by
wensum24
@ 03/10/2005 - 14:10:32
September was a warm and benign month opening with a 'mini-heatwave.' Seven of the first nine days recorded maxima of 25c or above, and although temperatures gradually fell during the remainder of the month it was never cold. Nights were often warm, the maximum of 17.1c on the 10th was the highest I have recorded in September.
Most unusually, the mean or average temperature of the month was a mere 0.1c less than the mean for the preceeding summer month of August!
Not surprisingly, with this extension to summer, and total absence of frost, there were few signs of autumn until the close of the month.
Rain fell on 13 days, with a particularly wet day on the 15th when 25.4mms was measured. The monthly rainfall total of 61.9mms was close to the average.
No thunder was heard, continuing the trend this year of below normal thundery activity.
Little credence need be given to the Met Office forecast of a forthcoming colder than normal winter, as the success rate of their seasonal forecasts is low.
The British Isles, situated on the periphery of the area of forecast cold, means that even if the forecast is broadly correct, only very slight changes could allow much of our islands to remain reasonably mild.
Hurricanes have again been much in the news, and although there was further flooding and damage in states bordering the Gulf of Mexico, hurrican Rita was less destructive than her sister Katrina.
Unfortunately, Rita's tidal surge caused the hastily repaired levees to fail, flooding anew recently drained areas of New Orleans. Much of New Orleans, (like Amsterdam), lies below sea-level, and it would seem prudent that the expertise of Dutch drainage and sea defence engineers should be sought.
Alarmist forecasts that the Arctic ice cap will disappear within 60 years have in some cases tended to mislead the public. Arctic ice, being floating sea ice, will not cause any sea level rise if melted, and the forecast melting of the ice cap only refers to the short summer season as the sea ice would continue to re-form in the winter.
I remain profoundly sceptical of these forecasts of a partially ice-free Arctic Ocean, as natural cycles of excessive and deficient ice indicate huge variations from decade to decade.
In the late 1930's it was confidentally predicted that there would be no pemanent sea ice in the Arctic by 1999, and yet in the late1960's and early 1970's there was growing concern within the scientific community that the northern hemisphere was slipping into another 'little ice age.'
September 2005
Total rainfall: 61.9mms
Wettest day: 25.4mms 15th
Days with rain: 13
Coolest day: 15.0c 16th
Warmest day: 27.0c 5th
Average temperature: 16.1c
NB
