Daffodils bloom across UK during unseasonal December weather

[riversedge]

Source: the guardian



Flowers usually more associated with Easter than Christmas seen around the country in a week of above-average seasonal temperatures

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Daffodils in bloom at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, east London. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

Nicola Slawson

Last modified on Thursday 17 December 2015 09.32 EST


Unseasonably warm weather across the UK has seen daffodils begin to bloom as far north as Chester and Northern Ireland, as forecasters reported one of the mildest starts to the month of December in over 50 years.
..........................


Greg Dewhurst, a forecaster from the Met Office, said: “The weather pattern has brought low pressure after low pressure, with mild conditions from the south. We would normally expect a variation in the wind direction at this time of year, with wind from the north bringing high pressure and leading to overnight frosts and fog. But because it has been so mild, windy and cloudy it has not allowed for colder weather to settle in.”

Guy Barter, the chief horticultural adviser at the Royal Horticultural Society, told the Telegraph that it was the earliest he can recall seeing daffodils in bloom. “I have always scoffed at the idea of flowers before Christmas but I will have to eat my words,” he said. “We are in unknown territory in many ways. What consequence it will have, we don’t know.”

He explained: “Daffodils have a mechanism to sense temperature and after a defined period of cold (generally about 2-10C) they are triggered to flower, and they will then flower according to ambient temperature.”..............

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/16/daffodils-england-northern-ireland-unseasonal-december-weather?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco

[elleng]

1. AND, in southern Maryland:

[haikugal]

19. Beautiful...a Christmas rose in Maryland...who would have expected that?

They are beautiful elleng.

[elleng]

20. Pleasantly surprised,

but this bush is quite prolific late in the season, similar last year but not QUITE this late!

[haikugal]

2. This is getting scary..

I'm in south central PA near Gettysburg and it's raining and mild today. It feels like winter in Sacramento CA not the north east. Why do I feel like we're going to get hammered in Jan and Feb?? If we don't I will really be worried.

[B2G]

3. You most likely will get hammered

Strong El Nino years typically means a milder than normal December.

I expect that will change moving into January.

[haikugal]

6. I hope it's snow and not rain...

We would flood, the ground is saturated. The grass is growing! The bugs are flying...

[yallerdawg]

4. This topsy-turvy weather is changing our agricultural cycles and regions.

Should we start building pyramids to store our grain for the famine periods?

Dr. Carson, Republican presidential candidate. Another Republican strategy for the non-existent global warming.

[Johnny2X2X]

5. Not proof of Global Warming!

Regional weather events are not proof of Global Warming any more than they prove Global Warming is not real. When the US has an unusually cold and severe Winter you have all the deniers claiming that's proof that Global Warming is a hoax. Don't make the same mistakes.

Global Warming is a proven fact, it's proven by Global trends and data, not by what you see outside your window right now and not by a single severe weather event or even regional weather patterns.

[haikugal]

8. But it isn't just outside my window..

It's beyond regional...have you checked out the airstream? It's way north of where it normally is..

From NOAA

A very mild weather pattern by December standards has engulfed a large swath of the Lower 48 states, setting thousands of daily record highs and record-warm lows. The warmth has been so incredible that several cities in the Midwest and Northeast have set daily record highs during the middle of the night or the early morning hours, and several locations have broken all-time highs for the entire month of December.

According to preliminary data from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), at least 2,348 record daily highs were tied or broken across the U.S. during the first 15 days of December, representing almost 6 percent of the roughly 40,000 daily high-temperature reports received from more than 3,000 locations. In addition, at least 3,260 record-warm daily lows have occurred.

By comparison, just 93 daily record lows and another 95 daily record cold daily highs were set in the same time frame, most of which were on or before Dec. 5.

Yes it's "The Blob" in the Pacific that has been building for some time now...affecting the entire ocean and us. Hope it ends and doesn't just build up again.

[B2G]

10. Strong El Nino. nt

[haikugal]

23. Strongest ever...extremely warm ocean, red tides, fish kills etc. nt

[riversedge]

15. The sap is flowing from maple trees in WI--and buds on the trees. Been raining

for several days here. Usually this time year the ice is thick enough to drive a truck or car on a lake to ice fish. Strange. --oh, and thunder storms woke me up the night before last. strange.

[Johnny2X2X]

16. El Nino

The US is having a warm December, but other parts of the world are having record cold Decembers, what's important though is that the globe as a whole endured the hottest year on record and the last 3 have been the 3 warmest years in modern history. Saying it's warm in the US this December thus Global Warming is proven is just as stupid as saying it was disproved with the unusually severe Winter the US had 2 years ago.

There are two sides to this debate, one side is the side of science and reason, the other side is the side of myth and hyperbole, I'd prefer we not mix the two.

Fun fact of the day: The US takes up less than 2% of the surface of the Earth.

[haikugal]

18. I agree, let's not mix them up.

However this is what has been predicted by the scientists. Weather chaos. The oceans are warming.

[Johnny2X2X]

21. Agree

There will be more severe weather events, but sounding the alarm because flowers are going somewhere is silly and is the type of thing you see the other way from FOX News.

[haikugal]

22. This is unprecedented and a worthy topic.

No one here is disputing climate change. Nor is anyone making claims. We are remarking on what is going on...look at the links from England. They are being hammered.

This is notable.

[Johnny2X2X]

31. Not a worthy topic

It's exactly the type of topic FOX NEWS would run! "Hey, everyone look at this one thing, it proves our view about something much bigger and much more complicated."

The next cold snap we have in the US watch FOX News and they'll be running with it as proof that Climate Change is a hoax, what's the difference between that and this when the evidence is not so easily encapsulated.

[NickB79]

30. Where in the world are they having a record cold December?

The US is having a warm December, but other parts of the world are having record cold Decembers

[yellowcanine]

13. No but more frequent and stronger El nino events might be

associated with global warming.

[forest444]

7. Better daffodils than giant rats

The other side of the coin for recent freak U.K. phenomena related to global warming.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uk-weather-super-mutant-rats-2998844

[haikugal]

9. Wow...

A joke about the number of terriers in Britton come to mind. I won't make light of their difficulties. Super rats immune to conventional poisons, great...that's just great.

[forest444]

11. I hear you.

I love dogs; but the pesky little ankle biters (almost all, terriers) really push my buttons sometimes.

[haikugal]

14. I know what you mean..

I have one and they are tremendous hunters and don't quit...and they do bite, little buggers.

Never had a small dog before this guy was given to me...never had a dog that would bite before, unless it needed to in protection.

He would love getting after a rat.

[forest444]

24. Is that right?

Never knew they were good mousers - although it makes perfect sense, with as much energy and tenacity as those little dogs have.

I once had a neighbor with the feistiest pug you've ever seen. She also had two very large Rottweilers, and guess who was the boss!

You should have seen him! He looked like a canine Al Capone with the two big goons behind him! It was adorable.

"You talkin' to me!"

[haikugal]

25. Yep...that's the stance he takes at the dog park.

Then if the other dogs want to play he just curls one side of his lip and they get the message. No growl just the stance and lip curl. LOL he's Boston Terrier and Minpin...it's the Minpin part that nips.

Terriers were bred to hunt vermin...

Too funny. I had a Rottie, lovely dog.

[forest444]

26. Dogs really do make a home.

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. That didn't say 'giant'; they justified 'super' and 'mutant' because of evolved resistance to poison

It was normal tabloid hyperbole. They didn't bother describing which poison or poisons they were talking about.

[forest444]

28. They were referring to the 2012 "Ratzilla" scare triggered by major floods that year.

I believe the British health authorities were able to get them under control though.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3102460/Invasion-of-the-giant-rats-in-Bradford.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. No, they weren't; please read the article before linking to it

It was a 2014 article, and it explicitly said it was about resistance to poison. Citing The Sun just destroys the credibility of your claim more.

[forest444]

32. The point is that record flooding - linked to global warming - has been causing these infestations.

To wit:

Householders in areas battered by the recent storms are reporting rats invading their homes to escape the floods.

Home owners living in flooded areas are facing infestations of super rats.

The army of rodents, which are immune to most poisons, have started to plague homes because the countryside is submerged under water. The desperate creatures are clambering up drainpipes or squeezing through cracks in masonry to build nests in lofts.

It is feared the rats could spread a number of diseases including Weil’s disease and Salmonella.

One resident in the village of Inkpen, Berkshire, told today how rats have sneaked into the roof of her cottage in the last few days following almost two weeks of rain.

Their size and/or immunity to poison is secondary (even so, some of those were big critters).

[muriel_volestrangler]

33. The point is you made up the 'giant' bit

Yes, rats, when faced with drowning, move. This is hardly surprising. And it's not a big concern, compared with global warming in general.

[forest444]

34. You know, there is such as a thing as Google.

It wouldn't hurt you to try it before impugning others' integrity.

That story (Brandon Goddard's giant rat in Bradford, England) was widely publicized at the time. Nor are they limited to southern England during floods; they have in fact been found in very rainy areas in all continents (although of course more so in colder climates).

Global warming is causing extremely rainy weather in an already rainy country; the rats - including the giant ones - are just another consequence of that.

[muriel_volestrangler]

35. Well, yes; and Google showed that no-one else saw the 'giant rats'

and that experts thought it was probably one escaped coypu.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bradford-west-yorkshire-11023045
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/sep/19/in-search-of-giant-rat

As I said, you do your credibility no good by relying on The Sun for your stories.

Your problem with integrity is that you claimed a 2014 Mirror story was connected with a dubious 2010 Sun story (which you placed in 2012 for no apparent reason).

Bradford's in northern England, by the way.

[forest444]

36. They did. You seem obsessed with rats, Muriel.

The point was that global warming is linked to record flooding in England over the last few years. Rats - giant or not - were secondary to the point.

[muriel_volestrangler]

37. Oh yes, I was the one who brought 'giant rats' into the thread about global warming

Oh, wait a moment, I wasn't. That was you.

[ffr]

12. Crazy U.K. weather shown online

Last week it was bitter cold. Yesterday it was warmer than June-like temps. Today it's Blood Rain.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/626393/Britain-weather-snow-torrential-rain-gales-forecast-Christmas?_ga=1.236643969.1221628231.1450372528

[haikugal]

17. Wow, I didn't know you guys were having such a rough go of it.

I don't watch tv so I missed it.

Thanks to both of you for the links.

I hope people get the help they need and everyone stays safe. I feel for the animals as well, nothing worse for a sheep, for instance, than a flood. They can't swim with wet wool.

Thanks again!