WeatherBlog 16 2016/17 | Is the concrete high crumbling?

Current situation

While cold air from the east is still causing rather subdued temperatures in eastern and parts of central Europe, it has been very warm in southern Europe and especially in Scandinavia, over the Arctic Ocean and the eastern half of Greenland for several days. Temperatures were sometimes 10 degrees or more above the long-term average for the time of year. In Iceland, a new February record of 19.1 °C was set on Sunday.

In the Alpine valleys, nocturnal inversions continue to play a role in the temperature, but the cold is no longer as extreme as it was a few weeks ago, as the sun now usually has enough power to clear the inversion layer during the day.

Outlook

Today and tomorrow, Thursday, there will be little action and it will remain more or less clear sunshine. The high will then be pushed southwards. On Friday, a disturbance will approach from the west, bringing lower temperatures and some fresh snow on the northern slopes of the Alps (from today's perspective, only very occasionally more than 10 cm). At the weekend, the weather will slowly calm down again, also moving from west to east.

Some of the main points from the report:
Temperatures over land in Europe were 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels between 2006 and 2015. Extreme precipitation events have increased in recent decades, especially in northern and north-eastern Europe. The likelihood of heatwaves and other extreme weather events has increased as a result of anthropogenic climate change. Almost all European glaciers are shrinking. Snow cover in the northern hemisphere has decreased over the last century, especially since 1980. Droughts appear to be more frequent and more severe in southern Europe than in the past. Climate-related extreme events have led to economic losses of 400 billion euros in the EEA member states between 1980 and 2013. The growth phase of many plant species is becoming longer and longer due to the earlier onset of phenological spring. The habitats of many animal and plant species tend to shift northwards or upwards (in the mountains).

As is so often the case, NASA has a beautiful collection of images of the Earth as seen from space. In Images of Change, you can click through before-and-after satellite images that show significant changes of various kinds, from floods to droughts, forest fires, open-cast mining and more. Also always recommended: the Climate Time Machine. Here you can find successful visualizations of the development of various climate variables.

And finally: Post-factual debates, fake news and conspiracy theories are old hat for climate scientists. Comprehensive, understandable blog post on the many things that often go wrong in the public climate debate.