temperatures

"Simon Brown" wrote in message
...
This morning I read that the Swiss team can't even train on a glacier
in
Saas Fee. Someone in the team said that the snow is too soft to
support the
poles / gates / whatever they are called.

Last year they could train until about 13:30, this year it's unusable
by
09:00.

At least yesterday evening / overnight we had some rain in Laax, even
if
only 3 cms it was very welcome, but the warm weather is already
returning
and will be up to 30C again by Saturday.

The shortage of water means too little food for the cows so they are
*already* coming down from the summer pastures and being slaughtered.
Some
mountain cheese factories can't produce any cheese 'cos there's no
milk.

It's very worrying indeed.
--

Yes even back in June when we were on the 2 Alpes glacier with the
French team (Montillet, Covilli et al) they gave up mid-week, telling us
that those who could afford it were off to Chile. Down here in Provence
it's been really strange weather. Hailstorms (one very local one removed
not just the fruit but every leaf from entire orchards and vineyards),
otherwise everything grew twice as much as usual early Spring and is now
dying off without copious amounts of watering. June and July
temperatures have been way above the norm. Scary.

Pete

If there's no cheese, does that mean that tartiflette is off the menu for my
Christmas ski trip?

Rob
"Simon Brown" wrote in message
...
This morning I read that the Swiss team can't even train on a glacier in
Saas Fee. Someone in the team said that the snow is too soft to support
the
poles / gates / whatever they are called.

Last year they could train until about 13:30, this year it's unusable by
09:00.

At least yesterday evening / overnight we had some rain in Laax, even if
only 3 cms it was very welcome, but the warm weather is already returning
and will be up to 30C again by Saturday.

The shortage of water means too little food for the cows so they are
*already* coming down from the summer pastures and being slaughtered. Some
mountain cheese factories can't produce any cheese 'cos there's no milk.

It's very worrying indeed.
--
Simon Brown, Postfach 159, CH-7031 Laax
www.hb9drv.ch

"PG" wrote in message
...
From the Beeb site....

"France and many other parts of Europe have been sweltering in
exceptional summer heat.

Swiss temperatures hit their highest for 200 years on Tuesday - reaching
37C (99F).

A rock face on the Matterhorn crumbled on Tuesday, as a result of
melting ice at a height of 3,400 metres (11,220 feet). "

"Steve" wrote in message
...

Is it bad to dream about skiing when it's not even August yet?



Sad, not bad :-)

--
Simon Brown, Postfach 159, CH-7031 Laax
www.hb9drv.ch

"PG" wrote in message
...

Well I'm glad that's sorted out. I'm reassured ... I think ...


Depressing reading for ski resorts in today's Sonntags Zeitung (in German):
http://www.sonntagszeitung.ch/dyn/news/fokus/index.html

It will get warmer, warmer, and warmer.
--
Simon Brown, Postfach 159, CH-7031 Laax
www.hb9drv.ch

On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 10:45:21 +0200, "Simon Brown"
wrote:

"PG" wrote in message
...

Well I'm glad that's sorted out. I'm reassured ... I think ...


Depressing reading for ski resorts in today's Sonntags Zeitung (in German):
http://www.sonntagszeitung.ch/dyn/news/fokus/index.html

It will get warmer, warmer, and warmer.

And yet I was strolling round the tops in the Grand Massif a couple of
hours ago and it was pleasant, nice breeze not too warm at all pretty
normal for the time of year I thought, back down below 1500m it soon
starts to get like an oven though.

Ian

"PG" wrote in message ...
"David Off" wrote in message
om...

No !!! :-), we are in the maximum sunspot activity cycle - you have to
wait until 2006ish for the next cold winters, there is also a 1500
year sunspot cycle which we are heading to the maximum part of (hence
the climate optimum in 1300). So the next cold spell will be hotter
than the previous.

hey, it's only bandwidth...

Well I'm glad that's sorted out. I'm reassured ... I think ...


The sunspot research is being carried out by Eduoard Bard from the
College de France (based in Aix-en-Provence). Bard proposes a 10 year
cycle with lowspots in 86-96-06 etc but with an upward trend, I think
an average 0.05C increase each ten years. As far as I know this work
has not yet been published, I've not found a reference. He is also
the guy behind work on the possibility of the gulf stream switching
off.

Work at the University of Columbia has also suggests a 1500 year
climate cycle -which would account for the Roman/Chinese climate
optimum (and not the medieval climate optimum as I said) and we are
heading to a new peak.

A note about the medieval climate optimum which enabled Vikings to
colonise Greenland, this appears to have been a regional event (maybe
linked to increased gulf stream activity?) not a global event. You
should take any articles saying that the current spell of global
warming is a similar event with a large pinch of salt. Just as you
should not confuse the current heatwave in southern/central Europe
(weather) with long term trends (climate).

David

David Off schrieb:
The sunspot research is being carried out by Eduoard Bard from the
College de France (based in Aix-en-Provence). Bard proposes a 10 year
cycle with lowspots in 86-96-06 etc but with an upward trend, I think
an average 0.05C increase each ten years. As far as I know this work
has not yet been published, I've not found a reference. He is also
the guy behind work on the possibility of the gulf stream switching
off.

AFAIK the theory that says the gulf stream might switch off in case off
global warming (causing some kind of new ice age in north western Europe)
has been worked out by the University of Potsdam. There is a major
climate research center over there.

:-) Björn

"B. Meier" wrote in message ...
David Off schrieb:
He is also
the guy behind work on the possibility of the gulf stream switching
off.

AFAIK the theory that says the gulf stream might switch off in case off
global warming (causing some kind of new ice age in north western Europe)
has been worked out by the University of Potsdam.

You are correct, it was my mistake, I meant to say 'one of the guys'.
In fact M. Bard suggests that the switching of the North Atlantic Deep
Water (NADW) current is not likely in today's climate.

As with all this academic research there are a lot of people who
contribute to the ideas but it is true that the Potsdam group along
with Richard Alley at Pen State University have proposed that the NADW
current exhibits stochastic behaviour. It is like pushing a ball up a
hill (or introducing increasing amounts of fresh water into the North
Atlantic though melting perma-frost and ice sheets). You reach the
summit and suddenly the ball starts to roll away from you very very
rapidly. Quite where we are on the hill today and how steep it is are
unknown.