The shape of British summers to come?

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/aug/08/shape-of-british-summers-to-come?intcmp=122


Spectators at this year’s Wimbledon men’s final enjoy what is shaping up to be a typical English afternoon in July Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Seeing satellite pictures from Greenland last month, scientists from Nasa at first couldn't believe what the data was telling them. About 97% of the Greenland ice sheet was melting. The rate was unprecedented, with the thaw more widespread than ever as unseasonally warm weather across the Arctic took effect.

"It was so extraordinary that at first I questioned the result: was this real or was it due to a data error?" wondered Son Nghiem, one of the scientists responsible for the research at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. In a normal summer, some melting is observed over about half the island's surface area. This new data – from three satellites – raised serious concerns over the progress of global warming and the likely consequences.

For scientists at the Met Office's world-renowned Hadley research centre in Exeter, the question was not just how fast Greenland was melting, but something much trickier. They have been crunching through years of data from dozens of satellites, trying to establish whether the conditions in the Arctic circle are related to the record-breaking washout of a summer in the UK.

[dipsydoodle]

1. Jet steam was peaked , instead of lateral , making it too far south for this time of the year.

Result was that Spain was too hot and the UK and Holland wet. Soon as it started to correct we both had a heat wave.

Suppose it depends on whether that repeats.