I am not sure people in the US are aware what the UK is going through at the moment and for a week or so, with the worse floods in 60 years. In what day the rain of two months poured on England and Wales.

BBC NEWS | UK | Floods force thousands from homes

The images and the text speak for themselves.

My only comment : too late - we will see more and more of this, we must get used to it.

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

not at all. the dutch water agency said that something like this would never be possible in the netherlands any more. Since the small floods in the nineties which almost lead to situations like in the UK, all the rivers have been made significantly wider and many natural areas and farmers grassland can now be used for the storage of extra water in extremely rainy times.

It requires effort. Billions yes. But it can be done.

Yup, it's been on the news here, too.
Do you mean that this is a result of global warming? While I personally believe that global warming exists, I don't think it's wise to blame any and all freakish or abnormal weather on it. Strange weather does happen naturally. You even mentioned that such flooding has occurred 60 years earlier.

Yeah, but that doesn't mean that we might not be causing some of the recent weather phenomenons.

What can you do about two months of rain suddently pouring : the water goes everywhere.

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

No, of course, you cannot blame global warming for just any abnormal weather. But, really, such phenomenons now happen everywhere in Europe every year - parallel to very high temperatures in Southern Europe, which I forgot to mention - and in general the amount of rain is expected to increase since the ice of the poles is melting ...

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The rains have been just as incessant in Ireland.

Met Office: Rain triggers floods in Ireland

BBC NEWS | UK | Northern Ireland | 30 rescued as floods strike city

I unfortunately just lost a 23 year old cousin a few days ago in a car accident caused in good part by flooding conditions of the heavy rains. Due to outrageous ticket prices and seat unavailability I unfortunately missed his funeral yesterday.

Death Notice Of Jason MURPHY, Wicklow, Ireland

Well, I would agree that it would be equally unwise to say that these events have absolutely nothing to do with global warming.

The thing is, we just don't know. I believe in global warming and I believe man is contributing to it, but I think we should still be skeptical towards any claims that this or that is a result of global warming.

And on a side note, I get a bit of a kick when I hear about the 'very high temperatures' in Southern Europe. We call that 'normal summer temperature' here.

It would be funny if not for the fact that people were dying.

Well relatively southern europe is at new york level or just below in relation to the equater. A big part of the US is at sahara-level.

True, plus it's pretty hard to find a building that doesn't have AC here.

It wasn't your purpose but you hit the nail on the head

Europe has always have a "mild" climate, mild even in hot southern Europe. This is why civilisation could settle so early and blow so rapidly : because it was not necessary to rely on a sophisticated warming system in winter or air conditioning in summer.

Yes, people have been dying because of the heat in Romania, and just read yesterday in the newspaper, 500 in Hungary.

Flood, storms and extreme temperatures are unusual in Europe, and these extreme situations - which exist in other hemispheres - now come regularly every year.

As the Dutch have built high damms, we need to get ready to get more of these in the future.

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______________________Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.”___________________Alexander Solzhenitsyn

The all time record for Texas is 120° F (Texas weather records)
That temperature has been reached in coastal Greece where the normal maximum temperature in July is 31°C (87° F). It has in fact been reached in two separate heatwaves this summer. Entirely unprecedented.

My house?

It certainly does seem like more erratic and inconsistent weather is occurring. They had what, forty something days of straight rain in parts of Texas, whereas other parts are/were suffering from drought?

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas

My condolence on your families loss, sorry you couldn't make the flight.

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Anyone who thinks freedom comes cheap, please put the blindfold on and stand against the wall.

Many times I believe Americans will have to take back the country and start a new government.

Thanks. I appreciate it. He was a really good person cut down in his prime. A few airlines recently stopped bereavement discounts from the usual extortionist rates they charge for last minute bookings, a fact of which I was unaware until this week. That's bad business and bad public relations, IMHO. I'll remember who did it, let's put it that way, plus they had an empty seat most likely instead of a nice fare to fill it.