Excellent weather forecasting website

Hi Simon,
Welcome, It seems to me that since the transit of Venus last year, that the weather has declined somewhat.
I'm looking back at my observing logs and find that I was getting much more observing done this time last year compared to now.
The number fo decent nights over the last few months, I can count on one hand.
Must be all this global warming.

Carlos, Dave,

Thanks guys. I suspected as much. I think I'll be holding off on the observatory plans until I see the weather pick up.

Thanks,
Simon

Hi Simon,
Welcome, It seems to me that since the transit of Venus last year, that the weather has declined somewhat.
I'm looking back at my observing logs and find that I was getting much more observing done this time last year compared to now.
The number fo decent nights over the last few months, I can count on one hand.
Must be all this global warming.

there was a horizon programme i think on this abotu 2 months ago. it is called global dimming. to cut it short it is due to the increase in the amount of dust from pollution in the air. when clouds form dust particles become imbedded in the rain drops. eventually they become too heavy and it rains. there is now 10 times as much dust in the air. instead of getting alot of big rain drops you are getting 10 times as many but they are too small to fall and therefore you get increased cloud cover. this and the pollution in the air means less sunlight falls on the earth can cause a drop in temprature. as less sunlight is getting to the ground and the rest is being reflected back to space. because of the excess dust it rains less often and consequently nights that would be clear are overcast.
stephen.

Doesn't explain why we have so many clear nights in 2003 though.

Doesn't explain why we have so many clear nights in 2003 though.

there could have been a sudden inctease, or maybe we are only getting the effects now, it can take several years for this to build up. from watching the program it said that in europe the amount of sunshine has on average decrease by 15% since the 1950's and by various other amounts depending on the part of the world you are in. after 9/11 for example when all the plans were grounded many parts of america has some of the hottest weather on record because the planes were not creating contrails that were polluting the sky.
stephen.

Sorry Stephen, I find that all a bit hard to believe. Sounds very dubious to me.