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Sunday 2 October 2011

BBC on Indian summers



In this piece from its News Magazine, the BBC seems to be hedging its bets on the significance of unusual weather such as the current heatwave in parts of the UK. No suggestion of climate alarm. Maybe another cold winter is expected? Extracts reproduced below.

Autumn heatwaves are often referred to as "Indian summers", but what does the term actually mean? Meteorologist Philip Eden explains.

Something strange has been happening to the way we perceive our climate over recent years.

Nowadays, when we get a bout of unusual weather, we ask what has gone wrong. There seems to be a growing disconnection between Brits and their very own climate.

But most spells of unusual weather are simply that - unusual. They have happened before and they will happen again.

One or two date records may have been broken during this spell, but date records are relatively easy to break. Taking a rather broader view, highs of 27-29C (80.6-84.2F) have happened before in late September.


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