By Paul Homewood
The Telegraph seem surprised that it is hot in summer!
France has taken the rare step of postponing end-of-secondary-school exams after this week’s heatwave – forecast to be the hottest on record for a month of June.
With temperatures due to climb to 40 degrees Celsius (104°F) and humidity levels making the heat feel closer to 47C, Le Brevet, a national diploma taken by 14-year-olds, will take place next week instead of this Thursday and Friday.
Jean-Michel Blanquer, the education minister, said the decision was taken to "guarantee the security of the pupils”. The timetable of the exams would otherwise remain unchanged, he added.
More than half of France has been placed under “orange alert” by Meteo France, the national weather forecaster.
Temperatures were already rising on Tuesday with 34C expected in Paris and 41C in Clermont-Ferrand and Lyon, but they are due to climb even higher on Thursday and Friday, reaching at least 37C in the French capital….
Climate data suggests heat waves in Europe are becoming more frequent, say scientists.
Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said "monthly heat records all over the globe occur five times as often today as they would in a stable climate".
"This increase in heat extremes is just as predicted by climate science as a consequence of global warming caused by the increasing greenhouse gases from burning coal, oil and gas," he told AP.
Note the fraudulent reference to humidity levels making the heat feel closer to 47C.
The forecast for Paris is for temperatures of 37C, but this is well below the all time record of 40.4C, set in 1948.
In the country as a whole, the record of 44C set as long ago as 1923 in Toulouse, and matched in 2003, is unlikely to be threatened.
But what about Rahmstorf’s about heat waves becoming more frequent?
Nantes has one of the longest running temperature datasets in France (and the longest on GISS).
While average summer temperatures are generally higher than they were a century ago, it is not evident that summers are actually peaking higher.
The hottest summer was in fact in 1976. Although last summer was one of the warmest on record, it was no hotter than in 1911.
https://data.giss.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gistemp/stdata_show_v3.cgi?id=615072220000&ds=5&dt=1
As for daily highs, they are clearly not rising at the top end of the scale.
And there is one more factor to consider. Nantes temperature station is based at the Bouguenais Airport there, close to the runway and airport buildings and car parks.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/homr/#ncdcstnid=30096100&tab=LOCATIONS
All of the temperatures reported during this heatwave will either be in the middle of city centres or at airports.
Despite that there is no evidence that this week’s weather will be in any way unprecedented or unusual.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
June 25, 2019 at 09:15AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 
Reblogged this on Climate- Science.
LikeLike