Climate Change News Part.6
Why fresh water shortages will cause the next great global crisis
Robin McKie, science editor, Sunday 8 March 2015 00.05 GMT
Robin McKie, science editor, Sunday 8 March 2015 00.05 GMT
Water is the driving force of all nature, Leonardo da Vinci claimed. Unfortunately for our planet, supplies are now running dry – at an alarming rate. The world’s population continues to soar but that rise in numbers has not been matched by an accompanying increase in supplies of fresh water. The consequences are proving to be profound. Across the globe, reports reveal huge areas in crisis today as reservoirs and aquifers dry up. More than a billion individuals – one in seven people on the planet – now lack access to safe drinking water. Last week in the Brazilian city of São Paulo, home to 20 million people, and once known as the City of Drizzle,drought got so bad that residents began drilling through basement floors and car parks to try to reach groundwater. City officials warned last week that rationing of supplies was likely soon. Citizens might have access to water for only two days a week, they added.
In California, officials have revealed that the state has entered its fourth year of drought with January this year becoming the driest since meteorological records began. At the same time, per capita water use has continued to rise.In the Middle East, swaths of countryside have been reduced to desert because of overuse of water. Iran is one of the most severely affected. Heavy overconsumption, coupled with poor rainfall, have ravaged its water resources and devastated its agricultural output. Similarly, the United Arab Emirates is now investing in desalination plants and waste water treatment units because it lacks fresh water. As crown prince General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan admitted: “For us, water is [now] more important than oil.”
The global nature of the crisis is underlined in similar reports from other regions. In south Asia, for example, there have been massive losses of groundwater, which has been pumped up with reckless lack of control over the past decade. About 600 million people live on the 2,000km area that extends from eastern Pakistan, across the hot dry plains of northern India and into Bangladesh, and the land is the most intensely irrigated in the world. Up to 75% of farmers rely on pumped groundwater to water their crops and water use is intensifying – at the same time that satellite images shows supplies are shrinking alarmingly.
The nature of the problem is revealed by US Geological Survey figures, which show that the total amount of fresh water on Earth comes to about 2,551,100 cubic miles. Combined into a single droplet, this would produce a sphere with a diameter of about 170 miles. However, 99% of that sphere would be made up of groundwater, much of which is not accessible. By contrast, the total volume from lakes and rivers, humanity’s main source of fresh water, produces a sphere that is a mere 35 miles in diameter. That little blue droplet sustains most of the people on Earth – and it is under increasing assault as the planet heats up.
Changing precipitation and melting snow and ice are already altering hydrological systems in many regions. Glaciers continue to shrink worldwide, affecting villages and towns downstream. The result, says the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, is that the fraction of global population experiencing water scarcity is destined to increase throughout the 21st century. More and more, people and nations will have to compete for resources. An international dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the latter’s plans to dam the Nile has only recently been resolved.
In future, far more serious conflicts are likely to erupt as the planet dries up. Even in high latitudes, the one region on Earth where rainfall is likely to intensify in coming years, climate change will still reduce water quality and pose risks due to a number of factors: rising temperatures; increased levels of sediments, nutrients, and pollutants triggered by heavy rainfall; and disruption of treatment facilities during floods. The world faces a water crisis that will touch every part of the globe, a point that has been stressed by Jean Chrétien, former Canadian prime minister and co-chair of the InterAction Council. “The future political impact of water scarcity may be devastating,” he said. “Using water the way we have in the past simply will not sustain humanity in future.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/08/how-water-shortages-lead-food-crises-conflicts
In California, officials have revealed that the state has entered its fourth year of drought with January this year becoming the driest since meteorological records began. At the same time, per capita water use has continued to rise.In the Middle East, swaths of countryside have been reduced to desert because of overuse of water. Iran is one of the most severely affected. Heavy overconsumption, coupled with poor rainfall, have ravaged its water resources and devastated its agricultural output. Similarly, the United Arab Emirates is now investing in desalination plants and waste water treatment units because it lacks fresh water. As crown prince General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan admitted: “For us, water is [now] more important than oil.”
The global nature of the crisis is underlined in similar reports from other regions. In south Asia, for example, there have been massive losses of groundwater, which has been pumped up with reckless lack of control over the past decade. About 600 million people live on the 2,000km area that extends from eastern Pakistan, across the hot dry plains of northern India and into Bangladesh, and the land is the most intensely irrigated in the world. Up to 75% of farmers rely on pumped groundwater to water their crops and water use is intensifying – at the same time that satellite images shows supplies are shrinking alarmingly.
The nature of the problem is revealed by US Geological Survey figures, which show that the total amount of fresh water on Earth comes to about 2,551,100 cubic miles. Combined into a single droplet, this would produce a sphere with a diameter of about 170 miles. However, 99% of that sphere would be made up of groundwater, much of which is not accessible. By contrast, the total volume from lakes and rivers, humanity’s main source of fresh water, produces a sphere that is a mere 35 miles in diameter. That little blue droplet sustains most of the people on Earth – and it is under increasing assault as the planet heats up.
Changing precipitation and melting snow and ice are already altering hydrological systems in many regions. Glaciers continue to shrink worldwide, affecting villages and towns downstream. The result, says the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, is that the fraction of global population experiencing water scarcity is destined to increase throughout the 21st century. More and more, people and nations will have to compete for resources. An international dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the latter’s plans to dam the Nile has only recently been resolved.
In future, far more serious conflicts are likely to erupt as the planet dries up. Even in high latitudes, the one region on Earth where rainfall is likely to intensify in coming years, climate change will still reduce water quality and pose risks due to a number of factors: rising temperatures; increased levels of sediments, nutrients, and pollutants triggered by heavy rainfall; and disruption of treatment facilities during floods. The world faces a water crisis that will touch every part of the globe, a point that has been stressed by Jean Chrétien, former Canadian prime minister and co-chair of the InterAction Council. “The future political impact of water scarcity may be devastating,” he said. “Using water the way we have in the past simply will not sustain humanity in future.”
www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/08/how-water-shortages-lead-food-crises-conflicts
Alarm Bells Toll for Human Civilization
March 3rd, 2015
The São Paulo water crisis, or “hydric collapse," has left this city of 20 million teetering on the brink. The sudden nature of the crisis has left people struggling to cope with the reality of the taps running dry. Residents of São Paulo are storing water at home, and in some cases drilling homemade wells. In part a result of badly stored water, instances of dengue fever spread by mosquitoes almost tripled in January, compared with the previous year. "I’d always imagined people would try and help each other out in a crisis situation, but it’s not what happened at all" ~Isabela Berger Sacramento
In Brazil, a land of immense natural riches and home to around 12% of the world’s fresh water, the very idea of a water shortage is hard for people to conceive of. Yet despite the state government’s prevarication over possible imminent rationing – consisting of two days of water followed by four days without – in reality, millions are now getting just a few hours of water
per day, with many struggling with none at all for days on end.
Catastrophic situations often foster solidarity, but a lack of resources tends to do the opposite, leading to chaos.
During the crisis, one resident went to Sabesp, São Paulo’s water board, to find out when the water would be returning. “I told the man who was working there that the apartment building over the road had water, and yet we did not,” she says. “He said, ‘They may have water for now, but it’s going to run out for everyone soon’. He said there were some areas where the people had been without water for two months.” “We spent four days without water, and we saw what it was like. We saw people behave like animals in our building, so imagine 20 million people.”
But this isn't a story about Sao Paulo; it's a report that dares to point out that human societies are incredibly shortsighted and nearly incapable of sustainably populating planet Earth. In numerous regions around the world -- including California, India, Oklahoma, Brazil, China and many more -- human populations are rapidly out-growing the capacity of their local water systems. Even though keeping populations alive requires food... and growing food requires water... almost no nation or government in the world seems to be able to limit water consumption of local populations to levels which are sustainable in the long term. Instead, the endless greed of the "grow-consume-profit" business model that dominates the global economy leaves no room for any hint of balance with nature. The overriding philosophy of modern business is to dominate nature with chemicals, mining and monoculture to maximize profit while kicking any really large problems down the road for the next generation to deal with.
The result is a world where nobody thinks about the long-term implications of today's trends because everybody's too busy trying to extract a buck or two out of the very system that will destroy their future. Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson will also run dry
Consider Las Vegas while you ponder all this: Here's a city with no water future whatsoever, continuing to build new casinos and grow its population even as the water level of Lake Mead has already dropped to emergency levels (and continues to plummet). What do the people of Las Vegas imagine they will drink when all the cheap, easy water is gone? Will they swallow dust and pretend it's water? The sobering truth is that nearly everyone who lives in Las Vegas doesn't think about this.
By definition, anyone who realized the truth about the disappearing water throughout Nevada, Arizona and California would have already sold their property and moved away. Those who still inhabit regions with unsustainable water supplies -- such as Sao Paulo -- are choosing to make believe the problem doesn't exist.
This delusional psychology is, of course, reflected across modern human civilization and its governments, where delusional rhetoric and make believe fantasies about "endless economic growth" keep the obedient masses toiling away day after day, hoping they are securing a future which has already been mortgaged away. Dwindling water supplies are like government debt spending. We're often tricked into believing the government will solve all these problems for us. Yep, some Americans foolishly believe the same government which just issued $1 trillion in new debt to pay the interest on its existing debt is somehow really, really good at planning for the future instead of mortgaging it away.
If fresh water were a bank account, the world's spending deficit against that account would be deeply in the red and approaching a tipping point of default. And in precisely the same way the U.S. government borrows money to cover today's expenses with no intention of ever paying it back, human society is also borrowing water to cover today's water demands with no intention or capability of ever paying it back. Right now in California and around the world, farmers are pumping water out of the ground that should have remained there until the year 2030. As they keep pumping the aquifers dry, they'll be reaching ever more precariously forward into the future, using up water in 2015 that should have lasted until 2050 (or beyond).
In this same way, aquifers that should have lasted 100 - 200 years will be bone dry in the not-too-distant future. Farms that once produced food will instead produce a new Dust Bowl. Populations that depended on cheap food to afford basic living expenses will find themselves starving and bankrupt (and living on government food stamps, with the accompanying loss of freedom that always follows government handouts). The world's governments -- all of which rely on food affordability to keep populations relatively docile -- will find themselves facing mass revolts and social chaos.
You are about to watch a milestone event in the history of our world. Unless some miraculous rain reverses the extreme drought, the city of Sao Paulo is about to experience a literal "dry run" of this scenario in as little as 60 days. The history of human civilization has never witnessed a city of 20 million people run out of water before, and no one knows exactly how such a scenario might play out. But whatever happens, a far worse rendition of the crisis will inevitably unfold across Las Vegas, Southern California, North Texas and the Arizona cities of Phoenix and Tucson. (In Tucson, they still wishfully call dry water channels "rivers" even though water almost never flows through them.)
Modern humans will not acknowledge reality until it slaps them hard in the face. Whether the subject is the chemical contamination of the world, the mass over-fishing of the world's oceans, the pharmaceutical contamination of waterways,
the using up of world oil reserves, the genetic pollution of crops with GMOs, the deep well pumping of water aquifers or the unsustainable government debt spending that props up fraudulent government regimes everywhere, few people have the will to honestly acknowledge the future implications of today's actions. Most people prefer to just "get by" with the status quo. Besides, isn't there a holiday sale going on at Best Buy?
It's also more convenient to believe the lies told to us all by government and mass media. "Everything is under control" is the biggest lie of all, repeatedly uttered by governments that are almost universally bankrupt and incompetent. The really big lie almost everyone believes is the idea that no radical and sudden changes can ever happen -- that things will continue on the way they've always been for the simple (illogical) reason that they've always been that way. Few people can imagine a world without fossil fuels; without a functioning power grid; without a 911 emergency responder system that functions; without cheap and easy food magically appearing on grocery stores shelves, etc.
And so the citizens of the world will greedily drink down the very last drop of water remaining. They will fill their fuel tanks with the last gallon of gas; clear-cut the last remaining forest; fish the oceans into mass marine extinction; mine the last remaining rare earth elements out of the ground; and dam up the last free-flowing river on the planet. The appetite of Earthlings for immediate satiation and quick-turnaround profits can only lead to self-destruction. Have no illusions that if oxygen in the atmosphere could be turned into solid gold, people everywhere around the world would be incessantly mining the atmosphere for profit until the entire global population died of asphyxiation. With their very last breath, they'd be saying, "But I'm RICH!"
When Sao Paulo -- the world's 12th largest city -- collides with reality in the next few months, it will be following in the footsteps of Easter Island, the Anasazi Indians, ancient Assyrians and other failed civilizations which collapsed and died out long ago.
If you are reading this, you are living in a time of great historical significance: You will be witness to the unfolding of the "era of collapse" across human civilization. This era has already begun, and although it may take a century to see it all unravel, future historians will view this era as a time of unbridled destruction of the planet at the hands of over-extended human societies grounded in self-delusion.
http://upriser.com/posts/alarm-bells-toll-for-human-civilization-as-world-s-12th-largest-mega-city-to-run-out-of-water-in-just-60-days
In Brazil, a land of immense natural riches and home to around 12% of the world’s fresh water, the very idea of a water shortage is hard for people to conceive of. Yet despite the state government’s prevarication over possible imminent rationing – consisting of two days of water followed by four days without – in reality, millions are now getting just a few hours of water
per day, with many struggling with none at all for days on end.
Catastrophic situations often foster solidarity, but a lack of resources tends to do the opposite, leading to chaos.
During the crisis, one resident went to Sabesp, São Paulo’s water board, to find out when the water would be returning. “I told the man who was working there that the apartment building over the road had water, and yet we did not,” she says. “He said, ‘They may have water for now, but it’s going to run out for everyone soon’. He said there were some areas where the people had been without water for two months.” “We spent four days without water, and we saw what it was like. We saw people behave like animals in our building, so imagine 20 million people.”
But this isn't a story about Sao Paulo; it's a report that dares to point out that human societies are incredibly shortsighted and nearly incapable of sustainably populating planet Earth. In numerous regions around the world -- including California, India, Oklahoma, Brazil, China and many more -- human populations are rapidly out-growing the capacity of their local water systems. Even though keeping populations alive requires food... and growing food requires water... almost no nation or government in the world seems to be able to limit water consumption of local populations to levels which are sustainable in the long term. Instead, the endless greed of the "grow-consume-profit" business model that dominates the global economy leaves no room for any hint of balance with nature. The overriding philosophy of modern business is to dominate nature with chemicals, mining and monoculture to maximize profit while kicking any really large problems down the road for the next generation to deal with.
The result is a world where nobody thinks about the long-term implications of today's trends because everybody's too busy trying to extract a buck or two out of the very system that will destroy their future. Vegas, Phoenix and Tucson will also run dry
Consider Las Vegas while you ponder all this: Here's a city with no water future whatsoever, continuing to build new casinos and grow its population even as the water level of Lake Mead has already dropped to emergency levels (and continues to plummet). What do the people of Las Vegas imagine they will drink when all the cheap, easy water is gone? Will they swallow dust and pretend it's water? The sobering truth is that nearly everyone who lives in Las Vegas doesn't think about this.
By definition, anyone who realized the truth about the disappearing water throughout Nevada, Arizona and California would have already sold their property and moved away. Those who still inhabit regions with unsustainable water supplies -- such as Sao Paulo -- are choosing to make believe the problem doesn't exist.
This delusional psychology is, of course, reflected across modern human civilization and its governments, where delusional rhetoric and make believe fantasies about "endless economic growth" keep the obedient masses toiling away day after day, hoping they are securing a future which has already been mortgaged away. Dwindling water supplies are like government debt spending. We're often tricked into believing the government will solve all these problems for us. Yep, some Americans foolishly believe the same government which just issued $1 trillion in new debt to pay the interest on its existing debt is somehow really, really good at planning for the future instead of mortgaging it away.
If fresh water were a bank account, the world's spending deficit against that account would be deeply in the red and approaching a tipping point of default. And in precisely the same way the U.S. government borrows money to cover today's expenses with no intention of ever paying it back, human society is also borrowing water to cover today's water demands with no intention or capability of ever paying it back. Right now in California and around the world, farmers are pumping water out of the ground that should have remained there until the year 2030. As they keep pumping the aquifers dry, they'll be reaching ever more precariously forward into the future, using up water in 2015 that should have lasted until 2050 (or beyond).
In this same way, aquifers that should have lasted 100 - 200 years will be bone dry in the not-too-distant future. Farms that once produced food will instead produce a new Dust Bowl. Populations that depended on cheap food to afford basic living expenses will find themselves starving and bankrupt (and living on government food stamps, with the accompanying loss of freedom that always follows government handouts). The world's governments -- all of which rely on food affordability to keep populations relatively docile -- will find themselves facing mass revolts and social chaos.
You are about to watch a milestone event in the history of our world. Unless some miraculous rain reverses the extreme drought, the city of Sao Paulo is about to experience a literal "dry run" of this scenario in as little as 60 days. The history of human civilization has never witnessed a city of 20 million people run out of water before, and no one knows exactly how such a scenario might play out. But whatever happens, a far worse rendition of the crisis will inevitably unfold across Las Vegas, Southern California, North Texas and the Arizona cities of Phoenix and Tucson. (In Tucson, they still wishfully call dry water channels "rivers" even though water almost never flows through them.)
Modern humans will not acknowledge reality until it slaps them hard in the face. Whether the subject is the chemical contamination of the world, the mass over-fishing of the world's oceans, the pharmaceutical contamination of waterways,
the using up of world oil reserves, the genetic pollution of crops with GMOs, the deep well pumping of water aquifers or the unsustainable government debt spending that props up fraudulent government regimes everywhere, few people have the will to honestly acknowledge the future implications of today's actions. Most people prefer to just "get by" with the status quo. Besides, isn't there a holiday sale going on at Best Buy?
It's also more convenient to believe the lies told to us all by government and mass media. "Everything is under control" is the biggest lie of all, repeatedly uttered by governments that are almost universally bankrupt and incompetent. The really big lie almost everyone believes is the idea that no radical and sudden changes can ever happen -- that things will continue on the way they've always been for the simple (illogical) reason that they've always been that way. Few people can imagine a world without fossil fuels; without a functioning power grid; without a 911 emergency responder system that functions; without cheap and easy food magically appearing on grocery stores shelves, etc.
And so the citizens of the world will greedily drink down the very last drop of water remaining. They will fill their fuel tanks with the last gallon of gas; clear-cut the last remaining forest; fish the oceans into mass marine extinction; mine the last remaining rare earth elements out of the ground; and dam up the last free-flowing river on the planet. The appetite of Earthlings for immediate satiation and quick-turnaround profits can only lead to self-destruction. Have no illusions that if oxygen in the atmosphere could be turned into solid gold, people everywhere around the world would be incessantly mining the atmosphere for profit until the entire global population died of asphyxiation. With their very last breath, they'd be saying, "But I'm RICH!"
When Sao Paulo -- the world's 12th largest city -- collides with reality in the next few months, it will be following in the footsteps of Easter Island, the Anasazi Indians, ancient Assyrians and other failed civilizations which collapsed and died out long ago.
If you are reading this, you are living in a time of great historical significance: You will be witness to the unfolding of the "era of collapse" across human civilization. This era has already begun, and although it may take a century to see it all unravel, future historians will view this era as a time of unbridled destruction of the planet at the hands of over-extended human societies grounded in self-delusion.
http://upriser.com/posts/alarm-bells-toll-for-human-civilization-as-world-s-12th-largest-mega-city-to-run-out-of-water-in-just-60-days
Warmest year in modern record
January 16, 20152014
By Steve Cole, NASA Headquarters, and Leslie McCarthy, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies
The year 2014 ranks as Earth’s warmest since 1880, according to two separate analyses by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists.
The 10 warmest years in the instrumental record, with the exception of 1998, have now occurred since 2000. This trend continues a long-term warming of the planet, according to an analysis of surface temperature measurements by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) in New York. In an independent analysis of the raw data, also released Friday, NOAA scientists also found 2014 to be the warmest on record. “NASA is at the forefront of the scientific investigation of the dynamics of the Earth’s climate on a global scale,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The observed long-term warming trend and the ranking of 2014 as the warmest year on record reinforces the importance for NASA to study Earth as a complete system, and particularly to understand the role and impacts of human activity.”
Since 1880, Earth’s average surface temperature has warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius), a trend that is largely driven by the increase in carbon dioxide and other human emissions into the planet’s atmosphere. The majority of that warming has occurred in the past three decades. “This is the latest in a series of warm years, in a series of warm decades. While the ranking of individual years can be affected by chaotic weather patterns, the long-term trends are attributable to drivers of climate change that right now are dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt.
While 2014 temperatures continue the planet’s long-term warming trend, scientists still expect to see year-to-year fluctuations in average global temperature caused by phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña. These phenomena warm or cool the tropical Pacific and are thought to have played a role in the flattening of the long-term warming trend over the past 15 years. However, 2014’s record warmth occurred during an El Niño-neutral year. “NOAA provides decision makers with timely and trusted science-based information about our changing world,” said Richard Spinrad, NOAA chief scientist. “As we monitor changes in our climate, demand for the environmental intelligence NOAA provides is only growing. It's critical that we continue to work with our partners, like NASA, to observe these changes and to provide the information communities need to build resiliency.”
Regional differences in temperature are more strongly affected by weather dynamics than the global mean. For example, in the U.S. in 2014, parts of the Midwest and East Coast were unusually cool, while Alaska and three western states – California, Arizona and Nevada – experienced their warmest year on record, according to NOAA. The GISS analysis incorporates surface temperature measurements from 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and temperature measurements from Antarctic research stations. This raw data is analyzed using an algorithm that takes into account the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and urban heating effects that could skew the calculation. The result is an estimate of the global average temperature difference from a baseline period of 1951 to 1980.
NOAA scientists used much of the same raw temperature data, but a different baseline period. They also employ their own methods to estimate global temperatures.
GISS is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.
The data set of 2014 surface temperature measurements is available here.
The methodology used to make the temperature calculation is available here.
The 10 warmest years in the instrumental record, with the exception of 1998, have now occurred since 2000. This trend continues a long-term warming of the planet, according to an analysis of surface temperature measurements by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) in New York. In an independent analysis of the raw data, also released Friday, NOAA scientists also found 2014 to be the warmest on record. “NASA is at the forefront of the scientific investigation of the dynamics of the Earth’s climate on a global scale,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The observed long-term warming trend and the ranking of 2014 as the warmest year on record reinforces the importance for NASA to study Earth as a complete system, and particularly to understand the role and impacts of human activity.”
Since 1880, Earth’s average surface temperature has warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius), a trend that is largely driven by the increase in carbon dioxide and other human emissions into the planet’s atmosphere. The majority of that warming has occurred in the past three decades. “This is the latest in a series of warm years, in a series of warm decades. While the ranking of individual years can be affected by chaotic weather patterns, the long-term trends are attributable to drivers of climate change that right now are dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt.
While 2014 temperatures continue the planet’s long-term warming trend, scientists still expect to see year-to-year fluctuations in average global temperature caused by phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña. These phenomena warm or cool the tropical Pacific and are thought to have played a role in the flattening of the long-term warming trend over the past 15 years. However, 2014’s record warmth occurred during an El Niño-neutral year. “NOAA provides decision makers with timely and trusted science-based information about our changing world,” said Richard Spinrad, NOAA chief scientist. “As we monitor changes in our climate, demand for the environmental intelligence NOAA provides is only growing. It's critical that we continue to work with our partners, like NASA, to observe these changes and to provide the information communities need to build resiliency.”
Regional differences in temperature are more strongly affected by weather dynamics than the global mean. For example, in the U.S. in 2014, parts of the Midwest and East Coast were unusually cool, while Alaska and three western states – California, Arizona and Nevada – experienced their warmest year on record, according to NOAA. The GISS analysis incorporates surface temperature measurements from 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and temperature measurements from Antarctic research stations. This raw data is analyzed using an algorithm that takes into account the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and urban heating effects that could skew the calculation. The result is an estimate of the global average temperature difference from a baseline period of 1951 to 1980.
NOAA scientists used much of the same raw temperature data, but a different baseline period. They also employ their own methods to estimate global temperatures.
GISS is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.
The data set of 2014 surface temperature measurements is available here.
The methodology used to make the temperature calculation is available here.
Ethiopia set to double its hydropower in July
Wednesday, 31 December 2014 00:00
With commissioning of Ethiopia’s second biggest electricity project, 1870 Megawatts (MW) Gilgil Gibe III hydroelectric dam in the coming July, the country is set to double its current electric hydropower production.
The country has completed 89 percent of Gibe III hydropower project, according to Miskir Negash, external communications director at Ethiopian Electric power, (EEP) the country’s public state utility firm. Currently Ethiopia is generating some 2000 MW of electricity from hydropower stations."The Project which lies in southwestern Ethiopia, on Omo River a major tributary to Lake Turkana has 10 turine units each generating 187 MW," he said.
While the project is expected to boost the country’s electricity output, and generate electricity export revenue, it’s however been opposed by international environmentalists. They contend that it poses dangers to the world’s largest desert lake and livelihoods of tribal people in south western Ethiopia and northern Kenya. Ethiopia currently has its biggest hydro project at Blue Nile River, 40 kms from the Sudanese border, with an electricity production capacity of 6,000 MW, and is currently 40 percent complete.
The project dubbed Africa’s largest so far, has however not been without it’s controversies, with upstream countries notably Egypt suspicious of the project’s impact on its only river water source. Negash also revealed that Ethiopia’s first ever Waste-To-Energy facility, the 50 MW Repi (Koshe) site in Addis Ababa is 58 percent complete. He further surmised that Ethiopia is also embarking on wind projects with the 153 MW Adama II wind power project 82 percent complete. An earlier 51 MW Adama I wind power project was finished two years ago and is currently operational.
newbusinessethiopia.com/index.php/component/k2/item/200-ethiopia-set-to-double-its-hydropower-in-july
The country has completed 89 percent of Gibe III hydropower project, according to Miskir Negash, external communications director at Ethiopian Electric power, (EEP) the country’s public state utility firm. Currently Ethiopia is generating some 2000 MW of electricity from hydropower stations."The Project which lies in southwestern Ethiopia, on Omo River a major tributary to Lake Turkana has 10 turine units each generating 187 MW," he said.
While the project is expected to boost the country’s electricity output, and generate electricity export revenue, it’s however been opposed by international environmentalists. They contend that it poses dangers to the world’s largest desert lake and livelihoods of tribal people in south western Ethiopia and northern Kenya. Ethiopia currently has its biggest hydro project at Blue Nile River, 40 kms from the Sudanese border, with an electricity production capacity of 6,000 MW, and is currently 40 percent complete.
The project dubbed Africa’s largest so far, has however not been without it’s controversies, with upstream countries notably Egypt suspicious of the project’s impact on its only river water source. Negash also revealed that Ethiopia’s first ever Waste-To-Energy facility, the 50 MW Repi (Koshe) site in Addis Ababa is 58 percent complete. He further surmised that Ethiopia is also embarking on wind projects with the 153 MW Adama II wind power project 82 percent complete. An earlier 51 MW Adama I wind power project was finished two years ago and is currently operational.
newbusinessethiopia.com/index.php/component/k2/item/200-ethiopia-set-to-double-its-hydropower-in-july
French climate envoy sees hope in low oil prices
December 31, 2014
December 31, 2014
PARIS (AP) — Low oil prices could paradoxically help the world reach an international agreement to fight global warming, according to the French ambassador charged with organizing a key climate conference in Paris.
France is spending the next 11 months trying to cajole more than 190 countries into overcoming disagreements about acceptable greenhouse gas emissions levels and who should pay to achieve them to produce a binding accord to limit emissions.Laurence Tubiana, France's special representative for the 2015 climate conference in Paris, says now nations can't cite high energy prices as a reason to avoid taking action. "Several years ago, I would have said it (low oil prices) complicates things," she told The Associated Press in an interview this week. "(But) lower energy prices give more maneuvering room for investment and could ultimately allow the introduction of a carbon tax or something that works like one."
In fact, she said, forward-looking governments will be able to use the money saved on oil and gas to develop renewable technologies, rather than increasing their fossil fuel extraction. And lower costs at the pump means consumers will be less opposed to new taxes to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Those taxes, sometimes called carbon taxes, have faced resistance in the United States, but many other countries have adopted some versions of them, using the proceeds to invest in renewable resources. Still, the argument only carries so far — many environmentalists fear that low oil prices will simply let governments continue their reliance on greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels, while high prices could force them to look elsewhere for energy.
Oil prices have plunged by half since June. Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.48 to $52.64 a barrel Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The ultimate goal of U.N. climate negotiations is to stabilize greenhouse gases at a level that keeps global warming below 2 degrees C (3.6 F), compared with pre-industrial times. For Tubiana, the key to reaching that goal is a legally binding agreement, one incorporated into law or national policy in every country in the world.
Negotiations culminating in the Nov. 30-Dec. 11 meeting in Paris will rise or fall on two key points: How to divide responsibility for global warming and how to pay to fight it. The developed world used fossil fuels to build roads, cities and houses and emerging economies want to have the same chances to grow as quickly as possible. Island nations like Tuvalu and low-lying countries, meanwhile, fear rising sea levels will swamp them and need funds to adjust.
But, Tubiana said, one set of rules must apply to everyone. And ultimately, low oil prices or not, fossil fuels have to be phased out. "We have to change the trajectory of development for all countries, rich or poor," she said. "It is out of the question to pass through a phase of intensive fossil fuel use, then lowering it." Crucially — and potentially most difficult — she said the accord must be legally binding. "Otherwise governments can say today they want something, then in three or four years, they can change their minds," she said.
That could prove complicated in the United States, where Congress voted down climate legislation in 2009. President Barack Obama has largely leaned on existing laws to make progress, raising vehicle fuel standards for trucks and proposing stricter controls on power plants but he will leave office in January 2017. The U.S. and China, the world's two largest emitters of heat-trapping gases, negotiated secretly for months in 2014 to reach a non-binding climate change agreement but momentum from that deal disintegrated at a conference in Lima, Peru, where a compromise deal was salvaged in December to set up the Paris accord. In Lima, China and other major developing countries opposed plans that would allow pledges to be compared against one another before the Paris meeting. Still, Tubiana was encouraged by some progress in Lima.
"Every country has agreed to make a contribution. That is very important," she said.
www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-2892705/French-climate-envoy-sees-hope-low-oil-prices
France is spending the next 11 months trying to cajole more than 190 countries into overcoming disagreements about acceptable greenhouse gas emissions levels and who should pay to achieve them to produce a binding accord to limit emissions.
In fact, she said, forward-looking governments will be able to use the money saved on oil and gas to develop renewable technologies, rather than increasing their fossil fuel extraction. And lower costs at the pump means consumers will be less opposed to new taxes to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Those taxes, sometimes called carbon taxes, have faced resistance in the United States, but many other countries have adopted some versions of them, using the proceeds to invest in renewable resources. Still, the argument only carries so far — many environmentalists fear that low oil prices will simply let governments continue their reliance on greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels, while high prices could force them to look elsewhere for energy.
Oil prices have plunged by half since June. Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.48 to $52.64 a barrel Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The ultimate goal of U.N. climate negotiations is to stabilize greenhouse gases at a level that keeps global warming below 2 degrees C (3.6 F), compared with pre-industrial times. For Tubiana, the key to reaching that goal is a legally binding agreement, one incorporated into law or national policy in every country in the world.
Negotiations culminating in the Nov. 30-Dec. 11 meeting in Paris will rise or fall on two key points: How to divide responsibility for global warming and how to pay to fight it. The developed world used fossil fuels to build roads, cities and houses and emerging economies want to have the same chances to grow as quickly as possible. Island nations like Tuvalu and low-lying countries, meanwhile, fear rising sea levels will swamp them and need funds to adjust.
But, Tubiana said, one set of rules must apply to everyone. And ultimately, low oil prices or not, fossil fuels have to be phased out. "We have to change the trajectory of development for all countries, rich or poor," she said. "It is out of the question to pass through a phase of intensive fossil fuel use, then lowering it." Crucially — and potentially most difficult — she said the accord must be legally binding. "Otherwise governments can say today they want something, then in three or four years, they can change their minds," she said.
That could prove complicated in the United States, where Congress voted down climate legislation in 2009. President Barack Obama has largely leaned on existing laws to make progress, raising vehicle fuel standards for trucks and proposing stricter controls on power plants but he will leave office in January 2017. The U.S. and China, the world's two largest emitters of heat-trapping gases, negotiated secretly for months in 2014 to reach a non-binding climate change agreement but momentum from that deal disintegrated at a conference in Lima, Peru, where a compromise deal was salvaged in December to set up the Paris accord. In Lima, China and other major developing countries opposed plans that would allow pledges to be compared against one another before the Paris meeting. Still, Tubiana was encouraged by some progress in Lima.
"Every country has agreed to make a contribution. That is very important," she said.
California braces for another deluge in wake of Sunday’s storm
Published on : Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Published on : Tuesday, December 16, 2014
LOS ANGELES – Even as California was trying to brush off this weekend the impacts from its biggest storm of the season another weather system is bearing down on the normally Golden State. Cleaning up continued Sunday from the big storm, which hit San Francisco Thursday then swept through the state. Besides the usual downed trees, power outages and rash of traffic accidents on rain-slickened road, a rare but small tornado touched down in south Los Angeles. The twister ripped tiles off rooftops and blew out windows.
The deluge was blamed for a mudslide in Ventura County that buried houses in rocks and mud. A balcony collapsed in Long Beach. The worst damage in the state occurred near Camarillo in Ventura County where media reported that 13 homes were being marked as uninhabitable. Mud and debris covered some homes up to their roofs in an area where the hillside was left denuded by an earlier brush fire. With other vulnerable areas having pulled through the storm largely unscathed, attention now turns to the next large storm bearing down in the Pacific. It is expected to bring more rain to California on Monday. While it is unlikely that it will be as ferocious, officials warn it could hang on for a couple of days.
The storm dumped up to eight inches of rain on parts of northern California. It unleashed 1.5 inches and 3.5 inches on areas of the Los Angeles metro region. Overall, the parched state received a boost from the storm, which will help fill lakes and reservoirs left badly depleted. The storms are leading to hopes that California could be turning the corner on its drought. Last week’s storm turned the area’s rivers from trickles to torrents, as rain water poured in on its way to the ocean.
www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/california-braces-another-deluge-wake-sundays-storm
The deluge was blamed for a mudslide in Ventura County that buried houses in rocks and mud. A balcony collapsed in Long Beach. The worst damage in the state occurred near Camarillo in Ventura County where media reported that 13 homes were being marked as uninhabitable. Mud and debris covered some homes up to their roofs in an area where the hillside was left denuded by an earlier brush fire. With other vulnerable areas having pulled through the storm largely unscathed, attention now turns to the next large storm bearing down in the Pacific. It is expected to bring more rain to California on Monday. While it is unlikely that it will be as ferocious, officials warn it could hang on for a couple of days.
The storm dumped up to eight inches of rain on parts of northern California. It unleashed 1.5 inches and 3.5 inches on areas of the Los Angeles metro region. Overall, the parched state received a boost from the storm, which will help fill lakes and reservoirs left badly depleted. The storms are leading to hopes that California could be turning the corner on its drought. Last week’s storm turned the area’s rivers from trickles to torrents, as rain water poured in on its way to the ocean.
www.travelandtourworld.com/news/article/california-braces-another-deluge-wake-sundays-storm
Weather bomb batters UK with 80mph winds and blizzards
There's worse to come before the end of the week
PUBLISHED: 08:32, 10 December 2014 | UPDATED: 10:32, 11 December 2014
There's worse to come before the end of the week
PUBLISHED: 08:32, 10 December 2014 | UPDATED: 10:32, 11 December 2014
This is the moment the face of an old man appears in a 50ft wave as the 'weather bomb' battered Britain. The country was hit by 80mph winds and blizzards - and warned there is worse to come before the end of the week. As the huge waves crashed against the shores of the Isle of Islay off the west of Scotland, a photographer managed to take this astonishing shot. Ron Steenvoorden, 54, had been out walking near Port Wemyss on the south-western tip of the Hebridean island when he took the photograph. He only realised he had captured a face, which he likened to Charles Dickens's Christmas Carol character Ebeneezer Scrooge, upon returning home. He said: 'It does like a little bit like Ebenezer Scrooge. I hadn't noticed the face before I took the picture, then when I got home I saw it.
'It was almost impossible to stand up outside. We only moved from the Netherlands two months ago so we've never seen waves like this before. 'Other people on the island say this is the worst they've ever seen.' The weather system - known by meteorologists as an 'explosive cyclogenesis' - devleoped in the Atlantic Ocean and hit Britain yesterday. A County Durham fire spokesman said: ‘Crews were called to Westgate Ford, Westgate, last night [Tuesday] were they rescued one male adult using throw lines.’ A wind speed of 144mph was recorded on the remote St Kilda islands, with gusts of more than 80mph also hitting some low level areas. A speed of 81mph was recorded in Tiree at 10am while South Uist was hit by a 79mph gust at 9am and Islay by a 77mph wind at 5am, the Met Office said. In Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, the storms tested the region's newly-repaired flood defences to their limits.
At the other end of Britain, the whole of the Western Isles - more than 17,000 people - was left without power after an outage just before 7am yesteday. Power was restored yesterday to 27,000 homes but hundreds of engineers were set to work into the night to restore power to about 2,800 homes across the Western Isles, Shetland, Orkney and rural areas on the west coast. Western Isles Council closed all its schools and nurseries as police advised the public not to travel unless it is absolutely necessary. All depots, libraries and museums in the Western Isles were also shut. Several schools and nurseries in the Highland Council area were closed. However, schools, nurseries and other facilities in the Western Isles are planning to open as normal today.
A weather bomb is an extratropical cyclone in which pressure drops rapidly, and which can produce storm-force winds with very heavy rainfall or snow. During the worst of yesterday's weather, a fishing vessel which issued a Mayday call at around 5.30am after it was hit by a wave that smashed windows on the bridge had to be escorted to safety off Orkney. The British-registered vessel O Genita, which has a Spanish crew, was escorted to Westray in Orkney by the lifeboat, arriving just before 11.30am. None of the 16 crew were thought to be injured.
SO, WHAT IS A WEATHER BOMB?
A ‘weather bomb’ - known as explosive cyclogenesis by meteorologists - happens when there is a rapid fall in pressure in the central section of an area of low pressure. The level has to fall by 24 millibars in 24 hours in our latitudes to be classed as a ‘bomb’. They happen most frequently over sea near major warm ocean currents, such as the western Pacific Ocean near the Kuroshio Current, or over the north Atlantic Ocean near the Gulf Stream. Recent estimates suggest there are between 45 and 65 explosive cyclogenesis events a year and that more ‘bombs’ tend to occur in the northern hemisphere. The Met Office said: ‘In many ways a “bomb” can be seen as simply a more powerful, more intense version of the kind of Atlantic low pressure systems that normally affect the UK.’ It said the country is feeling the effect of the current ‘weather bomb’ remotely as the track of the low pressure system is well north of the UK. Although far north-western parts of the country are being hit by 70 to 80mph gusts, the UK is not seeing the strongest winds associated with the weather system.
Ferry services between Scotland and Ireland were cancelled and train services in Scotland were halted while some bridges were closed due to high winds. Across northern parts of the UK, commuters faced train cancellations, road closures and long traffic queues as driving conditions worsened, with sleet and hail falling. Fifteen flood warnings and 12 flood alerts were issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa). The process behind the storm - known colloquially as a weather bomb - is a deep low pressure system moving between Scotland and Iceland. The rapid deepening of the low pressure in the current ‘weather bomb’ happened on Monday. The bomb has been moving slowly eastwards across the Atlantic Ocean and was set to pass on Tuesday between Scotland and Iceland. The phrase 'bomb' was first coined by meteorologists about 70 years ago, and it was later popularised in the US in 1980.
A Met Office 'amber' be prepared warning had been in place throughout yesterday for the west coast of Scotland, the Highlands and Islands, Orkney, Shetland and Northern Ireland. People were warned to expect dangerous conditions, especially along causeways and coastal roads exposed to the west. These were downgraded to yellow 'be aware' warnings in the evening as forecasters predicted gales could gradually ease this morning. The alerts for wind remain in place until 10am and cover Scotland, Northern Ireland, parts of Wales and northern England. The Met Office said the gales could be severe in places overnight, especially for exposed coastal areas in the west, with gusts of 65mph to 75mph in places.
It also said wintry showers could bring snowfall and ice which could bring potential for travel disruption as there could be some 'significant' snow accumulations in parts of Scotland. Steve Willington, chief meteorologist at the Met Office, said: 'Very strong winds are likely to affect northern and central parts of the UK from early Wednesday and last through until early Thursday as a very deep low pressure system moves slowly eastwards between Scotland and Iceland. 'A period of severe gales is likely over northern and central Britain, as well as the potential for storm force winds over north-western coastal areas of Scotland.'
Police warned that travel conditions in the worst-hit areas of Scotland could be 'hazardous', with disruption also expected on ferries, rail services, roads and bridges. Many ferry services operated by Caledonian MacBrayne, which operates in the west of Scotland, have been cancelled or disrupted, while the Argyll Ferries service between Gourock and Dunoon has been suspended. There were also disruptions and cancellations on NorthLink Ferries services between Orkney, Shetland and the mainland. And P&O ferries said its Larne and Cairnryan sailings were operating with delays of up to at least two hours, with further disruption expected throughout the day. Several train services were cancelled as a safety precaution, Network Rail and train operator ScotRail announced. Both Network Rail and ScotRail said full services are expected to run today.
On the roads the Skye Bridge and Forth Road Bridge were closed to high-sided vehicles while the Tay Bridge was only open to cars. Western Isles Council said all its schools and nurseries closed their doors as police advised the public not to travel unless it is absolutely necessary. All depots, libraries, museums and sports facilities in the Western Isles were also Shut. Scotland's Deputy First Minister John Swinney praised frontline staff for how they dealt with disruption to travel and power supplies. He said: 'I am pleased to report that we are seeing an improving picture in terms of the stormy conditions tonight and heading into tomorrow. 'Obviously there has been transport disruption, principally on the ferry network and also on some of the coastal rail services where it's just been unsafe to run trains because of the dangers of the coastal flooding that could have taken place. 'Some alerts remain in place, and we are not out of the woods yet, but any necessary repairs and safety checks on the transport network are expected to go ahead tonight as planned.' Councils south of the border insisted they were prepared for the plunge in temperatures, with gritters 'out in force' and depots filled with about 1.3 million tonnes of salt.
HOW BIG WERE THE WAVES?
Waves of 52ft were recorded off the Outer Hebrides during yesterday's storm. The giant waves were three times the height of a double decker bus and double the height of a typical two-storey house. They were recorded at 7am far off the Western Isles in the North Atlantic by a buoy called K5, which gathers data on the movement of the sea. In 2011 waves of 48.22ft were recorded and in 2012 46.90ft. But in 2007 a wave of over 57ft was logged. The information is monitored by organisations such as the Met Office.
The Met Office warnings for wind run into Thursday morning, extending by that stage to cover the whole of the UK. Mr Swinney said the Scottish Government's Resilience Committee would meet again later to discuss the situation. He told BBC Radio Scotland: 'It is important to keep this in context. ‘It's not a surprise that Scotland faces severe winter weather, we face it to a greater or lesser extent every year. This morning [Wednesday] we're wrestling with a number of different issues. 'We're wrestling with very high wind speeds, which are not that uncommon in the Western Isles for example, but they are still severe and need to be prepared for. 'We're wrestling with the possibility of coastal flooding because of the sea surges and strength of waves that are likely to come. 'And in other parts of the country we're wrestling with the issues of snow on the A9 and M74. 'And we also will, I suspect, be dealing with a bit of flooding on some of the river systems in Scotland but mainly on agricultural land. 'I think it's important to remember that this is weather which is characteristic of winter weather in Scotland and what's important is that we take the necessary steps to prepare for it. 'That involves the public authorities preparing for it but also members of the public being aware of the circumstances as well.'
'It was almost impossible to stand up outside. We only moved from the Netherlands two months ago so we've never seen waves like this before. 'Other people on the island say this is the worst they've ever seen.' The weather system - known by meteorologists as an 'explosive cyclogenesis' - devleoped in the Atlantic Ocean and hit Britain yesterday. A County Durham fire spokesman said: ‘Crews were called to Westgate Ford, Westgate, last night [Tuesday] were they rescued one male adult using throw lines.’ A wind speed of 144mph was recorded on the remote St Kilda islands, with gusts of more than 80mph also hitting some low level areas. A speed of 81mph was recorded in Tiree at 10am while South Uist was hit by a 79mph gust at 9am and Islay by a 77mph wind at 5am, the Met Office said. In Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, the storms tested the region's newly-repaired flood defences to their limits.
At the other end of Britain, the whole of the Western Isles - more than 17,000 people - was left without power after an outage just before 7am yesteday. Power was restored yesterday to 27,000 homes but hundreds of engineers were set to work into the night to restore power to about 2,800 homes across the Western Isles, Shetland, Orkney and rural areas on the west coast. Western Isles Council closed all its schools and nurseries as police advised the public not to travel unless it is absolutely necessary. All depots, libraries and museums in the Western Isles were also shut. Several schools and nurseries in the Highland Council area were closed. However, schools, nurseries and other facilities in the Western Isles are planning to open as normal today.
A weather bomb is an extratropical cyclone in which pressure drops rapidly, and which can produce storm-force winds with very heavy rainfall or snow. During the worst of yesterday's weather, a fishing vessel which issued a Mayday call at around 5.30am after it was hit by a wave that smashed windows on the bridge had to be escorted to safety off Orkney. The British-registered vessel O Genita, which has a Spanish crew, was escorted to Westray in Orkney by the lifeboat, arriving just before 11.30am. None of the 16 crew were thought to be injured.
SO, WHAT IS A WEATHER BOMB?
A ‘weather bomb’ - known as explosive cyclogenesis by meteorologists - happens when there is a rapid fall in pressure in the central section of an area of low pressure. The level has to fall by 24 millibars in 24 hours in our latitudes to be classed as a ‘bomb’. They happen most frequently over sea near major warm ocean currents, such as the western Pacific Ocean near the Kuroshio Current, or over the north Atlantic Ocean near the Gulf Stream. Recent estimates suggest there are between 45 and 65 explosive cyclogenesis events a year and that more ‘bombs’ tend to occur in the northern hemisphere. The Met Office said: ‘In many ways a “bomb” can be seen as simply a more powerful, more intense version of the kind of Atlantic low pressure systems that normally affect the UK.’ It said the country is feeling the effect of the current ‘weather bomb’ remotely as the track of the low pressure system is well north of the UK. Although far north-western parts of the country are being hit by 70 to 80mph gusts, the UK is not seeing the strongest winds associated with the weather system.
Ferry services between Scotland and Ireland were cancelled and train services in Scotland were halted while some bridges were closed due to high winds. Across northern parts of the UK, commuters faced train cancellations, road closures and long traffic queues as driving conditions worsened, with sleet and hail falling. Fifteen flood warnings and 12 flood alerts were issued by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa). The process behind the storm - known colloquially as a weather bomb - is a deep low pressure system moving between Scotland and Iceland. The rapid deepening of the low pressure in the current ‘weather bomb’ happened on Monday. The bomb has been moving slowly eastwards across the Atlantic Ocean and was set to pass on Tuesday between Scotland and Iceland. The phrase 'bomb' was first coined by meteorologists about 70 years ago, and it was later popularised in the US in 1980.
A Met Office 'amber' be prepared warning had been in place throughout yesterday for the west coast of Scotland, the Highlands and Islands, Orkney, Shetland and Northern Ireland. People were warned to expect dangerous conditions, especially along causeways and coastal roads exposed to the west. These were downgraded to yellow 'be aware' warnings in the evening as forecasters predicted gales could gradually ease this morning. The alerts for wind remain in place until 10am and cover Scotland, Northern Ireland, parts of Wales and northern England. The Met Office said the gales could be severe in places overnight, especially for exposed coastal areas in the west, with gusts of 65mph to 75mph in places.
It also said wintry showers could bring snowfall and ice which could bring potential for travel disruption as there could be some 'significant' snow accumulations in parts of Scotland. Steve Willington, chief meteorologist at the Met Office, said: 'Very strong winds are likely to affect northern and central parts of the UK from early Wednesday and last through until early Thursday as a very deep low pressure system moves slowly eastwards between Scotland and Iceland. 'A period of severe gales is likely over northern and central Britain, as well as the potential for storm force winds over north-western coastal areas of Scotland.'
Police warned that travel conditions in the worst-hit areas of Scotland could be 'hazardous', with disruption also expected on ferries, rail services, roads and bridges. Many ferry services operated by Caledonian MacBrayne, which operates in the west of Scotland, have been cancelled or disrupted, while the Argyll Ferries service between Gourock and Dunoon has been suspended. There were also disruptions and cancellations on NorthLink Ferries services between Orkney, Shetland and the mainland. And P&O ferries said its Larne and Cairnryan sailings were operating with delays of up to at least two hours, with further disruption expected throughout the day. Several train services were cancelled as a safety precaution, Network Rail and train operator ScotRail announced. Both Network Rail and ScotRail said full services are expected to run today.
On the roads the Skye Bridge and Forth Road Bridge were closed to high-sided vehicles while the Tay Bridge was only open to cars. Western Isles Council said all its schools and nurseries closed their doors as police advised the public not to travel unless it is absolutely necessary. All depots, libraries, museums and sports facilities in the Western Isles were also Shut. Scotland's Deputy First Minister John Swinney praised frontline staff for how they dealt with disruption to travel and power supplies. He said: 'I am pleased to report that we are seeing an improving picture in terms of the stormy conditions tonight and heading into tomorrow. 'Obviously there has been transport disruption, principally on the ferry network and also on some of the coastal rail services where it's just been unsafe to run trains because of the dangers of the coastal flooding that could have taken place. 'Some alerts remain in place, and we are not out of the woods yet, but any necessary repairs and safety checks on the transport network are expected to go ahead tonight as planned.' Councils south of the border insisted they were prepared for the plunge in temperatures, with gritters 'out in force' and depots filled with about 1.3 million tonnes of salt.
HOW BIG WERE THE WAVES?
Waves of 52ft were recorded off the Outer Hebrides during yesterday's storm. The giant waves were three times the height of a double decker bus and double the height of a typical two-storey house. They were recorded at 7am far off the Western Isles in the North Atlantic by a buoy called K5, which gathers data on the movement of the sea. In 2011 waves of 48.22ft were recorded and in 2012 46.90ft. But in 2007 a wave of over 57ft was logged. The information is monitored by organisations such as the Met Office.
The Met Office warnings for wind run into Thursday morning, extending by that stage to cover the whole of the UK. Mr Swinney said the Scottish Government's Resilience Committee would meet again later to discuss the situation. He told BBC Radio Scotland: 'It is important to keep this in context. ‘It's not a surprise that Scotland faces severe winter weather, we face it to a greater or lesser extent every year. This morning [Wednesday] we're wrestling with a number of different issues. 'We're wrestling with very high wind speeds, which are not that uncommon in the Western Isles for example, but they are still severe and need to be prepared for. 'We're wrestling with the possibility of coastal flooding because of the sea surges and strength of waves that are likely to come. 'And in other parts of the country we're wrestling with the issues of snow on the A9 and M74. 'And we also will, I suspect, be dealing with a bit of flooding on some of the river systems in Scotland but mainly on agricultural land. 'I think it's important to remember that this is weather which is characteristic of winter weather in Scotland and what's important is that we take the necessary steps to prepare for it. 'That involves the public authorities preparing for it but also members of the public being aware of the circumstances as well.'
Around the globe: This map from wave experts Magic Seaweed shows how the biggest swells in the world are currently off Oban in Scotland