Hold on to Your Ass

[Eichhörnchen]

With Cyclone Alfred in the news this past week and the recent wildfires on the USA West Coast before that, I'm curious to find out whether any of you guys have sustained damage to your homes which you attribute to climate change?

I've been pretty concerned about our neighbourhood in recent times - mainly fear of flooding since we're so low-lying here in the Fens. But I was getting a bit worried that the Australian cyclone might be headed for Arnold's place - and although he lives in a high-rise he keeps his porn collection in a locked shed at the bottom of the garden, despite my urging him to transfer it to hard drive.

Have you been severely damaged by the weather yet?

[Eisenwurst]

I quit watching the news years ago and rely on the Bush Telegraph for whatever I need to know. I could be wrong, but this "Cyclone Alfred" could be a media beat up. The weather's been early Autumn, hot/warm/humid, mostly clear skies, nice cool breeze. No one on the street or out and about's talking about any cyclone.

Pommy backpackers broke into my garden shed and nicked all the good stuff Gone are the Annie Sprinkles movies, and classics like "Lesbian Psychiatrists go on Holiday", "Bumbi", "Wicked Chopsticks Orgy" - great soundtrack....must post it

https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/come-on...i-gif-27423264

[Eichhörnchen]

[Jimbuna]

[Eisenwurst]

Cyclone Alfred or whatever......
It's a big storm, we get them occasionally, strong winds and a lot of rain. Power lines down, it happens. The way the media has been hyping this up you'd think it was the end of the world

Panic Merchants with an agenda.

Australia's a bloody BIG country, "Alfred" is? in southern Queensland, almost another country in more ways than one

[Cybermat47]

No damage to my home, but plenty of concern about rising temperatures when it’s bushfire season.

[Ostfriese]

Originally Posted by Eichhörnchen

Have you been severely damaged by the weather yet?

"Climate" and "Weather" are two different things

Fortunately, I was lucky so far, and apart from tree torn up during a storm that hit the garden fence a few years back I never suffered direct damage.

But as I have been a volunteer firefighter for nearly 40 years by now I've been called to a large number of emergencies caused by extreme weather. And the general trenda can simply not be ignored. While the overall amount of rain per year has remained round about the same for the last 30 years the number of rain days has decreased considerably (from about 240 days with precipitation to about 180 days). Rain comes less often, but if it comes, there's more of it. This means longer dry periods (which have dramatically increased the risk of wild fires, which of course are much smaller than those in California or in Australia, but endager far more people due to the high population density of central Europe) as well as more days with heavy rain.

Last year, we had a rainy night which gave us bout 75 l/m² of rain in about three hours, that's about 3 inches of water on a level surface. Doesn't sound much at first, but it's about 1/10th of the amount of rain we get in a year on average. Natural seepage simply can't get rid of such amounts of water in a short time (despite the fact that our soil is pretty sandy, which usually allows surface water to seep quite quickly), and of course we don't live on level surfaces, so the water floods lower areas, basements and so on, and overflows the rivers.
Rain like that (that much water in a short amount of time) has only happened three times during the 20th century - but it was already the third time in the 21st century and the fifth time in the last 50 years.

[August]

Not a bit. Ain't no climate change around here.

[Eichhörnchen]