Power of 3This is a blog series on stuff that catches my eye and actually means that I know something about a lot of issues which, if I wasn't curious, would pass me by. It's about being 'clever shallow' as I outline in our SSRS report and it is also biased towards the curious. I pick three things every week which have caught my eye and have made me think. I always attribute my sources; a mix of journals, magazines, newspapers and books that I'm currently ploughing through. Enjoy.Hotter than July? Extreme weather; Random or Pattern?It's beautiful sunny day in London it's late July (At the time of writing...). That's exactly what we would expect, however as well we know this is the first break in an almost biblical plague of wet weather. Weather should interest us more than it does as it is of course is totally related to climate. The debate is whether the weather is not hot because of some long term change and the evidence suggests that it is. Richard Branson's favourite scientist Tim Flannery gives a very accessible introduction in The Weathermakers (2005). A major article in the new scientist looks into the emerging research.
1. How normal curve of weather is spreading with more extreme mainly hot weather becoming more common. So we get more extremes of heat like the Russian heat wave of 2010.2. The poor weather is spreading. Extreme heat anomalies and wetter weather covered less than a fifth of one percent of planet over 1950-80. Now 4-13 percent.3. Fragmentation of jet stream with breakaways forming extreme fronts. In essence Britain has been diagonally covered by a massive band of breakaway jet stream for the last three months since April.All this with a mean temp increase of less than 1 per cent. Consider what happens if warming by 5-6 per cent. It has implications for organisations as it's predicted one of the biggest needs in future will be specialised weather forecasting. Hotels wanting to know about a washout and ice cream manufacturers betting on extra supplies of triple choc will be joined by heath authorities pondering possible ageing heat exhaustion and even police forces looking for a heat driven crime spike. The issue is that we will have to adapt. (New Scientist 7th July 2012).Next post on Thursday: The Neuroscience of Empathy
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