Twenty years ago, on this day, August 10, 2003, the UK recorded its highest temperature.
2003 – The highest temperature ever recorded in the United Kingdom – 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) in Kent, England. It is the first time the United Kingdom has recorded a temperature over 100 °F (38 °C). We had been warned,
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly xxxppm. As of 2023 it is 423ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was the UK heatwave and the European heatwave has proved then record 1000s of people are dying in Paris and hundreds more than you’d expect for that that time of year die in the UK. These are the sorts of events that are totally in line with what the climate models suggest. And yet, after some hand-wringing, we go back to sleep.
What I think we can learn from this is that extreme weather events don’t cause people to suddenly “wake up,” that people like the proverbial underlined frog, will sit in the saucepan, especially if we’re tied down.
What happened next
In 2022 another temperature record tumbled, with temperatures of over 40 degrees recorded. But it’s all just natural variations. Of course, it is,
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.