Wednesday 30 December 2015

winter warmth



The weather is continuing unseasonably mild. I took the photograph of these daffodils on Christmas morning, blooming near the village Christmas tree!

Yesterday I found the first snowdrop in the garden


and there are new shoots on the Elder bush.


The hedges are full of honeysuckle shoots, it feels more like spring than December.


There was a slow-worm basking in the sunshine in the road. It was wide awake and slithered away as I got close to photograph it. Slow-worms usually hibernate between October and March.



Further along there were celandines 


and the first violet. During mild winters a few flowers appear early in the season but there are so many "signs of spring" here tis year. Flowers that I look for through January have already appeared.


In England this has been the warmest December since records began. With a mean temperature of 9.5ºC, it is 5º warmer than the average and 2ºC warmer than the previous record set in 1934.

This article in today's Guardian explains why warmer temperatures lead to increased rainfall with the devastating consequences seen in this country and abroad. Meteorologists tell us that individual events do not indicate climate change but it seems to me that the many changes occurring at the same time in different parts of the world point towards a shift in the world climate.

Storm "Frank" has reached the UK today bringing more misery to many parts of the country and with the possibility that it will cause major changes to temperatures over the North Atlantic.

3 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Yea that doesn't look like winter! It's been interesting while traveling to talk to so many other individuals who are openly talking about how climate change is impacting their countries, yet here in the US it's still such a "sweep it under the rug" topic....but not one we can continue to avoid...especially when we contribute so much to the problem. Last winter was incredibly mild here with limited rainfall which led to drought and low rivers/fish habitat this last summer. This year the mountain has been bombarded with fresh snowfall....

willow said...

Hi, Elizabeth,
I am noticing more people talking about climate change here especially after the bouts of flooding we have had in parts of the country over the past few weeks. One such event might be accepted as part of the weather variation since we always have good and bad winters but with large scale flooding happening more frequently, climate change seems to be in the news again. The prediction is for climate change to lead to warmer wetter winters in the UK and we have had a few of those recently.

rusty duck said...

One of the positive aspects of blogging is the widening of our experience through contact with people from all over the world. The fact that weather disruption is occurring everywhere does seem to point to something fundamental going on.
I heard a blackbird singing yesterday.. that on top of the daffodils really does make it feel like Spring.