Is the UK hot right now?

Thanks to Ed Hawkins for the link to this website via LinkedIn.

He explains all about the website here in this blog post. 

Every hour a global set of automatic weather stations openly report temperature and other weather measurements - these are called ‘synops’. For the UK, you can now see the latest temperature observations in the context of the past few decades.

What is 'normal’? For this website we use the temperature observed at the same time of day and time of year, averaged over the 1991-2020 period, as ‘normal’. We would love to use a time period that was longer ago, but the hourly observations required were not taken in enough places. Nevertheless, this tool allows anyone to see how hot (or cold) it currently is near where they live, relative to recent experience.

Is the UK hotter than normal at the moment?

Site built by Dan Harris, supported by Co-Centre for Climate + Biodiversity + Water.

RMetS Heatwaves Scheme

The Royal Meteorological Society has been working with the Young People's Trust for the Environment on a new 4 lesson scheme of work about Heatwaves. This is timely given the first amber alert which has been announced for the southern half of the UK this coming weekend and into next week.

Heatwaves are now being graded on a four point scale. This is part of the Heat Health Alert Service.

Details are here.

All of the materials are available to download from the RMetS website

This package of lesson plans consists of 4 lessons:

Lesson 1: What are heatwaves?
Lesson 2: Why are heatwaves dangerous?
Lesson 3: How can schools prepare for a heatwave?
Lesson 4: What is your school like during a heatwave and how could it be improved?

By the end, students should be able to show which places in the school are most affected by extreme heat, understand what measures could be put in place to reduce the impact of extreme heat and be able to present their learning and research.

The lessons have been designed to support learners in Key Stage 2 (or equivalent) with understanding more about heatwaves, the reasons why we are likely to face more of them in the future and some steps that schools can take to protect young people during these events. 

The lessons can be adapted to suit other age groups by modifying the information given in the linked notes.

Fun in the Sun?

I have been collecting imagery of the days when temperature records were broken and have started to put together a Pinterest board of imagery. This will be used in the Michaelmas term when we explore the geography that happened this summer.

One of the most interesting aspects of the media coverage has been the slight shift in narrative. 

This followed the fires in a number of locations during the worst of the heat at the start of last week. 

There has been plenty of information on this in the media.

Download a copy of the Saffron O' Neill paper that I have mentioned a number of times in previous blog posts here. It is an accessible read and will be referred to in my teaching in the new academic year.

Bill McGuire on our near futures

An important and powerful piece was published in yesterday's 'The Guardian' newspaper.

It was written by Bill McGuire, who is professor emeritus of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL and a climate activist.

It was written ahead of today's record temperature being reached, with over 40 degrees C at Heathrow Airport by midday.

There are many impacts outlined here which we have been teaching about in geography for many years.

Progressive climate breakdown will affect everyone and insinuate itself into every aspect of our lives. Transport and energy infrastructure will succumb repeatedly to the onslaught of extreme weather, making otherwise straightforward journeys increasingly problematical, and power outages a normal part of daily life.

I am all too aware of this particular impact, as travel issues meant that I was unable to get to Paris for IGU this week, with Eurostar sold out or too expensive. The train I was due to catch took 6 hours eventually to make a two hour journey...

The hottest places to live #1

This BBC article looks at people living in the hottest parts of the country.

This is defined by a data set which is called the Heat Hazard Score.

They are made for the OS by a company called 4 Earth Intelligence.

The potential heat hazard score for small geographical areas - known as a Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LSOA) - was calculated by 4 Earth Intelligence, who measured the average land surface temperature over a sample of days in the past three summers across Great Britain.

Deprivation data was taken from the latest English, Scottish and Welsh Indices of multiple deprivation (IMD). Each IMD is the nation's official measure of relative deprivation, or poverty, and is weighted heavily towards income, employment, education, and health.

The scores range from one to five, and provide an indicator of how likely it is that an area will experience high temperatures during hot weather, when compared with other areas in the surrounding neighbourhood.

As the BBC article explains, there are certain things factored into the calculation, such as the presence of water and vegetation.

A statistical method was used to standardise land surface temperatures, which involved combining satellite images for different dates over the past three years. The temperature data was then adjusted to consider the different average temperatures of each region, to highlight hotter areas across the country, while accounting for varying climates. Five is the highest score.

Normalising the temperatures of each region before calculating the score means the data highlights hotter areas in different parts of the country, despite having different climates.

This ONS report, one of several which were produced during COVID, explained that one in eight houses has no garden. This means no opportunity for shaded outside space...

It would be great to have a subset of data available for educational purposes, perhaps for a city such as Leeds which has a river and parks, and is also an OCR A/B Case Study city.

They're hotter...

BBC News.

Heatwave 2022

We will start the year with a look at this event, so keep an eye out for impacts if you were still in the UK at the time...

⛔️ Do not travel on Great Northern routes tomorrow, there will be NO service between:

•Peterborough and London Kings Cross / St Pancras
•Kings Lynn, Cambridge and London Kings Cross / St Pancras
•Welwyn Garden City and Moorgate
•Stevenage and Moorgate

— Great Northern (@GNRailUK) July 18, 2022

Feeling hot...

London can be upto 9 C hotter than the surrounding countryside during a #heatwaveuk 🌡

During the 2003 #heatwave over 70,000 elderly people ⚰ died in Europe due to excessive night time temperatures 🌡

July 2019 could break UK hottest temperature records #ClimateChange pic.twitter.com/71dlBUz05I

— Mark Maslin (@ProfMarkMaslin) July 25, 2019

More to come on this in the new Michaelmas term, with a brand new unit to get us started in Year 7 and 8.