LONDON - PANAS... PANAS...

dexa

Laporan dari London: Apabila cuaca keterlaluan
Daripada Zaharah Othman


BEBERAPA kawan pulang ke Malaysia pada cuti sekolah ini. Kata mereka: 揘ak balik Malaysialah, London panas sangat!"

Memang betul, London, malah seluruh Eropah panas. Julai tahun ini diisytiharkan bulan paling panas sejak tahun 1706! Begitulah berita yang disiarkan dalam kebanyakan akhbar di sini baru-baru ini. Belanda mempunyai rekod suhu bermula abad ke 18 dan antara yang tertua di dunia. Dua orang meninggal dunia di Belanda semasa satu acara sukan, apabila suhu menjangkau 36-37 darjah celsius

Kebanyakan negara di Eropah, laporan cuaca adalah sama - panas tak terhingga. Kawan-kawan yang bercuti di Perancis, Jerman juga menceritakan kepanasan yang belum pernah dialami sebelum ini.

Di Sweden ada kekurangan aiskrim, di Poland ada upacara sembahyang beramai-ramai untuk hujan mengakhiri panas perit ini. Di Perancis kebimbangan tragedi tahun 2003 berulang apabila kira-kira 15,000 warga tua meninggal dunia berikutan suhu yang teramat tinggi pada musim panas tahun berkenaan. Setakat ini sudah mencatat 64 kematian. Di Menara Eiffel, semburan air digunakan untuk menyejukkan pelancong yang kepanasan.

Di setiap stesen kereta api bawah tanah di London, penumpang dinasihatkan membawa bersama sebotol air. Suhu di dalam kereta api bawah tanah pernah menjangkau 56 darjah celsius dan beberapa kali kereta api tergendala dan berhenti di terowong selama beberapa jam. Di dalam bas juga begitu - suhu tersangatlah tinggi. Ketika suhu naik tinggi begitu juga kemarahan. Orang yang biasanya sabar dan dapat menahan kemarahan mula hilang sabar. Seorang pekerja berkolar putih baru-baru ini mengugut seorang penumpang kereta api kerana dia mahukan sebotol air. Agaknya semua orang terkejut dan tak berbuat apa-apa - termasuk mangsa yang kehilangan botol airnya.

Kipas buatan Malaysia, China dan Jepun menjadi kegemaran di kalangan para penumpang. Kalau tidak, kipas yang menggunakan bateri ataupun surat khabar pun mencukupi. Orang putih tak rupa putih lagi - mereka kemerahan sehingga ke kulit kepala. Nampak macam udang bakar.

Orang Inggeris memang suka bercakap mengenai cuaca. Dan cuaca yang luar biasa panasnya ini menjadi bahan percakapan di mana-mana saja. Di pejabat, dalam kenderaan, di kedai-kedai ketika beratur. Semua orang mempunyai pendapat yang sama. Britain tak boleh tangani perubahan cuaca yang keterlaluan. ketika musim sejuk, kalau salji turun lebat sikit, semua pengangkutan jalan raya dan kereta api tergendala. Alasannya, jenis salji yang agak luar biasa. Kenderaan tidak cukup lengkap untuk dipandu di jalan yang bersalji, tidak seperti di Amerika.

Datang pula musim luruh, kereta api tergendala lagi disebabkan daun yang luruh di atas landasan kereta api. Dedaun yang berlainan jenis agaknya.

Kebanyakan kenderaan di tanah Inggeris sini baru saja dilengkapkan dengan pendingin hawa. Hanya kereta baru serta kereta api baru saja yang ada kemudahan itu. Kereta api bawah tanah sudah terlalu lama beroperasi dan memakan belanja besar untuk memperbaharuinya dan melengkapkan semua kereta api itu dengan pendingin hawa. Jadi buat masa ini, penumpang terpaksalah sabar.

Begitu juga dengan pejabat. Tak banyak pejabat mempunyai pendingin hawa. Kipas elektrik kini menjadi rebutan.

Baru-baru ini, restoran dan kedai di pusat London terpaksa di tutup disebabkan bekalan elektrik tergendala. Pelanggan keluar dari restoran tanpa membayar kerana pesanan mereka belum siap disebabkan ketukar atau dapur elektrik yang tak boleh diguna. Kerugian dianggarkan 10 juta pound pada hari berkenaan.

Dengan kepanasan sebegini, masih lagi ada majikan tidak membenarkan pekerja datang ke pejabat tanpa tali leher atau kot. Ada pula yang terlalu selesa dan boleh pergi ke pejabat memakai seluar pendek saja. Pekebun pula diharamkan menyiram kebun mereka dan pencuci kereta yang menggunakan air banyak akan didenda.

Bagaimanapun Ogos sudah tiba dan begitu juga awan hitam yang menjanjikan hujan untuk mengakhiri hari panas ini. kemudian akan kedengaran pula rungutan hujan yang tak henti-henti pada musim panas yang sepatutnya panas.

palooza

teruk betul summer ni skarang
mesti lagi teruk in future
sedarlah cepat akibat global warming

Disebelah Barat, cerita tentang panas.  Disebelah Timur, cerita tentang angin taufan dan banjir.  Cerita dari Indonesia, gempa, tsunami dan gunung berapi... cerita dari Timur tengah pulak... cerita manusia yang tak berhati.  Emmm... kat Malaysia... syukur Alhamdulillah... harap ketenangan ini berpanjangan...

rudz

Originally posted by palooza at 11-8-2006 02:58 AM
teruk betul summer ni skarang
mesti lagi teruk in future
sedarlah cepat akibat global warming

emmm... factor global warming ke factor blocking anticyclone ????

*btw, oopppss  jgn tembak i dulu... teman faham kalau dah blocking tentulah anticyclone... teman cuma taruk aje... tak salah kan..kan... kan

clairekimberly

tapi my frend cakap laa..sebab dia study dkt uk kan..so uk still in europe rite?malaysia lagi panas more then summer dekat europe....dia cakap summer dekat sana walaupon panas..tapi tidak sepanas terik dekat malaysia sebab angin tu jadiakan dingin...kalau malam macam biasa je sejuk walaupon tak sesejuk winterlaa....org mereka tak biasa panas...so bila panas sikit mereka da speku...cuba datang malaysia ni bukan takat siang je malam pon panas

faraway

nasib baik summer sini masih berangin..
hari ni 16?
cam hari ni sure kena pakai jacket keluar rumah...

rudz

Originally posted by archilless at 12-8-2006 10:53 PM

tu summer biasa... skrg ni heat wave kan?
kat berita tu tulis sampai 37 celcius... Malaysia pun tak sampai tinggi mcm tu..

some places can...especially northern of peninsula...
btw, heat wave nie bukannya spjg summer.... serasa teman la (agak2 aje)... factor terpenting adalah blocking anticyclone dimana system nie block all of the wave from moving as normal (still moving but slow).. and this blocking factor can persist for more than 2 - 3 weeks

p/s.. blocking factor nie bukanlah yang menyebabkan heat wave tapi yg menyebabkan heat wave tu boleh maintain lebih dari 1 to 3 weeks.. (bila blocking habis... dia relaks sat... lepaih tu blocking terbentuk balik)

clairekimberly

tapi apa2 pon tu baru panas dunia.....ekekek...belum panas dlm sana nun....

rudz

Heat Wave in Europe:
The Mystery Unveiled

by Eduardo Ferreyra

Figure 3

The weak circulation also creates problems farther north. With strong circulation, depressions carrying rains generally travel through Great Britain and enter the European continent. With a weak circulation, instead, "blocking anticyclones" can settle in some regions deflecting rain carrying currents, causing droughts and heat waves, as happened in Great Britain during the summer of 1976 and the recent summer of 2003.
Anyone can try to predict the next 24 hour weather assuming the high pressure systems seen on the weather charts will move slightly to the east, carrying along dry and good weather, while the low pressures will flow around their flanks carrying rain and snow.

On occasions, however, for not too well understood reasons, a high pressure system remains "nailed" in some place. This is known as a "blocking anticyclone" and can remain there for days, weeks, even months, acting as a real mountain around which all other weather systems must flow. Given that anticyclones are areas of clear and calm air, the geographic regions under them experience dry and good weather in summer, and cold weather with nocturnal frosts in winter. A summer high that remains too long in any place soon becomes a problem: it can be easily provoke a drought or a heat wave (See figure 3).

All the available scientific data indicates that the climatic extremes which have  occurred since the early 70s are directly related to an expansion and shrinking of the circumpolar vortex that, has not only pushed the monsoon southwards, but has also allowed the return, with an undesirable frequency, of blocking anticyclones, guiding the low pressure systems - and their load of humidity - along the extreme meanders north and south of their main trajectories west-east around the world.


History Repeat Itself - Once More

Reviewing recent climate history, we can see that the anomalous weather is not a strange event. This might sound weird - at first glance. The reason is, we like to think about the normal weather as the one which is not too cold, nor too warm, neither too rainy nor too dry. I am sorry to disappoint you, but it is one thing for us to wish for a particular kind of weather, and quite another to see how things really are - and all this without having to blame anybody else other than Mother Nature herself.

Although the winter of 1974-1975 in Great Britain was mild, in June 1975 a snowfall fell in London, the first such event for that time of the year in the 20th Century. Something similar happened this June of 2003 in Moscow. Snowfalls in June - weird. Global warming, when?  Immediately, giving fodder to the yellow press tabloids, the out of season cold was followed by the warmest months of July and August in many years. Overall, 1975 was one of the driest of the 20th Century caused by a "blocking anticyclone" in western Europe. From May 1975 through April 1976, the period was the driest 12 month period ever recorded in Great Britain, and the last thing anyone could expect was another baking summer. However, 1976 made 1975 look cool. The blocking anticyclone remained over England one week after another

ct_og

Semuanya dengan kehendak Allah dan izin Allah... semua dijadikan supayta manusia berfikir..

RedAlert

Kat UK bila summer bukan saja panas, tapi udaranya kering. Tu yang tak tahan sangat tu. Dan kebanyakan bangunan dibina dgn tujuan utk menyimpan haba, jadi memang terkuap lah kalau duduk kat dalam. Kalau ada aircon kira nasib baik kalau tidak memang masak ler...

And somehow pancaran mataharinya memang membakar kulit... duduk luar 15 minit pun boleh terasa perubahan. Mungkin ke sebab lapisan ozone belah sana dah nipis? :hmm:

myseba2u

Dulu aku dok kat Perlis pernah cecah 40 degree. Masa tu ramai yang kena sakit mata. Panas sungguh masa tu

myseba2u

Originally posted by archilless at 21-8-2006 06:37 PM


ye ke?.. aku tak tau yg northern part of semenanjung boleh sampai panas mcm tu..

cuma my cousin yg study kat uitm arau dulu ada la komplen yg rambut dia rosak sbb kena matahari terik.. hehe
...

iyeeee...tak selalu 40 degree, tapi masa tu dengar radio, dj tu cakap hari tu adalah kedua terpanas di dunia. Hari tu je lah.

tsukushi

baca berita even in Korea pun kena summer yang terpanas setakat ni...ada global warming ke

alphawolf

Masa aku kat sana, summer 96 paling teruk aku rasa, dam sampai kering! Mat saleh semua dah macam udang kat grill...kamiorang Mesia selamba rock aje...

tightcherry

manalah org kulit putih tahan panas..org korea,japan pun tak tahan panas,,mungkin kekurangan bile berkulit cerah..
cube tengok org far east asia,org brazil selamber rock mandi ,jalan2 tepi pantai..lagi panas ..

alibnmat

Cuaca di sana bila suhu panas ditambah dengan angin yang kering dan lembapan udara yg amat kurang. Di negeri mcam msia suhu panas tapi udara ada lembapan, so taklah teruk sangat rasanya.

kita kat sini pun kena bersedia la pulak...    mana tahu kut2 salji turun

razifah

Originally posted by myseba2u at 21-8-2006 07:48 AM
Dulu aku dok kat Perlis pernah cecah 40 degree. Masa tu ramai yang kena sakit mata. Panas sungguh masa tu

pergh...perlis jangan ckp lah....:setuju:

redCeri^cet

GENEVA (AFP) - Sweltering under the summer sun could become a regular feature of European life as global warming
leads to frequent heatwaves, climate change experts warned here on Wednesday.

"We might have every other year a summer as hot or hotter as the summer 2003," said Andreas Fischlin of the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and coordinating lead author for the ecosystems chapter of the latest
intergovernmental panel on climate change report.

The heatwave of August 2003 killed some 70,000 people across Europe, mostly elderly victims of dehydration.
"Some summers are likely to be much hotter even than in 2003 until the end of the century," said Martin Beniston from
the University of Geneva, and an IPCC report contributing author.

However future heatwaves need not be so deadly if authorities and individuals take sufficient precautionary measures,
which could cut fatalities by 80 percent from the 2003 levels, he said.
"It is expected that additional death numbers can be reduced through adaptation," he added.
The experts were commenting on the IPCC's latest report which was presented to the public last week in Brussels.

The press conference in Geneva was specifically focused on the impact of climate change on Europe and the Alps in particular.
The experts warned that glaciers will experience a "substantial retreat" in the coming century, and that the duration of
snow cover is expected to decrease by several weeks for each Celsius degree of temperature increase in the Alps.

Some 60 percent of Alpine plant life is threatened with extinction by the century's end as temperatures are seen rising by
between 1.5 and 2.5 percent from 1990 levels, the report said.
Away from the snow-capped peaks, Europe's coastal dwellers are also at risk as climate change causes sea levels to rise,
the IPCC warned.
This rise is likely to threaten up to 2.5 million extra people annually, with others at risk from more winter floods in maritime regions.