UKC

http://news.sky.com/story/massive-fire-breaks-out-on-saddleworth-moor-11649...

Oh no.  

I've just woken up after some quite disturbing nightmares to this news.  

Let's hope this can be gotten under control quickly

It sounds devastating .

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

I think that's 4 fires being reported on the BBC nationwide. If its like this at the end of winter what problems will we be looking at come summer?

In reply to Jenny C:

The country will look like something from the Desolation of Smaug.

In reply to Jenny C:

Dry spring is surprisingly high risk for fires. No fresh green wet growth, masses of dead dry material that hasn't rotted down. So they aren't really an indicator of the summer ahead. Give it two months, the UK will be green everywhere and perhaps up to its waist in flood water! 

In reply to Jenny C:

Maybe this is the summer

In reply to Andy Johnson:

Indeed - we could well be starting to see the effects of climate change, causing breakdown of the traditional seasons. Been predicted since way back when. Obviously one year isn't really long enough to measure changes to climate, but we could look back in 10-15 years time and point at 2018/19 as when shit really began to hit the proverbial fan.

(Not to say it won't get warm and sunny again this year!)

In reply to Jenny C:

Arthurs Seat was also on fire - being a volcanic plug it gave an insight into how it would have looked when still a volcano

All fires out now thankfully.

In reply to ianstevens:

I agree, it's very worrying. On one hand, the weather is not the climate and it's a mistake to think they are the same thing. But globally, 16 of the 17 warmest years on record have occurred in the last 18 years. I think thats a fairly clear warning of what could be in store for us.

In reply to ianstevens:

apropos of nothing much really, I recall that this week in 2018 was when a lot of England was snowbound and many people were unable to get to work etc. (Facebook memories popped something up about my hire car which was annoyingly good in snow and ice and gave me no excuse to not do a load of customer travel that I didn't want to do )

In reply to Blue Straggler:

Like I said, its one extreme example (you outline another) so doesn't allow us to claim it as climate change, as many seem to be doing in the press and social media. In 10 years time, that may of course be different - or it may just be looked back on as an exceptional year, like 1998.

In reply to Chive Talkin\':Isn't the prediction for increasing, and increasingly common extremes of weather?

In reply to wbo:

Yes . 

However climate change doesn't exist according to dictator Tango and his Umpa Lumpa's.

In reply to wbo:

Yes, but it's not like it's so hot that vegetation is spontaneously igniting.  I've not noticed any lightning either, so presumably this is deliberate. 

In reply to Andy Johnson:

In the same way that correlation is not causation.  One freak event doesn't prove anything by itself, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively, catch your eye and mouth "Oh my god, look at that!".

https://www.gocomics.com/sarahs-scribbles/2017/02/25

Patches of the grouse moors around Sheffield have been on fire too over the last few days, but I'm guessing that's just gamekeepers routinely doing their bit as 'custodians of the countryside' by burning a few acres of it to the ground.

In reply to Blue Straggler:

It is relevant.

Ian is absolutely right, it may or may not be part of a trend. What we can say is that these sorts of warm spells in Feb are  more likely than they would have been. We know from glacial retreats and other data that the Earth is warming, so we shouldn't be so surprised by this.

The odd week of snow from Jan to March is  normal, as a weather event it doesn't compare to the hottest winter day on record.

In reply to Dave Garnett:

Agree that it hasn't been either too hot or too dry for a fire like this to be natural at this time of year. It would also be interesting to know if there were any estates moor burning for grouse management too. It is the season for it after all.

Aye,

Davie

In reply to Mike Stretford:

Meanwhile across the pond we have had the longest and coldest sustained cold snap for many years.

https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/saskatchewan-will-have-to-wait-a...

In reply to DR:

There is no closed season for arsonists

In reply to Chive Talkin\':

Yet the gamekeepers where out muir burning this lunchtime above Dunford Bridge. FFS. Managed grouse moorland is a tinderbox. 

In reply to Tom Valentine:

This was my thoughts. It's half term down here in South Wales, so probably in other places too, and the good weather has lured the kids out to start lighting fires. Not saying that every kid lighting a fire is intending to set the whole place alight, but these things do get out of control.

In reply to Removed User:

And record breaking heatwaves in Oz.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-46886798

In reply to Removed User:

More on the Oz heat wave and climate change

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-42657234

'The climate system is incredibly complex and no weather event can be directly attributed to rising emissions, but everything that is experienced today happens in a world that is about one degree warmer than the long-term mean.'

^ That.

In reply to Removed UserDeleted bagger:

Yet according to the moorland association, grouse keepers have entered a voluntary ban on burning (to avoid it being forced on them). Still a surprising number of fires... who'd have thought they'd find a way around it...

In reply to summo:

How complacent.