Climate change: weather or not

By Richard North - July 28, 2023

It is not very often that events in Siberia dominate the UK news agenda. But it is nevertheless worth giving a thought to a report in meteovovosti.ru from 15 July.

This tells us that Arctic cold has broken into the Krasnoyarsk Territory, forcing daily temperatures to 8-10 degrees Centigrade below the seasonal average, and breaking new temperature records – for coldness.

In Cape Chelyuskin, on 14 July, light frost conditions gave way to a temperature of -3.8ºC, beating the previous record of -2ºC had lasted almost eighty years, since 1944. On the same day in Khatanga, the minimum temperature hit 0.9ºC, a mere 1.3ºC below the previous absolute minimum observed in 1940. In Verkhneimbatsk it was 1.7ºC, half a degree lower than the previous record in 1933 with a value of 2.2ºC.

The Arctic cold reached the Evenkia district where, in the Tutonchany settlement, the thermometer dropped to zero, against a previous record of 0.3ºC recorded in 2021. In Tura, the capital of Evenkia, it was 1.2ºC, beating the previous extreme minimum temperature of 1.4 degrees, recorded in 1954.

These temperatures, one might observe, contributed to the claimed rise in global temperatures, as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme, assert that this July is set to be the hottest month on record.

This prompted UN secretary general, António Guterres to announce that the era of global warming has ended and “the era of global boiling has arrived”.

“Humanity is in the hot seat”, Guterres told a press conference yesterday. “For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a cruel summer. For the entire planet, it is a disaster. And for scientists, it is unequivocal – humans are to blame”.

Not all of North America has had a “cruel summer” though. US Today recently reported that Mount Washington had received its snowiest June in 91 years of record-keeping. The observatory, located at the summit, recorded 8.4 inches for the month, with snow having fallen every day of the month.

And while tourists on the Greek islands and elsewhere in the Mediterranean regions are being regaled with the hazards of uncontrolled wildfires, in the Alps it has managed to snow in the past 24 hours on many of the high slopes.

Further south, after recently elevated temperatures in the Crimea, air temperatures have returned to normal values.

For 28-29 July, the Meteorological Office has issued a storm warning, asking vacationers and residents of the peninsula to be careful. If possible, they should stay at home to avoid the danger associated with falling trees and dilapidated structures, as well as flooding.

In the central district of Moscow, precipitation comparable to half the monthly norm has been experienced. Due to the rains, the water level in the reservoirs has increased and in some areas there were flooded roads. Furthermore, precipitation in the short-term is expected to increase.

Of course, since we are now suffering from global boiling – according to Guterres, southern hemisphere temperatures must also have contributed to this extraordinary situation.

Here, we get some assistance from the weather station at Concordia Research Station in Antarctica. Subject to confirmation, it may have just registered the world’s lowest temperature in six years, with the temperature dropping to -83.2ºC on 25 July.

This level of cold is apparently being reflected elsewhere in the southern hemisphere, with rain and strong winds expected to hit the southern states of Australia this week, with snowfall also a possibility over the Australian Alps after a freezing weekend.

Prominent Alpine towns Mount Buller and Mount Hotham are predicted to drop to negative three degrees on Monday, while Perisher Valley is expected to fall to negative four on Monday and Tuesday. Adelaide and Melbourne are also unlikely to get a reprieve from their shivering weekends.

After a severe frost warning was issued across parts of South Australia and Victoria on Sunday morning, a second front is expected to bring showers to Melbourne throughout Sunday. South westerly winds from a trough will also bring colder temperatures.

Adelaide recorded its coldest morning of the year on Sunday morning, with the mercury dropping to 2.9 degrees, following a minimum of 3.1ºC on Saturday morning. But the interior regional cities are bearing the brunt of the cold, with the South Australian town of Renmark getting to negative two degrees, and the Victorian town of Bendigo to negative one.

Across the water, New Zealand hasn’t escaped the attention of the Snow Gods either, with the “Land of the Long White Cloud” being hit wind, rain, and snow sweeping across both the North and South Island and bringing a “much-needed snow dump” to Mount Hutt Ski Resort.

And, despite the BBC’s enthusiasm for what it must now term global boiling, it could not restrain itself from publishing a piece headed “South Africans marvel at snow and sleet in Johannesburg during cold snap”.

People, we were told, had woken up to snow and sleet in South Africa’s biggest city, Johannesburg, for the first time in over a decade. Unable to stray from its religious tracts, though, the broadcaster mooted that it was “not clear what role climate change has played in the rare snowfall”. Despite that, more snow is forecast for the Western Cape.

Move across the ocean and Argentine too has been blessed with new falls of snow, after the Las Leñas resort experienced a metre (3.28 feet) of snow from a winter storm.

A mass of polar cold has been dominating the weather in several South American nations, across Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay. Towns and cities in southern Patagonia have suffered more than five days of below freezing temperatures, with overnight lows plunging to -15ºC and below.

Argentina’s National Meteorological Service (SMN) issued a yellow alert for Buenos Aires city and more than half of Argentina’s provinces due to extreme cold, with six provinces experiencing sub-zero temperatures.

The alert covers Patagonian tourism hotspots such as El Calafate, winter sports base Bariloche, and Trelew, which near popular nature tourism and whale-watching locations in Chubut.

Early on Monday morning, Río Negro registered the chilliest temperature, with the town of Maquinchao registering temperatures of -12°C (6°F). Popular trekking spot El Calafate, in Santa Cruz province, clocked in at -10.2°C, with a thermic sensation of -15.9°C. In Trelew, the mercury was down to -6.8°C.

Yet, for all the cold spots recorded, many with unusually chilly weather, none seem to be able to register against the often localised and short-lived heat waves which are called in aid to support the “global boiling” scare. When temperatures go up, they become “climate”, yet cold areas remain “weather”.