False claims suggesting that the BBC has been misreporting temperatures in southern Europe have been spreading on social media.
A clip of Neil Oliver, a GB News presenter, accusing the BBC “and others” of “driving fear” by using “supposedly terrifying temperatures”, has been viewed more than two million times.
For the past few weeks, an intense heatwave has been sweeping through parts of southern Europe and north Africa, with extensive wildfires breaking out in Greece, Italy and Algeria - leading to more than 40 deaths.
Speaking about the fires on Rhodes on GB News on Monday, Mr Oliver accused the BBC, and other broadcasters, of trying to “make people terrified of the weather”.
It’s been unseasonably wet and cool in the UK so that’s probably part of why they believe it.
Here in parts of the south USA it’s been a normal summer, getting adequate rain and temps not hitting 100+ like last year as well. So I can see some of the skepticism but the world is fucking huge…If I drive one hour further north or south…the weather has changed…
I’m in SoCal, very mild summer. But I talk to by best friend from HS who lives in Phoenix, and it’s a different story.
I live in Phx area. It’s been stupid mild this year?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/07/25/phoenix-hits-25-straight-days-above-110-degrees-heres-where-else-daily-records-have-fallen/
Yeah… And?
I can write all sorts of garbage stuff on a blog. It’s not hard to claim that “OH GOD IT’S OVER 110 THAT’S HOT”… when the AVERAGE high for basically the whole month of July is 106.8 degrees.
Look at the actual history data. https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/az/phoenix/KPHX
May has been below average… June below average. This July has been a bit warmer than average.
That link shows the temperature today is 10 degrees over average. That’s hot. It’s a weird flex to try to claim 115 isn’t hot. Are you a lizard?
It would be a weird flex. Good thing I never said that. Strawman someone else asshat.
Source: You. Name calling. I suppose we are done. You seem…uh…cool.
Yeah 110 is warm for phx not hot. When I was a kid Tucson would easily get into the 112-117 range often. Phoenix was always hotter by a few degrees.
I love when people who’ve never lived here act like they know better about it though.
Temps over 110 are indeed regular here. It’s something we’ve generally learned to deal with. And yes… the dryness of heat makes a HUGE difference in the matter.
How you know that it’s been a cooler summer (At least in June) was that humidity was up a bit. Now we’re back to “normal” and it’s dry and hot. But it’s about August… and Monsoon season is going to kick in, it will cool down again.
For those of us that have lived here for a while… you will remember at least a few years where there were 3 solid months of “heat”. This year is shaping up to feel more like 1.5-2 months of that heat.
Preach. Lived in Tucson until after college. I can’t handle the heat like I used to. It’s been a weird summer where I am (Denver) with way, way more thunderstorms than I think I have ever seen, May - June, kind of like how southern az monsoons are in Aug. So I kind of wonder if several areas have had an odd summer this year.
I remember Tucson would hit 100 in may and stay over 100 until like September. Of course 100 is just a warm day for Sonoran Desert dwellers. The weather station had a contest to guess when the Santa Cruz (or was it Rillito?) would melt (break 100°) Which if you’re from the area is fairly amusing on two levels. (The river is almost always dry)
We’ve been unseasonably mild her in the mid-Atlantic. We’re just getting our first run of 90F/32C+ days this season, whereas we usually see that sometime in June. Seeing what’s going on in the rest of the country I consider us to be damn lucky.
We’ve been getting hammered with rain, though. About 3-4x normal in June.
I can tell you that here in AZ… We’re normal right now. Earlier in the Summer is was SUPER mild. And more wet than normal.
No where near “worst”. I remember a few years back hitting 118 and back in the mid 2000’s hitting 122… This year has been great… We’re already hitting monsoon time, where the humidity kicks the temp down a bit. Then september rolls around and it’ll cool down again.
Didn’t June break some heat records in the UK? I thought that I had read that. I’m in Southern California and this summer has been super mild.