Unthreaded
still amused by the 'heatwave' coverage, this time in the guardian. Do we really issue advisories not to go out 11-4 when 33C is forecast. Do we ban people going to the med in summer. I'm sitting outside a greyhound station now at about 32C thinking it seems quite cool today.
" Gravesend in Kent has historically been, quite literally, a hotspot for record-breaking temperatures.
That’s because Broadness - where the temperatures are measured - has sandy soil, rather than the clay soil nearby. By its nature, it heats up more than other soils, and the weather station is sheltered by an embankment."
More seriously what is the -ve adjustment to the official temperature records for this known effect.

Review of BMW Hybrid X5
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/bmw/x5/xdrive40e/
Offical EU combined fuel consumption figure of 86.5mpg.
In reality, BMW reckons that during a 37-mile commute on a mix of roads you should achieve “no worse” than 43.5mpg.
And the test got, wait for it
On the test route, featuring city and motorway driving, the X5 managed a somewhat disappointing 32mpg
And the killer statement, 43.5mpg In other words, about what a diesel X5 40d might achieve with less complication.
So 32 mpg is worse than a std Diesel X5 and its 77g/km CO2 emissions fail to qualify it either for the government’s low-emission vehicle grant, or exemption from the London congestion charge, and it does not make the lowest 5 per cent rate for company car tax.

Dung
Did they say which runway? No 3 by any chance?

Met Office has just announced that today is the warmest July day in recorded history.... OMG, OMG, OMG!
The temp was recorded at Heathrow hehe

@SandyS who ? Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC)
could be just a one man band using a ..big official sounding name
Yep that's about it ..not that mediamatters itself is that much different

Via IceAgeNow
Effective immediately, the Space and Science Research Corporation (SSRC), a leader in climate prediction, has dropped the US government's ground based global temperature data from its list of reliable sources.
http://www.spaceandscience.net/id16.html
Topically via the same source (dates back to May)
Cold weather is 20 times as deadly as hot weather, and it's not the extreme low or high temperatures that cause the most deaths, according to a study published Wednesday.The study found the majority of deaths occurred on moderately hot and moderately cold days instead of during extreme temperatures.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2015/05/20/cold-weather-deaths/27657269/

@Ross Lea
I think you dramatically underestimate the quantity and quality hubris involved in local politics.... Stealing from another blogger - they have their heads so far up their own a***s they can suck their own gall bladders.
As I've said elsewhere - the removal of surcharge as a sanction for naughtiness in local government was a deeply retrograde step ... imho....
ps If I was Francis Egan I would be looking at a civil action and exploring the possibility of deploying tactics like those written up in this piece.... (biter bit or something like that)

Fracking.
As I under stand it if Cuadrilla appeal they have a very good chance of success as they went against the advice of their own planning officers and more importantly the advice of their own QC. It will probably cost LCC and the rate payers a shed load of cash. They most have known that so their refusal seem bonkers.

I'm generally a fan of the BBC, in that I would miss R4 and some of their drama, but they are increasingly hard to defend on news and technical matters. They've even managed to bugger up the evening tennis review on BBC2 - their chosen hashtag 'wimbledon2day' tells you all you need to know, and if you call that up on Twitter you will see some delicious crticism, including unfavourable comparisons to W1A ("it's a satire, not an instruction manual").
I heard that licence fee defectors have upset their financial forecasts, but they don't seem to have joined the dots yet...

I live not far away from Heathrow, and let me tell you it's utter climate carnage going on out there!
People are wandering around dazed in shorts and sunglasses, children are desperately resorting to licking ice creams.
In fact I can hear an ice cream van now in the distance, it's like some terrible harbinger of extreme weather meltdown and planetary crisis.
The local swimming pool is packed with climate refugees, who have abandoned their outdoor clothing and flung themselves into the water, splashing up and down in the lanes to stay alive.
Sweet Gaia, when will this end? Will we survive beyond teatime, etc.? :-)