as i always find it interesting to see flowers coming out of snow--this can happen here, but either it has to be an early snow in the fall, or the snow has to be gone first, the soil thaw and plants sprout, then the snow come back for the plants to poke out of; before the snow melts in spring, and often for some time afterward (not to mention, before the snow arrives in fall!), the soil is frozen solid much deeper than most plant roots will go, so there could be no early plants poking up out of winter snow pack...lol

[Sinchets]

Do you have a soil thermometer, Michael? Temperatures of  -6C only freezes the surface here- so the bulbs may not be affected- though I suppose if they have leaves up that may be a different matter. I have Crocus laevigatus still flowering here, which were caught it an 'icy glaze' we had over the soil surface following freezing ran after our last warm period.

[David Shaw]

I have just been into the garden and dug some parsnips for tomorrow's dinner! Our freeze started before the snow came but there was about an inch of snow over the veggies this morning. Last night the temperature dropped to about -10C and has just risen to the tropical -6C. The top skin of earth was a frozen crust but below that it was fine and loose. I am hoping that this is true of the rest of the garden and wish it were of the pots.