Weather in Europe 2021 - up

[Mark]

France is in a heatwave this week. Nobody is pretending otherwise.

Météo-France says an intense, durable canicule is underway, with more than 40C (104F) in parts of central and western France and local highs of 41C to 42C (105.8F to 107.6F). This is serious heat.

But the mechanism is not mysterious. The Met Office describes a strong high-pressure system over western Europe, with sinking air suppressing cloud, allowing prolonged sunshine, and raising temperatures through compressional heating. That is weather. That is how European heatwaves form.

And while western Europe receives the heat headlines, ignored are the larger cool anomalies covering the north and east:


Also, Europe has paved itself.

The EEA says the surface area of EU cities has increased 78% since the mid-1950s. From 1990 to 2006, EU settlement areas increased by 9%. From 2000 to 2018, artificial surfaces such as buildings and roads increased by more than 6%. The EEA calls this “soil sealing”: land covered by concrete, asphalt, buildings, roads, car parks and other hard surfaces.
https://electroverse.substack.com/p/europes-asphalt-summer-cool-anomalies

[Mark]

The Danube and other rivers in Europe are experiencing historic drought conditions which have thrown shipping, tourism and energy supply into disarray. Additionally, the sinking water levels that have set new all-time records in some locations have revealed historic finds from World War II to Roman times and even the Ice Age.

At the end of last month, 200 cruise passengers had to be evacuated when a Viking line river cruise ship ran aground near Vidin, Bulgaria. As of early August, cruise lines on the Danube, the Rhine and the Main are still disrupted, with itineraries being adjusted or canceled outright. Not only tourism industries are suffering from the drought, however. Critical energy infrastructure, agriculture and food supply routes are also in distress as the Danube provides irrigation to farmers and cooling to power plants. On August 3, Romanian authorities carried out a controlled explosion to divert water flow towards the country's only nuclear plant after it already had to shut down one of its two reactors in late July due to water shortages, leading to the declaration of a state of emergency. Last Thursday, it also sank four rock-laden barges in a similar plight. However, the shutdown of the second reactor on Thursday remains a possibility. A Hungarian nuclear plant which was powered down due to the low water levels is meanwhile expected to resume operations.
https://www.sott.net/article/507895-Water-levels-in-Danube-River-sink-to-historic-lows

[Mark]

Western Europe is on course to close summer chilly.

The latest GFS AI run has the Aug 20-30 period broadly colder across much of Europe, particularly the west, with the deepest anomalies over Iberia, France, the UK and Scandinavia.

Much of this summer’s heat was driven by persistent blocking highs, which suppressed Atlantic systems, promoted sinking dry air and sunshine, and repeatedly pulled hot air north from North Africa and Iberia.

Now the pattern is reversing.

The ridge is retreating and a trough is digging into western and northern Europe, opening the door to cooler Atlantic and polar air.
https://electroverse.substack.com/p/europes-late-summer-cooldown-uk-rainfall

[Mark]

Western Europe’s Heat Breaks
Western Europe’s “climate crisis” is collapsing. Atlantic air is seen sweeping east, with France’s national temperature forecast to drop below normal by Friday. The circulation has flipped. The “emergency” is over.

Daytime highs will fall below 19C (66F) from Brittany toward the Benelux. Even the Mediterranean coast sharply retreats.

For much of the summer, persistent high pressure repeatedly blocked Atlantic systems, allowing dry soils, strong sunshine and warm southerly flows to reinforce one another—again and again. That configuration has now broken down, and cooler maritime air can now push east while lower pressure and a more southerly storm
https://electroverse.substack.com/p/western-europes-heat-breaks-dutch

[Mark]

The late-August cooldown is not confined to the Iberian Peninsula. Well-below-average temperatures have also spread across eastern Europe and western Russia, bringing an early taste of autumn—and a 49-year cold record in Ukraine.

Following thermometers running as much as 15C below average across Portugal and Spain, a broad cool pool has also developed to the east. Across the likes of Belarus, Ukraine and into European Russia, temperatures have well-below late-August norms.

Minsk averaged more than 3C below normal throughout the week, with minimums falling to 7C (44.6F). In neighboring Ukraine, Chernihiv dropped to 6C (42.8F) on Aug. 25, breaking the city’s daily record low of 6.6C (43.9F) set in 1977.

The chill extends deep into Russia, with the Volga region running 5C below the climatic norm. Farther north, the transition is sharper still. Russian authorities are warning of frosts to -3C (26.6F) across Murmansk and Karelia on Aug 28–29.

Despite the catastrophizing headlines this summer, parts of Europe are enduring early tastes of autumn.
https://electroverse.substack.com/p/cold-anomalies-bookend-europe-ten

[Mark]

25/8/26
A tornado has torn through the village of Pomas in south-west France, injuring 39 people and damaging hundreds of homes.

Authorities said 15 people were taken to hospital and two were in a critical condition. One man said his pregnant wife was injured after their house collapsed on her.

More than 120 emergency workers were deployed to the village south of Carcassonne after winds reaching 117km/h (73mph) tore roofs off houses and damaged an estimated 300 homes on Monday.

"Half the village has been destroyed," said one resident called Pierre, who described the tornado as swirling like a "huge red and yellow chimney".

"There's a huge castle and a third of it is has collapsed - even though these are stones that have stood for 1,000 years," Pierre told Ici Occitanie.
https://www.sott.net/article/508077-Tornado-tears-through-French-village-leaving-dozens-hurt-and-homes-ravaged

https://twitter.com/i/status/2091922283434492405