Drought adds to Portugal’s economic woes

After Portugal’s driest February in 80 years, farmers are praying for a miracle as drought ravages pastures and sparks forest fires, exacerbating the country’s economic crisis. Worse still, official forecasters expect the freak weather pattern to prevail at least through the end of March, which would worsen a drought now classified as severe and extreme

Warm winter: Putting it all together

It looks like this is a good time to finish our look at the different weather patterns that have been affecting our weather this winter, because the weather pattern that has been dominating for most of the fall and winter appears to be undergoing a shift. In the last article we continued our look at


La Niña seen fading between March and May

La Niña, a weather phenomenon usually linked to heavy rains and flooding in Asia-Pacific and South America and drought in Africa, seems to have reached its peak and is expected to fade between March and May, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Feb. 10. A weak to moderate La Niña pattern has cooled the tropical

Weaker sun will not delay global warming

London/ Reuters / A weaker sun over the next 90 years is not likely to significantly delay a rise in global temperature caused by greenhouse gases, a report said Jan. 23. The study, by Britain’s Meteorological Office and the University of Reading, found that the sun’s output would decrease up until 2100 but this would


Semi-permanent highs and lows

By the time you read this article it will already be February and you will probably be expecting the usual monthly weather summary and looking forward to seeing what the long-range forecasts call for in the next month. Unfortunately, because I write these articles in advance to meet publishing deadlines, the long-range outlook will have

A positive oscillation and record-setting warmth

Iknow in the last issue I said I’d do a recap of last year’s weather both local and globally, but sometimes Mother Nature has her own ideas and I have no choice but to follow her lead. So you’ll have to wait another week or two for the recap of last year’s weather. The main


Making Money From Muck

Nearly 700 Australian piggeries could benefit from the new rules that set out how farmers can capture, measure and destroy methane from pig waste. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and is 21 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Under the domestic offset scheme called the Carbon Farming Initiative,

Record-Low Ice Volume In Arctic

With beautiful fall weather firmly in place across pretty much all of Western Canada, the question for me is, exactly what should I discuss in this week s weather article? We ve already discussed just what Indian summer is, we have taken a look back at the summer of 2011, and we ve looked ahead


Drought Intensifies In U.S. South, No End In Sight

Record-breaking triple-digit temperatures were prolonging a devastating drought that has been baking the U.S. South and the dry spell could extend into next year and beyond, climate experts said last Thursday. Just when you thought it couldn t get any worse… we are seeing expansion of this drought. This drought will continue to persist and

Weekly weather map – for Sep. 15, 2011

The Weather Vane is prepared by Daniel Bezte, a teacher by profession with a BA (Hon.) in geography, specializing in climatology, from the University of Winnipeg. Daniel has taught university-level classes in climate and weather and currently operates a computerized weather station at his home near Birds Hill Park, on 10 acres he plans to