Summer 2003 - European Temperatures 3.78C Above Historic Averages

[hatrack]

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"The three months of June, July and August were the warmest ever recorded in western and central Europe, with record national highs in Portugal, Germany and Switzerland as well as in Britain. And they were the warmest by a very long way.

Over a great rectangular block of the earth stretching from west of Paris to northern Italy, taking in Switzerland and southern Germany, the average temperature for the summer months was 3.78C above the long-term norm, said the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, which is one of the world's leading institutions for the monitoring and analysis of temperature records.

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Over a large swath of the western part of the European continent, records were broken in all three months, not just monthly averages, but for daily extremes and the lengths of spells above thresholds. New national records were set in at least four countries. Britain experienced its record high on 10 August when the mercury registered 38.5 C(101.3F) at Faversham in Kent - the first time the British Isles had recorded a three-figure Fahrenheit temperature. Germany had a new record of 40.8C (105.4), Switzerland one of 41.5C (106.7F) - Swiss data show the summer as the hottest since at least 1500 - and Portugal a quite astonishing 47.3C (117.1F).

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Rivers dried across the continent; in Spain and in Italy there were electricity shortages as hydroelectric power stations ceased to function when the flow dropped. The Po, Italy's greatest river, was reduced to a trickle. As the rivers began to vanish, so did the Alpine glaciers. Many Swiss glaciers showed dramatic retreats, melting at a rate 10 times that of a normal summer. Italians scientists estimate that their own country's glaciers are now 20 per cent smaller than they were in 1987. And the old and the infirm, at the heatwave's height in early August, simply keeled over. The French estimate an extra 15,000 deaths during the summer period across the country, but with the largest numbers in Paris."

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The Independent

[ex_jew]

1. Maybe we can learn to hibernate during the summer ?

[Stilgar]

2. Oh boy, wonder if CRU screwed up their readings again this year

http://www.john-daly.com/cru/index.htm

Their hemispheric temperatures were showing a cooling during 2001, while their global temperature was showing a warming, something which is of course physically impossible. They were clearly incompatible - and visibly so - as shown in the original CRU graph (Fig.2 below) which was obtained as a postscript file (hemglob.ps) from the data section of their website on Thursday last (9th August). Also downloaded were the numerical data files from which the graphs were generated.

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The CRU graph is trending upward and now leads the satellite record by nearly 0.3°C even though both are referenced to a common starting point in 1979 when satellite monitoring began. In assessing the worth of the CRU view of NH temperatures in 2001, it should be remembered that only January through June is being measured and that vast areas of the NH experienced record low temperatures during the recent northern winter.

The satellite recording system has been subject to a number of searching and rigorous reviews by independent scientists, the result of which was the finding of only minor technical errors caused by satellite changeovers and orbital drift, none of which altered the record significantly.

Perhaps it is time that the surface record was given a similar rigorous scrutiny by outside and independent scientists, especially given the quality control problem that clearly exists at CRU.