By Paul Homewood

From YAHOO News:

The UK is on course to experience the warmest and one of the wettest years since records began more than a century ago – sparking fears that future droughts and flash floods could cost lives. New figures published by the Met Office show the period from January to October this year has been the warmest since records began in 1910 while it has also been the second wettest. Unless November and December are extremely cold, 2014 will enter the record books as the hottest ever. Experts say the increase is the result of climate change and warn that it could place a burden on the NHS as Britons struggling to cope with predicted heatwaves end up in hospital. Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said the elderly and those with health problems are particularly at risk and could end up dying in the heat. He warned that as Britain warms up it will also grow wetter – raising the spectre of flash floods with could cost lives and cause billions of pounds of damage to households and businesses.

Only a paid propagandist for global warming could warn us of droughts, after such a wet spell!

As for Yahoo, I am not sure why a “warning” needs to be issued. Either way, both they and Ward miss the point totally. There have been no heatwaves; on the contrary it has been a very pleasant summer, ranking 15th warmest since 1910.

When the statistics come in later this month, we are likely to see premature winter deaths much lower than last year. Meanwhile, a mild winter has enabled everybody to save on energy costs.

But the biggest news story of the lot has been the fantastic news that agricultural yields and output have hit record highs, thanks to the mild, wet winter, early spring and sunny summer.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/05/hot-dry-weather-cereal-harvest-british-farmers

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/14/ideal-weather-brings-bumper-uk-apple-harvest

DEFRA have now published full, provisional statistics for this year’s harvest.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/362369/structure-2014-wheatbarleyproduction-10oct14.pdf

And they comment:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/364157/structure-jun2013prov-UK-16oct14.pdf

Wheat yields now stand at record high levels, recovering from low levels last year (cold spring) and 2012 (cold,damp summer).

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/structure-of-the-agricultural-industry-in-england-and-the-uk-at-june

All of this is excellent news for farmers, the nation and families who will benefit from lower prices.

Of course, none of this has the slightest to do with “climate change”. With three of the last four years being the coldest since 1996 in the UK, this year’s warm weather has been just that – weather.

No month this year has been the warmest on record. It is simply that nine out of ten months this year have been above average. As the Met Office say,

“Things like climate change you look at over a long period of time because we look at trends. So we can’t say it is warmer than other years because of climate change. It could just be natural variation”

But with the Met Office projecting milder, wetter winters and sunny, dry summers, it seems clear that climate change will bring significant benefits to the UK. Not that you will hear any of this from the “expert” Bob Ward!

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