Suffering from a record-shattering drought, European nations started preparing emergency plans this week to conserve water and provide millions of euros in aid to farmers, including the deployment of soldiers to deliver hay for cattle grazing on sun-baked soil.
On Thursday, President Nicolas Sarkozy toured a cattle farm in western France to announce an aid package and the service of soldiers and national trains to deliver fodder for livestock farmers. They are comparing the warm temperatures to the heat wave in the summer of 2003, when more than 10,000 people died in Europe.
Friday, June 10, 2011
PBP 2011: Weather More Like Heat Wave of 2003?
Sure, it's a little early to start speculating about what kind of weather we'll see at PBP this year. However, it appears Europe is experiencing a weather pattern this summer that is more akin to the record heat wave of 2003 than the rainy days of 2007. From today's NYT:
A few weeks before the event in 2003 we were looking at weather reports from Brest regularly showing a high temperature of 90F, which is unbelievably hot for a coastal town jutting out into the Atlantic. Right now the 10 day weather forecast for Brest shows a much more typical temperature range of 60-65F and frequent showery weather, so at present the area is not gripped in a heat wave. That could change of course, so it will be worth keeping on eye on area weather reports.
ReplyDeleteIan