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Thursday, 13 February 2014
How bad is the weather now in the UK?
OK I have had some friends in Singapore ask me the same question - "just how bad is the weather in the UK now and are you affected by it?" Now for those of you haven't been seeing the news from the UK, we're having a pretty miserable winter - we've had the wettest January on record since records began and combined with high winds, we've been suffering from both wind damage and floods. Some of the scenes I've seen on the news has been pretty horrendous, with large swathes of the countryside, even town centers under about a meter of murky brown flood water. Railway networks have been severely disrupted by landslides. We've had wind speeds of over 180 km/hr in the Pennines today and those are hurricane strength winds that will cause some pretty serious damage.
Am I affected? Barely. Sometimes I can hear the wind howl outside my window - wind speeds did get to around the 50 km/hr mark in London but it was nothing that alarming. Not all parts of the country were battered by these high winds. Sometimes the wind picks up small items and throws them against cars or shop windows, setting off alarms in the middle of the night, waking me up from my sleep. As for flooding, well I live in central London - we rarely get serious floods here as London is pretty much on a slope. I challenge you to cycle from Embankment (ride by the Thames) up to Hampstead Heath and that is an uphill climb of about 120 meters in altitude, not that much you may think, but that is enough to allow water to flow downhill and gravity will carry the rainwater towards the Thames.
So when I am cycling towards the Strand from Soho where I live, it's downhill all the way and I barely have to peddle. But when I am cycling to Camden where my gym is, it's hard work as I am climbing uphill. So really, it is the areas by the Thames River that are more prone to flooding and given that we have the Thames Barrier to prevent flooding during periods of exceptionally high tides and tidal surges. So that's why our flooding tends to be local - I have seen streets flooded in Soho today during the exceptionally heavy downpour. The rainwater simply cannot flow away quickly enough - but such localized flooding is gone within an hour or less; the kind of flooding we have seen in places like Somerset last for several days, even weeks on end and is far more serious.
But no, I am not really affected to be honest - I do feel sorry for the people who have had their homes flooded, but this is a big country and only small parts of the country are affected. The flooding has affected particularly the people who live in low-lying flood plains right next to rivers that have burst their banks. Now the question that many people have asked is why these people live in such flood-prone areas in the first place? The answer I suppose is that we don't usually get this much rain - the UK is actually usually fairly dry and this weather is unusual. But we're bracing ourselves for another major storm to hit us on Friday-Saturday and some areas may see a month's worth of rain in a 24 hour period - and that rain is going to fall on areas which are already flooded. Yikes.
How will that affect me? It just means that I may have to take the bus to that seminar I am attending on Saturday instead of cycling there. That's all, really I suppose. I just know my dad will ask me if I am flooded when I next speak to him, like yeah just because there are floods somewhere in the UK that means I must be knee deep in flood water. Duh, it's a big country. I've had enough of this rain, we've not even had a flake of snow this winter yet here. So not only has it been one of the wettest winters on record, it has also been one of the warmest as well. That's a shame as it usually snows here in the winter and I love it when it snows (then I can take more snow selfies...)
*Takes a deep breath and promises not to be mean and not to swear*
Wrong wrong wrong on so many levels, totally salah, geography FAIL.
1. Singapore is never cold. I've just checked the statistics and the temperature in Singapore has not dipped below 24 degrees recently - that's still a long way off from the record low of 19.7 degrees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Singapore Nothing has changed.
2. A combination of very high humidity + dew point temperature being reached during the dawn hours can produce mist that can make one feel slightly cooler than what it actually is, That is because water vapour in the air can actually condense on your skin/clothes, making you feel cool - that's why we splash water on ourselves on a hot day, as the evaporation cools us down. So after the water condenses on our skin/clothes and then evaporate (because the heat from our body keeps our bodies always at 37 degrees, a lot warmer than the air temperature), then you will feel cool - but it doesn't make it 'really cold'.
3. If you wanna talk about climate change, then let's see a prolonged period of say a few weeks where temperature is significantly different, where you have day time highs of under 30 degrees and night time lows of at least 20 degrees.
4. That will never happen as Singapore is surrounded by sea and that helps maintain a very constant temperature.
5. There is a huge difference between a weather event (ie. heavy rain causing a flood) and long term climate change.
1) I am not used to the temperature, IMHO it is cold to me. When the sun comes out on the usual days, it get can get really hot but now I don't feel that hot. 2) I feel cold...okay I should have better phrase my sentence. 3),I had never experienced this before where I don't need the fan in the morning. 4) Okay. 5) Okay.
1. There are a lot of reasons why we may "feel" cold but our bodies are not thermometers - in fact, they may do a number of things that trick us into feeling cold. Think about it: when we have a high fever, our body temperature soars above normal, yet we are shivering and feeling very cold. How can that be? It makes no sense, but that should show you just how totally unreliable your body is to gauge temperature. Never use your body's "feeling" to gauge a temperature - it cannot and will never replace a thermometer. I have experienced temperature extremes of deserts (50+ degrees) and high mountain (getting to -50 degrees) and there's so much you have to do to protect your body against these 'wrong signals' it can send you during such extreme temperatures to stay safe. I could go on and on but never use your body as a thermometer.
Again my dear student, please always default to SCIENCE. Do not rely on your own experience as your guide to the world, refer back to your SCIENCE textbook.
2. Again, ref: point 1 above - feeling cold doesn't mean it is actually cold. Use a thermometer rather than your body. Let's stick to science.
3. Again, you're using your body's experience with heat rather than scientific instruments to measure the weather or climate - that's an automatic fail for any kind of geography or science exam. Your body is highly unreliable. How we experience body heat and ambient temperature can vary so much - again, I could write a whole chapter on this but it boils down to the same fact: your body is not a reliable measure of temperature at all. It can vary a lot depending on what you experience physically and physiologically, but your experience with 'heat'/temperature is more a reflection of what is going on with your body, rather than the climate/weather of Singapore.
Again, this is where biological, physics and geography all comes together and I know you're a teenage student but seriously, you've made a terrible mess of this today and if I were your science or geography teacher, I'd give you a big SEE ME on your homework and give you a long reading list to learn about all the topics discussed.
Bollocks lah. Cold and hot are not objective. They are subjective. Measurements on a temperature scale are objective. But 0 C is hot compared to 0 K; and cold compared to 30C.
When I moved back from Chicago to Singapore, I stopped in Tokyo. It was 3 degrees C in Tokyo. I came from -20 C before wind chill. Let me tell you. Tokyo was HOT. I had to take off my jacket and walk around in shirt sleeves, it was so hot. (And no, I did not fall sick)
Your 3 and 4... dude. Climate is more than temperature. If it rains more but the temperature stays the same, then the climate has changed. Don't believe? Thought experiment on the Sahara.
Kashun, I could cut and paste the entire Wikipedia entry on Climate Change for Luck of Fire, but I was merely refuting the points that she has raised. But the bottom line is that we cannot use our bodies as a thermometer and start making any kind of proclamations of 'climate change' based on what we feel.
Luck of Fire didn't look at any weather data - she was going entirely on what she felt; how scientific is that? Totally unscientific. Total fail. When I was last in S'pore, I fell sick and had a fever - by that token, how would you feel if I said that S'pore felt cold that day because I shivered? You'll say, no S'pore was not at all cold that day, it was 30 degrees but you had a fever that's why you were shivering - that's why I am discrediting Luck of Fire's very unscientific approach to the issue.
As for points 3 and 4 - I could possibly explain what climate change is in one paragraph - good grief, get real - that's what Wikipedia is for, at university, we spent an entire term on the issue - that's how big it is. I was just demonstrating to Luck of Fire that even if S'pore gets a few days of cold weather (which will never happen, but let's say for the sake of the argument, it does happen) - then that's a cold weather event, not climate change. I could write a whole chapter (heck a whole book) on the different kinds of climate change, but you're being unreasonable in saying "you didn't explain all of climate change in one paragraph" - duh. Of course I couldn't, I wasn't trying to - I was just responding to one point she raised lah.
To clarify though, the question of whether a particular point on the temperature scale is hot or cold all depends on which viewpoint you take. Taking your fever example, actually I can accept that for you Singapore felt cold that day. Because that's how it felt for you. But taking your point on board, to me -- or even to a hypothetical observer -- it would not have felt unusual. Empathy etc.
My bout of fever was actually quite interesting - I wasn't prepared to just lie in bed and waste my time in Singapore so even though I was running a fever, I actually went out and did things. It was strange as I remembered walking around in the midday sun when it was 30-something degrees and I was like, hey I don't even feel hot, I feel slightly cold - this is how Singapore should be like all the time as I am not sweating! Such is the experience of having a fever in Singapore, yeah you can feel cold if your body's thermostat is completely screwed up by the illness. But to then try to base any kind of statement on weather/climate on nothing more reliable than what one felt on that particular day... that's highly unscientific to say the least.
It has really cold in Singapore in the morning even though it is not raining. Climate change? Hmmm.
ReplyDelete*Takes a deep breath and promises not to be mean and not to swear*
DeleteWrong wrong wrong on so many levels, totally salah, geography FAIL.
1. Singapore is never cold. I've just checked the statistics and the temperature in Singapore has not dipped below 24 degrees recently - that's still a long way off from the record low of 19.7 degrees http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Singapore Nothing has changed.
2. A combination of very high humidity + dew point temperature being reached during the dawn hours can produce mist that can make one feel slightly cooler than what it actually is, That is because water vapour in the air can actually condense on your skin/clothes, making you feel cool - that's why we splash water on ourselves on a hot day, as the evaporation cools us down. So after the water condenses on our skin/clothes and then evaporate (because the heat from our body keeps our bodies always at 37 degrees, a lot warmer than the air temperature), then you will feel cool - but it doesn't make it 'really cold'.
3. If you wanna talk about climate change, then let's see a prolonged period of say a few weeks where temperature is significantly different, where you have day time highs of under 30 degrees and night time lows of at least 20 degrees.
4. That will never happen as Singapore is surrounded by sea and that helps maintain a very constant temperature.
5. There is a huge difference between a weather event (ie. heavy rain causing a flood) and long term climate change.
Geography lesson over, class dismissed.
1) I am not used to the temperature, IMHO it is cold to me. When the sun comes out on the usual days, it get can get really hot but now I don't feel that hot.
Delete2) I feel cold...okay I should have better phrase my sentence.
3),I had never experienced this before where I don't need the fan in the morning.
4) Okay.
5) Okay.
*Puts on my teacher hat again.*
Delete1. There are a lot of reasons why we may "feel" cold but our bodies are not thermometers - in fact, they may do a number of things that trick us into feeling cold. Think about it: when we have a high fever, our body temperature soars above normal, yet we are shivering and feeling very cold. How can that be? It makes no sense, but that should show you just how totally unreliable your body is to gauge temperature. Never use your body's "feeling" to gauge a temperature - it cannot and will never replace a thermometer. I have experienced temperature extremes of deserts (50+ degrees) and high mountain (getting to -50 degrees) and there's so much you have to do to protect your body against these 'wrong signals' it can send you during such extreme temperatures to stay safe. I could go on and on but never use your body as a thermometer.
Again my dear student, please always default to SCIENCE. Do not rely on your own experience as your guide to the world, refer back to your SCIENCE textbook.
2. Again, ref: point 1 above - feeling cold doesn't mean it is actually cold. Use a thermometer rather than your body. Let's stick to science.
3. Again, you're using your body's experience with heat rather than scientific instruments to measure the weather or climate - that's an automatic fail for any kind of geography or science exam. Your body is highly unreliable. How we experience body heat and ambient temperature can vary so much - again, I could write a whole chapter on this but it boils down to the same fact: your body is not a reliable measure of temperature at all. It can vary a lot depending on what you experience physically and physiologically, but your experience with 'heat'/temperature is more a reflection of what is going on with your body, rather than the climate/weather of Singapore.
Again, this is where biological, physics and geography all comes together and I know you're a teenage student but seriously, you've made a terrible mess of this today and if I were your science or geography teacher, I'd give you a big SEE ME on your homework and give you a long reading list to learn about all the topics discussed.
*Lesson over*
Bollocks lah. Cold and hot are not objective. They are subjective. Measurements on a temperature scale are objective. But 0 C is hot compared to 0 K; and cold compared to 30C.
DeleteWhen I moved back from Chicago to Singapore, I stopped in Tokyo. It was 3 degrees C in Tokyo. I came from -20 C before wind chill. Let me tell you. Tokyo was HOT. I had to take off my jacket and walk around in shirt sleeves, it was so hot. (And no, I did not fall sick)
Your 3 and 4... dude. Climate is more than temperature. If it rains more but the temperature stays the same, then the climate has changed. Don't believe? Thought experiment on the Sahara.
But I agree with 5.
Kashun, I could cut and paste the entire Wikipedia entry on Climate Change for Luck of Fire, but I was merely refuting the points that she has raised. But the bottom line is that we cannot use our bodies as a thermometer and start making any kind of proclamations of 'climate change' based on what we feel.
DeleteLuck of Fire didn't look at any weather data - she was going entirely on what she felt; how scientific is that? Totally unscientific. Total fail. When I was last in S'pore, I fell sick and had a fever - by that token, how would you feel if I said that S'pore felt cold that day because I shivered? You'll say, no S'pore was not at all cold that day, it was 30 degrees but you had a fever that's why you were shivering - that's why I am discrediting Luck of Fire's very unscientific approach to the issue.
As for points 3 and 4 - I could possibly explain what climate change is in one paragraph - good grief, get real - that's what Wikipedia is for, at university, we spent an entire term on the issue - that's how big it is. I was just demonstrating to Luck of Fire that even if S'pore gets a few days of cold weather (which will never happen, but let's say for the sake of the argument, it does happen) - then that's a cold weather event, not climate change. I could write a whole chapter (heck a whole book) on the different kinds of climate change, but you're being unreasonable in saying "you didn't explain all of climate change in one paragraph" - duh. Of course I couldn't, I wasn't trying to - I was just responding to one point she raised lah.
Duh.
Okay. I accept and agree with your bottom line.
ReplyDeleteTo clarify though, the question of whether a particular point on the temperature scale is hot or cold all depends on which viewpoint you take. Taking your fever example, actually I can accept that for you Singapore felt cold that day. Because that's how it felt for you. But taking your point on board, to me -- or even to a hypothetical observer -- it would not have felt unusual. Empathy etc.
My bout of fever was actually quite interesting - I wasn't prepared to just lie in bed and waste my time in Singapore so even though I was running a fever, I actually went out and did things. It was strange as I remembered walking around in the midday sun when it was 30-something degrees and I was like, hey I don't even feel hot, I feel slightly cold - this is how Singapore should be like all the time as I am not sweating! Such is the experience of having a fever in Singapore, yeah you can feel cold if your body's thermostat is completely screwed up by the illness. But to then try to base any kind of statement on weather/climate on nothing more reliable than what one felt on that particular day... that's highly unscientific to say the least.
Delete