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Weatherwatch: Paving over front gardens is leading to hotter nights

Changing paved areas to grass and planting trees can reduce urban heat island effect by as much as 1C, study shows Add together all the UK’s household gardens and they cover an area three times larger than all the country’s nature reserves combined. But as the demand for car parking increases, many front gardens are being paved over, with research showing that this loss of green is adding to the urban heat island effect, particularly at night. In 2005, about 7.5% of the UK’s front gardens were paved; by 2025 that had risen to 55%, according to Royal Horticultural Society estimates. Those hard

The Guardian – Weatherwatch
Weather

Weatherwatch: Why Britain’s heatwaves don’t always end with thunderstorms

The science behind summer storms – and why they have yet to break the hot spell gripping the country “The English summer: three fine days and a thunderstorm,” George II is reputed to have said, although the line has also been attributed to Charles II and others. It was not recorded until 1867, by which time it was already in common circulation. A brief hot spell ending in a thunderstorm is a familiar pattern, but it is not what we have experienced in recent weeks. Continue reading...

The Guardian – Weatherwatch
Weather

Weatherwatch: Climate crisis fuelling steep fall in migratory bird numbers

Many species under threat use the African-Eurasian flyway, one of the planet’s largest mass-migration systems It may still feel like summer, but in the world of birds, autumn migration is already well under way. Cuckoos and swifts have already left us, and while swallows and many species of warbler will not depart our shores until September, many species of Arctic-breeding waders have begun to stop off at our coastal marshes to refuel for their long journey south. This year, however, there could be fewer than usual. A review by the British Trust for Ornithology, working with other internationa

The Guardian – Weatherwatch
Weather

Weatherwatch: how to protect our railways in hotter summers

Steel rails warping and signalling equipment failing in metal cabinets are among the problems to be solved Tarmac softens in the summer heat, which may cause problems on the roads, but even trains running on steel rails are not immune. Railways in the UK are generally designed to operate within a 45C temperature range. The rails expand slightly in the heat, and excessive temperatures can produce “sun kink” with rails warping into S-shapes. The effect is small but the distortion can derail fast trains, so speeds are reduced for safety. Continue reading...

The Guardian – Weatherwatch
Weather

Weatherwatch: Will St Bartholomew’s Day bring ‘cold dew’ to parched UK?

According to tradition, saint’s harvest celebration heralds the coming of cooler weather and a prosperous autumn St Bartholomew’s Day was on 24 August, 40 days after St Swithin’s Day. An old saying has it that “St Bartlemy’s mantle wipes dry / All the tears that St Swithin can cry”, at the end of a wet spell. Bartholomew was a disciple, notable for being skinned during his martyrdom. His day heralded the coming of cooler weather: “At St Bartholomew / There comes cold dew.” Continue reading...

The Guardian – Weatherwatch
Weather

Weatherwatch: AI model beats standard methods at predicting cyclones

Artificial intelligence system delivers a three-day forecast as accurate as previous two-day predictions Google’s WeatherNext AI model is better than existing systems at forecasting cyclones, according to a paper published in Nature. The AI-based technology gives an extra day of warning, providing a three-day forecast for hurricanes or typhoons that is as accurate as previous two-day predictions. Continue reading...

The Guardian – Weatherwatch
Weather

Weatherwatch: soil moisture deficit – how dry are the UK’s thirsty soils?

SMD is the moisture the soil must make up until it is at capacity, with very dry conditions over most of England and Wales When the ground is thoroughly wet, after excess rainwater has run off it is said to be at field capacity. Meteorologists describe drought in terms of soil moisture deficit (SMD) from field capacity. The SMD is a measure of how thirsty the soil is, expressed as how many millimetres of rain it would take to top it up to field capacity. In southern England, the SMD tends to hover around zero in winter when fields are wet. In summer it may be about 100mm, going up to 150mm or

The Guardian – Weatherwatch
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