Met Office climate report: how hot will the UK get? | The Week UK

British summers could regularly reach a “new normal” of 40C within a decade warn meteorologists in a new study by the Met Office.

“Wild weather has been a feature of this UK summer thus far, with scorching sunshine, pouring rain and powerful thunderstorms all making an appearance,” says Sky News.

And all this comes after a “record-setting year”, continues the broadcaster, pointing to figures in the State of the UK Climate 2020 report showing that last year ranked in the top ten for heat, rainfall and sunshine, marking the first time one year had made it into the top ten for all three categories.

The report paints “a clear picture of how climate change is already measurably impacting the UK”, says Sky.

Published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology, the report warned that “recent decades have been warmer, wetter and sunnier than the 20th century”.

Scorching summers...

The Royal Meteorological Society (RMetS) also warns that British summers could hit highs of 40C every three to four years – regardless of whether global warming targets set out by the Paris climate agreement are met. That 2015 accord aims to limit global temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Professor Liz Bentley, chief executive of RMetS, told the Daily Mail that the average temperature in the UK, as across the globe, has already increased by 1.2C and is likely to rise a further 0.3C in the coming years.

She said that extreme temperatures and heatwaves are “just going to become much more intense. We’re likely to see 40C in the UK although we have never seen those kinds of temperatures [before].

“That’s not just going to become something that we see once or twice – it’ll start to become something that we see on a much more regular basis.”

And according to the report, the UK land temperature during the past decade has been 1.1C warmer than 1961-1990, “meaning the UK is warming slightly quicker than the global average of 0.8C”, reports The Telegraph.

Increasing temperatures are likely to spark alarm among health experts. Indeed, a heatwave last August produced temperatures above 34C for six days, and claimed 1,700 lives, reports the Mail.

... but fewer snow days

Meanwhile, winters in the UK are likely to feel much milder, with days disrupted by extreme cold becoming fewer.

According to the report, the average winter temperature last year was 5.3C, up 1.6C on the 1981-2010 average.

It means “fewer snow days and less ice on the roads are… likely in future”, writes environment editor Emma Gatten in The Telegraph.

She explains that the number of days reaching freezing temperatures would also drop from 50 to 34 at 2C of warming.

The lead author of the report, Mike Kendon, a climate scientist at the Met Office, said the figures showed that the “baseline of our climate” is changing and warned the effects of man-made climate change will last “for a very, very long time”.

“Climate change isn’t just something that’s going to happen in the future. Climate change is something that is happening now,” he told Sky News.

“What these observations are showing us is that we are seeing this emerging pattern of more high-temperature extremes in the UK, but we’re also seeing more rainfall extremes for the UK, obviously as our climate warms, a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture.

“I’m worried. As a scientist, I’m worried looking at these observations. I’m a dad. I worry about the future for my children.”

What the world is saying about Cop26 | The Week UK

Boris Johnson has admitted he is “very worried” that Cop26 “might go wrong” as the clock ticks down until the UK-hosted climate summit gets under way. Answering questions from schoolchildren at a special Downing Street news conference this week, the prime minister said it would be “touch and go” whether world leaders could achieve the necessary agreements to protect the planet. But he added: “I think it can be done.” Here is what the rest of the world is saying. Scottish setting “It was once dubbed Europe’s murder capital, but this year it was voted the world’s friendliest city,” said Al Jazeera. Glasgow, “home to one of the most bitter football rivalries”, has rarely lacked drama and from Sunday will “take centre stage as the host of a highly anticipated summit seen by many as the last chance to avert a global climate catastrophe”. The news site, which is part-funded by the Qatari government, predicted that this “city of contrasts” will either be “hailed as the scene of a spectacular success or lamented as the place where dreams of a better tomorrow were extinguished”. Temperature talk The activists and delegates heading to the Scottish city from across the world “have reason to be anxious”, wrote climate campaigner Eleanor Salter in The New York Times. The summit represents “perhaps one of the world’s last chances” to limit the rise in global average temperature to less than 1.5C above preindustrial levels. Johnson has generally displayed “bombastic optimism” that other countries will step up, said Salter, but Britain is “far from a climate hero”. A “glance” behind Johnson’s speeches “reveals hypocrisy everywhere”. Despite “a smoke screen of good words”, the UK “is pursuing policies at home and abroad that violate every single goal” set for Cop26, she continued. And ultimately, “warm words won’t stop a warming world”. Pressing agendas The negotiations “are likely to be fraught”, said France24. The “rulebook” on how climate goals are measured is yet to be finalised, “long-festering disputes” over the governance of carbon markets persist, and poorer nations are calling on wealthier ones to make good on funding promises. Skip advert Wealthy nations have yet to meet a target set at Cop15 to provide $100bn a year in funding to help developing nations tackle the front-line effects of global warming. The UK government’s newly published Climate Finance Delivery Plan said the goal is unlikely to be achieved until 2023.

In an article for the Financial Times, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi wrote that Africa is “tired of waiting” for financial support and “must be a priority” at Cop26. The continent “contributes so little global warming” yet faces “a cruel fate”, said Tshisekedi, who is chair of the African Union. A “clear plan” is needed on how resources to fight climate change will be deployed, he argued, adding: “It is time for Africa to be compensated – for the good of the continent and the planet. We have waited long enough.” Contentious conversations Cop26 President Alok Sharma has admitted that the absence of some leading global figures will be a stumbling block in achieving the summit goals. The no-shows will include Vladimir Putin, owing to the coronavirus situation in Russia. However, Kremlin-owned news agency TASS said that the Russian president and Johnson had discussed “climate problems” together “in detail” this week, in their first joint telephone call since May last year. The British leader “welcomed” Russia’s commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2060, the agency added – although this target date is a decade later that that set by most other developed nations. Although the “leaders of most of the world’s biggest greenhouse emitters will gather in Scotland”, said The Japan Times, “the man running the biggest of them all”, China’s President Xi Jinping, also “likely won’t be there”. Ultimately, “if the rich world fails to demonstrate solidarity and leadership, it will have no moral standing to criticise China”, wrote Sam Geall, a specialist in Chinese climate policy and politics, in The Sydney Morning Herald. Eyes will also be on other major fossil fuel emitters including Australia. The country’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has this week adopted the 2050 target, but “sadly”, that’s where the “good news begins and ends”, said The Guardian Australia columnist Katherine Murphy. Skip advert No strategy or legislation for achieving this goal has been put forward by Morrison so far, Murphy noted. In fact, the “pre-Glasgow crescendo” has left us with a so-called new plan that is simply “the status quo” served up with “some new speculative graphs”. Covid complications The Covid-19 pandemic delayed the summit by a year and could yet cause further disruption. A cartoon by Liu Rui in China’s Global Times English-language paper portrays the UK as a “dangerous climate” for the summit, as Britain battles one of the highest case rates in western Europe.

Is climate change reversible? | The Week UK

The words “extreme”, “intolerable” and “record-breaking” are cropping up more and more in news headlines about our planet’s climate. The Pakistani city of Jacobabad recently officially surpassed the temperature threshold that humans can withstand - “albeit briefly”, The Telegraph notes. Days later, experts in the US reported that a “heat dome” was to blame for blistering temperatures in the Pacific Northwest that saw the mercury hitting 46.6°C in the Oregon city of Portland. On the other side of the Atlantic, more than 150 people have died as a result of extreme flooding in Germany, with hundreds more missing, and further flood-related fatalities reported in neighbouring Belgium. And in Asia, authorities in Henan province issued the highest level of weather warning this week as torrential rain swept across wide swathes of north and central China. Each of these extreme weather events has triggered fresh warnings from scientists and politicians about the ever-increasing threat posed by climate change. As Germany and Belgium, along with parts of the Netherlands and Luxembourg, reeled from the effects of days of intense rainfall there, Potsdam-based climatologist Dieter Gerten told National Geographic that the situation was “not so surprising” to scientists. “The increase of extreme events is something we’ve seen in climate model projections," he added. So what can science tell us about the current course of climate change, and whether it can be slowed - or even reversed? Heating up Human activities have been heating the planet since the Industrial Revolution, a period commonly used as a baseline against which global temperatures are monitored. Global average temperatures increased rapidly in the second half of the 20th century, and “this warming has been particularly rapid since the 1970s“, says the Met Office. This acceleration has triggered calls for united action by world leaders. The “historic, durable and ambitious” goals set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement were lauded as “the world’s greatest diplomatic success” by The Guardian at the time of the signing. But on the treaty's fifth anniversary, in December 2020, the president of this year’s COP26 summit, Alok Sharma, told national leaders to be “honest” with themselves and admit that “as encouraging as all this ambition is, it is not enough”. Skip advert

In May, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) secretary-general Professor Petteri Taalas warned that new research findings had delivered “yet another wake-up call” about the need to fast-track commitments to slash greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality. According to a WMO climate update, there is a 90% chance that one of the years between 2021 and 2025 will become the hottest on record, and a 40% likelihood that the annual average global temperature will temporarily reach 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in the same period. A separate WMO report published in April warned that monitoring showed that global greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2020, “despite setbacks from Covid-19” to industrial processes. And the decade from 2011 was the warmest on record, the report said. Future outlook Signatories of the Paris Agreement committed to limiting global warming to well below 2C and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5C. As the World Resources Institute (WRI) noted back in 2018, this difference of “half a degree of warming matters - a lot”. The London-based think tank pointed to research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of the world’s leading climate scientists, which found that with a 2C increase, 37% of the world’s population would be exposed to severe heat waves at least once in five years, compared with 14% at 1.5C of warming. And “at 2C warming, 18% of insects globally, 16% of plants and 8% of vertebrates are projected to lose more than half of their ranges”, said the WRI. “With 1.5C of warming, this is reduced by two-thirds for insects, and by half for plants and vertebrates.” The difference of half a degree could also prove crucial in the Arctic, where global warming is triggering rising sea levels, sea ice loss and changes to permafrost. “Over the past 49 years, the Arctic has warmed three times faster than the world as a whole,” according to the latest annual update from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, which predicts that “the first ice-free September in the Arctic could occur as early as 2040”. Global warming is also expected to lead to an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events. Freak weather “such as abnormally heavy rainfall, prolonged droughts, desertification, environmental degradation, or sea-level rise and cyclones, are already causing an average of more than 20 million people to leave their homes and move to other areas in their countries each year”, says the UN Refugee Agency. Climate change has major implications for the production of goods and services needed to sustain communities too, especially in industies such as agriculture. A report published in The Lancet recently warns that “both labour supply and productivity are projected to decrease under future climate change in most parts of the world, and particularly in tropical regions”. Skip advert

Europe's summer of floods and fire was its hottest on record, report ...

(CNN) Europe swung from unusually cold temperatures in the spring to its hottest summer on record last year, smashing temperature and daily rain records, while Mediterranean wildfires burned through land around the size of Cyprus.

They are the main findings of the fifth European State of the Climate report, published Friday, which found the summer of 2021 was 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than the 1991-2020 average.

The average air temperature in Europe has risen about 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to the report.

The continent set a provisional, blistering new heat record last summer of 48.8 degrees Celsius on the Italian island of Sicily. Previously, the hottest day recorded in Europe was 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) in 1977 in Athens, Greece, according to the report by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

A firefighting helicopter passes in front of a cloud of smoke from a forest fire near Spathovouni village, southwest of Athens, Greece, on July 23.

A firefighting helicopter passes in front of a cloud of smoke from a forest fire near Spathovouni village, southwest of Athens, Greece, on July 23.

A firefighter talks to his colleague as they work to put out fires in Cuglieri, on the Italian island of Sardinia, on July 26.

A firefighter talks to his colleague as they work to put out fires in Cuglieri, on the Italian island of Sardinia, on July 26.

Firefighters battle a massive wildfire that engulfed a Mediterranean resort region on Turkey's southern coast near the town of Manavgat on July 29.

Firefighters battle a massive wildfire that engulfed a Mediterranean resort region on Turkey's southern coast near the town of Manavgat on July 29.

A man surveys a fire at Le Capannine beach in the Sicilian town of Catania, Italy, on July 30.

A man surveys a fire at Le Capannine beach in the Sicilian town of Catania, Italy, on July 30.

A handout photo from the Italian National Fire Brigade shows an aerial view of a fire in the Pineta Dannunziana reserve in Pescara, Italy, on August 1.

A handout photo from the Italian National Fire Brigade shows an aerial view of a fire in the Pineta Dannunziana reserve in Pescara, Italy, on August 1.

Local residents watch as a Greek army helicopter collects water to tackle a wildfire near the village of Lambiri, Greece, on August 1.

Local residents watch as a Greek army helicopter collects water to tackle a wildfire near the village of Lambiri, Greece, on August 1.

People watch an advancing fire that rages around the Cokertme village near Bodrum, Turkey, on August 2.

People watch an advancing fire that rages around the Cokertme village near Bodrum, Turkey, on August 2.

A man leads sheep away from an advancing fire in Mugla, Turkey, on August 2.

A man leads sheep away from an advancing fire in Mugla, Turkey, on August 2.

A woman pours water over a baby's head at a fountain in Skopje, North Macedonia, as temperatures reached over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on August 2.

A woman pours water over a baby's head at a fountain in Skopje, North Macedonia, as temperatures reached over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on August 2.

Firefighters work as a house burns in the Adames area of northern Athens on August 3.

Firefighters work as a house burns in the Adames area of northern Athens on August 3.

Smoke and flames rise over the village of Limni on the Greek island of Evia.

Smoke and flames rise over the village of Limni on the Greek island of Evia.

A charred area of Mugla, Turkey, after a forest fire on August 3.

A charred area of Mugla, Turkey, after a forest fire on August 3.

Onlookers view the smoke from the wildfires blanketing Athens' Acropolis on August 4.

Onlookers view the smoke from the wildfires blanketing Athens' Acropolis on August 4.

The remnants of a destroyed house are seen in the Varibobi area of northern Athens on August 4.

The remnants of a destroyed house are seen in the Varibobi area of northern Athens on August 4.

A wildfire approaches the Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece, on August 4.

A wildfire approaches the Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece, on August 4.

People move belongings to safety as a forest fire rages in a wooded area north of Athens, Greece, on August 5.

People move belongings to safety as a forest fire rages in a wooded area north of Athens, Greece, on August 5.

The grounds of a burnt hotel are seen in Lalas village, near Olympia, on August 5.

The grounds of a burnt hotel are seen in Lalas village, near Olympia, on August 5.

Residents react during a wildfire near Olympia on August 5.

Residents react during a wildfire near Olympia on August 5.

Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire near the town of Olympia, Greece, on August 5.

Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire near the town of Olympia, Greece, on August 5.

A satellite photo shows smoke rising from fires on the island of Evia, Greece, on August 5.

A satellite photo shows smoke rising from fires on the island of Evia, Greece, on August 5.

People are evacuated on a ferry as a wildfire burns in Limni, Greece, on August 6.

People are evacuated on a ferry as a wildfire burns in Limni, Greece, on August 6.

A firefighter washes his face in the Milas area of Mugla, Turkey, on August 7.

A firefighter washes his face in the Milas area of Mugla, Turkey, on August 7.

A house in Pefkofito, Greece, is destroyed on August 7.

A house in Pefkofito, Greece, is destroyed on August 7.

A resident reacts as a wildfire approaches her house in the Greek village of Gouves, on the island of Evia, on August 8.

A resident reacts as a wildfire approaches her house in the Greek village of Gouves, on the island of Evia, on August 8.

People sleep in a car near the beach in Pefki village as wildfires rage on the island of Evia on August 8.

People sleep in a car near the beach in Pefki village as wildfires rage on the island of Evia on August 8.

Local youths and volunteers gather in a field and wait to support firefighters during a wildfire on August 9, close to the village of Kamatriades on the Greek island of Evia.

Local youths and volunteers gather in a field and wait to support firefighters during a wildfire on August 9, close to the village of Kamatriades on the Greek island of Evia.

Remains of an 18th-century Orthodox church are seen on August 10, after a fire on the Greek island of Evia.

Remains of an 18th-century Orthodox church are seen on August 10, after a fire on the Greek island of Evia.

This aerial photo shows a wildfire-affected area in Mugla, Turkey, on August 11.

This aerial photo shows a wildfire-affected area in Mugla, Turkey, on August 11.

Forest fires rage on the Greek island of Euboea on August 11.

Forest fires rage on the Greek island of Euboea on August 11.

A man works to douse a fire in Montalto, Italy, on August 12.

A man works to douse a fire in Montalto, Italy, on August 12.

A helicopter drops water as a wildfire burns in the village of Navalmoral, Spain, on August 16.

A helicopter drops water as a wildfire burns in the village of Navalmoral, Spain, on August 16.

Parts of the Mediterranean were hit with an intense, weeks-long heat wave in July and August, with Italy, Turkey and Greece experiencing several destructive wildfires. More than 800,000 hectares were burned during those two months.

"With the changing climate, temperatures are getting warmer and warmer in the Mediterranean region, so it's not unexpected to get these even higher temperatures," said Freja Vamborg, a Copernicus senior scientist, who led and edited the report. "There is preconditioning due to climate change."

She added that at the time, there were "blocking" weather patterns present, which is when areas of strong high pressure remain almost stagnant and block cooler, wetter weather from moving in.

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These impacts are unsurprising, said Vamborg, considering the continued emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane, which are both generated primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.

The atmospheric concentration of methane -- a potent greenhouse gas that has more than 80 times the warming power of CO2 in the short term -- is picking up pace. It has increased at a faster rate over the past two years than it has over the last decade, the report shows.

Methane emissions come from a number of sources, including coal, oil and gas infrastructure, from which it can "leak" into the atmosphere throughout the supply chain.

"This continued increase in greenhouse gases is the main driver behind the global increase in temperatures," Vamborg told reporters.

The report also noted that floods on July 14, which killed more than 230 people, came on a day of record rainfall in the mountains on the German-Belgian border. Heavy rains since the beginning of July had saturated the soil, leaving it unable to absorb more water. A study by the World Weather Attribution project found that climate change had made those floods up to nine times more likely to happen.

Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Two brothers embrace Monday, July 19, in front of their parents' home, which was destroyed by flooding in Altenahr, Germany. Hide Caption 1 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A damaged road buckles after flooding in Euskirchen, Germany. Hide Caption 2 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe This aerial photo shows a bridge collapsed over the Ahr River in Germany's Ahrweiler district on Sunday. Hide Caption 3 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Damage is seen Sunday in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany. Hide Caption 4 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Homes are damaged in Pepinster, Belgium, on Saturday. Hide Caption 5 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A resident stands in floodwaters in Rochefort, Belgium, on Saturday. Hide Caption 6 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Members of the German armed forces search for flood victims in Erftstadt, Germany, on Saturday. Hide Caption 7 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A resident of Arcen, Netherlands, looks at the rising water of the Meuse River on Saturday. Hide Caption 8 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Water flows over a square in front of a house in Bischofswiesen, Germany. Hide Caption 9 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A man stands in front of a destroyed house in Schuld, Germany. Hide Caption 10 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A water level gauge shows rising waters in Arcen, Netherlands, on Saturday. Dutch officials ordered the evacuation of 10,000 people in the municipality of Venlo, as the Meuse was rising there faster than expected. Hide Caption 11 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe This aerial photo shows flooding in Erftstadt, Germany, on Friday. Hide Caption 12 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A man brushes water and mud out of his flooded house in Ensival, Belgium, on Friday. Hide Caption 13 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe People collect debris in Bad Muenstereifel, Germany. Hide Caption 14 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe The Steinbach dam is seen after flooding near Euskirchen, Germany. Hide Caption 15 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Firefighters walk past a car that was damaged by flooding in Schuld, Germany. Hide Caption 16 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe People lay sandbags in Roermond, Netherlands, on Friday. Hide Caption 17 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A woman sorts through clothing at a shelter in Liege, Belgium, on Friday. Hide Caption 18 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A woman walks up the stairs of her damaged house in Ensival, Belgium. Hide Caption 19 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A man walks through a flooded part of Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany, on Thursday. Hide Caption 20 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A regional train sits in floodwaters at the local station in Kordel, Germany. Hide Caption 21 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe People use rafts to evacuate after the Meuse River broke its banks during heavy flooding in Liege, Belgium. Hide Caption 22 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe People look at a railway crossing that was destroyed by the flooding in Priorei, Germany. Hide Caption 23 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Men walk by damaged homes in Schuld, Germany. Hide Caption 24 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A man surveys what remains of his house in Schuld. Hide Caption 25 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Water from the Ahr River flows past a damaged bridge in Schuld. Hide Caption 26 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Evacuees ride a bus in Valkenburg aan de Geul, Netherlands. Hide Caption 27 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A car floats in the Meuse River during heavy flooding in Liege, Belgium, on Thursday. Hide Caption 28 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe People walk on a damaged road in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany. Hide Caption 29 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A resident uses a bucket to remove water from a house cellar in Hagen, Germany. Hide Caption 30 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A man and woman stand on the stoop of their home as they look at floodwaters in Geulle, Netherlands. Hide Caption 31 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Houses are damaged by flooding in Insul, Germany, on Thursday. Hide Caption 32 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A man steps down a ladder in an attempt to cut his boat loose in the Meuse River in Liege, Belgium. Hide Caption 33 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Caravans and campers are partially submerged in Roermond, Netherlands. Hide Caption 34 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A destroyed building is seen in a flood-affected area of Schuld, Germany. Hide Caption 35 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe People walk over floodwaters in Stansstad, Switzerland. Hide Caption 36 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe Cars are covered by debris in Hagen, Germany. Hide Caption 37 of 38 Photos: Deadly flooding in western Europe A flood-affected area of Schuld, Germany. Hide Caption 38 of 38

The persistent rain came from a low-pressure weather system that carried moisture from an unusually warm Baltic sea, which experienced temperatures at around 5 degrees Celsius higher than average last year.

At the time, CNN meteorologists reported that the area had experienced a whole month's worth of rain in a single day.

The report also noted unusually low wind speeds in northwestern and central Europe, including some countries that experienced their lowest wind speeds since 1979. That led to lower than expected power generation from wind turbines, the report said, noting a deeper understanding or Europe's wind variability was needed to help effectively design the continent's energy transition.

Piers Corbyn: the weather forecaster and conspiracy theorist who ...

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has not always seen eye to eye with his older brother Piers, as was seen at a party conference fringe event this week. Piers began “shouting and refused requests to leave” at the radical-left World Transformed event at which his brother was a panellist, The Guardian reported. And when asked if Jeremy would be upset by the disruption, Piers apparently said “I don’t care”. It comes two months after the “eccentric disseminator of anti-vaccine materials” did his “best to steal his borther’s thunder” as the MP protested in Downing Street for a 15% pay rise for health workers, said The Spectator’s Steerpike. Piers could be heard shouting “no more lockdowns” and “end the Covid con”. “With brothers like these, who needs enemies?” asked the gossip columnist. Early life “[Piers] Corbyn says that the day he was born, March 10, 1947, nature put on a spectacular show,” wrote Tom Standage in Wired, after interviewing him in 1999. “One of the largest sunspots ever recorded had appeared on the sun.” It was an apt arrival for the future long-range weather forecaster. One of four boys, he grew up in “bucolic bliss”, said Tatler, first in Wiltshire, then Shropshire. He described himself as “very inquiring” as a child and would “ask questions that there weren’t really answers for”, said Standage. Surrounded by homemade meteorological tools including an anemometer and rain gauge, as a teenager he began keeping daily records of the weather. Piers earned a scholarship to study physics at Imperial College London and graduated with a first. In 1979, he then began a master’s in astrophysics at Queen Mary College, where he became interested in the link “between solar activity and terrestrial weather”, said Standage. By observing the activity of the sun, he believed he might be able to predict the weather months in advance. Skip advert He developed a formula for forecasting the weather months into the future, wrote Monica Porter in The Article. Then, in 1984, “a singular event changed the course of his working life”, said The Observer. At the beginning of the year, the International Marxist Group (IMG) asked him to forecast how cold the weather would be in winter. The IMG was planning a strike and “they wanted to know whether it was going to be cold enough for the strike… to bring Britain to his knees”, he told the newspaper. His prediction was correct, it proved to be an “unusually cold” winter.

Career The Independent’s Simon Usborne once said Corbyn “defies categorisation”, but gave it a go anyway, describing him as “a left-wing physicist turned political activist and councillor, turned conspiracy theorist and maverick weather forecaster”. In the early days of his forecasting career, Corbyn and his girlfriend at the time “no doubt spent a lot of time looking anxiously at the sky”, The Observer said. He had begun placing bets on his forecasts, which proved accurate enough that “it would pay the rent basically”, he told the newspaper. Businesses became interested in Corbyn’s services, which he started to sell. In 1995 he formed WeatherAction, a long-range weather forecast firm based in southeast London that still operates today. Filmmakers, clothing retailers and petrochemical companies were among those who began relying on its forecasts. An annual subscription costing “£24,000 and upward” in the late 1990s, with most services costing “anywhere between £480 and £6,000”, according to Wired. An early customer of Corbyn’s, who used the service to predict winter demand for electricity, told the magazine he “would put the success rate of Corbyn’s forecasts in the excess of 70%”. The company faced an “uphill struggle” in winning new clients, partly due to “an outcry from mainstream meteorologists” fuelled by the mystery shrouding Corbyn’s forecasting methodology. His “secret formula”, he assured the magazine, is “locked safely away in case he gets hit by a bus”. But “adversity has only stiffened Corbyn’s resolve”, said The Observer. By 1997 “he had just become very rich indeed”, said The Article’s Porter. With “hundreds of clients”, and a stint on the stock exchange, “the nutty professor and one-time scourge of the Establishment had morphed into a City tycoon”. WeatherAction was on the stock exchange for two years before returning to private ownership. Skip advert When speaking to Porter around that time, Corbyn said that “he had no idea” what his brother Jeremy thought of his forecasting business, “as they hadn’t been on speaking terms for years”. Controversy Corbyn has “clashed” with his brother Jeremy over coronavirus and climate policy, The Telegraph reported. The elder Corbyn brother is often referred to as a climate change denier, and has been described as a “conspiracy theorist”, said Tatler. He has called Greta Thunberg an “ignorant, brainwashed child” and in 2018 he told LBC that the findings of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report were a “pack of lies”. The report’s conclusions, he said, were “anti-scientific nonsense based on fraud”. Professor Stuart Haszeldine, a geoscientist, rebutted Corbyn’s statements on the same programme, saying he was “on a different set of belief systems” to that of the forecaster. “I deal with facts and information.”

Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 17 June 2022 | The Week UK

Disabled man dies at Gatwick

A disabled man left waiting on a plane died at Gatwick’s Airport after getting off without a helper. The Sun said the passenger became “the first victim of Britain’s airport chaos” after he fell to his death from an escalator. The tabloid said the man had been waiting for assistance from an EasyJet flight but became frustrated by delays, prompting him to leave the plane into the packed terminal, where the accident occurred. Gatwick said “staff shortages were not a factor in this incident” and “an investigation is under way”.

Inclisiran: anti-cholesterol jab a 'game-changer' for heart attacks and ...

A new anti-cholesterol jab could save 30,000 lives within a decade when it is made available on the NHS in England and Wales.

Inclisiran, which is set to be offered to hundreds of thousands of people, has been described as a “game changer” by health professionals.

The pricey drug normally costs around £2,000 per dose, but manufacturer Novartis has “agreed an undisclosed discount” for the NHS, reported the BBC. Under the deal, the scheme will begin “within a month” says The Times.

NHS estimates say around 300,000 people will be offered the drug over the next three years, helping to prevent 55,000 heart attacks and strokes, and potentially saving 30,000 lives in the next decade.

More than two in five people in England have high cholesterol which puts them at significant risk of developing heart disease, while heart disease accounts for a quarter of deaths in England each year, says NHS England.

Nurses will be able to administer inclisiran as an injection in GP surgeries across England, meaning patients can avoid regular hospital visits.

After an initial dose, the drug will be given again after three months and then twice a year.

How does the drug work?

The drug has been named a “game changer” due to its “impressive trial results”, said Kat Lay in The Times. One global trial, led by Imperial College London, showed it could “safely cut cholesterol by 50%,” she reported.

And a twice-yearly injection is also likely to be “less of a burden for the patient than remembering to take a daily pill”, said Lay.

Inclisiran works in a different way to statins, which is a far cheaper drug treatment used to lower cholesterol in the blood. While statins “slow down” the production of cholesterol in the liver, inclisiran uses a “gene-silencing” effect to help the liver remove harmful cholesterol, according to the BBC.

In effect, it “turns off” – or silences – a gene called PCSK9, which results in the liver absorbing more “bad” cholesterol, called LDL cholesterol, from the blood and breaking it down.

The drug can be taken on its own, or alongside statins.

Who will be offered the drug?

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has drafted recommendations that the drug be rolled out to hundreds of thousands of people with high cholesterol or mixed dyslipidemia – abnormally high levels of fats in their blood – who have already suffered a heart attack or stroke.

Under the “population health agreement” between Novartis and the NHS, nearly half a million people could eventually benefit from the treatment.

“Inclisiran represents a potential game-changer in preventing thousands of people from dying prematurely from heart attacks and strokes,” said Meindert Boysen, NICE deputy chief executive and director of the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation.

"We’re therefore pleased to be able to recommend it as a cost-effective option on the NHS.”

And health professionals hope that in the future, the drug will be offered to “even more patients with heart problems”, reported The Guardian.

“More research is needed to confirm the full extent of its benefits, but I anticipate that in the future it will also be approved to lower cholesterol for a much wider group of people to prevent them from having a heart attack or stroke in the first place,” Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, the medical director of the British Heart Foundation, told the paper.

The potential paths for climate change roadmap | The Week UK

The next ten years will be “pivotal” in protecting the future of the planet, Boris Johnson has warned following the publication of a UN report that says human activitiy is “unequivocally” causing climate change.

The prime minister described the latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) as “sobering reading”, while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the findings were a “code red for humanity”.

The UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, agrees that “the need for action on climate change is urgent”. But in a joint article for The Times, Vallance and the Met Office’s chief scientist, Professor Stephen Belcher, stress that “there is still time to act”.

What happens next?

Experts say that tackling climate change will require a concerted and collaborative effort by governments across the globe. One crucial step will be to curb carbon dioxide emissions, the main contributor of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The bid to achieve this goal should include translating “a temperature target into a cumulative carbon target”, tweets Professor Katharine Hayhoe, an atmospheric scientist at Texas Tech University.

The IPCC report says that global temperatures are likely to rise by 1.5C over the next two decades, but that providing a framework that links carbon emissions to temperature increases could help clarify the level of regulation needed to tackle the problem.

Real-time data, rather than retrospective tracking, should be integral to this “fair and transparent approach”, argue Vallance and Belcher in The Times. The two government experts recommend that “a live dashboard” be set up to track carbon emissions.

“An objective system could directly measure greenhouse gas concentrations and use modelling to infer emissions in near real time,” they write. “Such a measurement system would chart the immediate effectiveness of mitigation policies and allow further targeted action in polluting sectors.”

The pair also call on national leaders to urgently revise their policies to reach net zero emissions. “Countries should plot mechanisms for scaling up and deploying technologies that already exist, such as wind and solar renewables and electrification of transport,” say Vallance and Belcher.

Commentators have noted that increased government regulation to tackle climate change will be likely to impact daily life.

Does Boris Johnson's green agenda go far enough? | The Week UK

The message from climate scientists in last week’s landmark report was clear, said The Observer: humanity must wean itself off fossil fuels now. While every nation must play its part, there’s a particular onus on Britain. It was here, after all, that the Industrial Revolution began, and it is Britain that is hosting the UN’s critical climate summit, COP26, in November. Many nations at the event in Glasgow will be looking to the UK for leadership, but it will be in little position to offer it. The Government has not only failed to set out a clear strategy for achieving net-zero emissions in the near future; it’s also continuing to support measures that directly undermine that goal. This “list of incompatibilities” includes the recent closing of the Green Homes Grant insulation scheme; freezing fuel duty; encouraging airport expansion; and delaying the phasing out of gas boilers beyond the planned date of 2035.

Boris Johnson has committed to cutting the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions by 78% of 1990 levels by 2035, and achieving net zero by 2050, said Elliot Chappell on LabourList.org. But based on its current trajectory, the UK is, according to government advisers, on course to cut only a fifth of the emissions needed to meet the 2035 target. To make matters worse, the PM is also facing a backlash from “reactive elements” in his party over his green agenda, such as it is. Among those warning that it risks alienating voters is Bassetlaw MP Brendan Clarke-Smith, who described it as a “hard sell asking people to make sacrifices when the rest of the world, China/Russia etc, are carrying on as usual”.

The “awkward squad” are threatening to make trouble over net zero, said Peter Franklin on UnHerd, but Johnson has “more allies than enemies” in this battle. The climate agenda appeals to the southern voters the Tories risk losing to the Lib Dems and Greens, and to voters in the North and Midlands who want investment in clean energy to revive local economies. The PM must stick to his targets, said The Times. We’ve already seen how economies of scale can reduce the cost of green technologies: wind is now a cheaper source of electricity than coal; experts expect the price of new electric cars to fall below that of petrol and diesel vehicles as soon as 2025. The price of other green technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells, heat pumps and solar energy should likewise fall over time. The costs of net zero should in any case be kept in perspective. The Office for Budget Responsibility reckons that decarbonising our economy will cost us some £1.4trn over 30 years. “That is less than the Government has spent on the pandemic in 18 months.”

How much will it cost the UK to get to net zero? | The Week UK

When Theresa May committed the UK to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the then prime minister did not say who would be footing the bill. And two years after the goal was set, that question remains unanswered. As the UK prepares to host the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November, Boris Johnson has said that the transition to a greener economy is not “some expensive politically correct green act of ‘bunny hugging’”, but rather “about growth and jobs”. Yet calculating the costs of reaching the net zero target “with any accuracy is difficult, given the level of uncertainty around new and emerging technologies, and changes in the economy and people’s behaviour”, says the Institute for Government. Analysis “will undoubtedly change in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic” too, adds the independent think tank, which advises ministers. But modelling and forecasts indicate that significant investment is required in the very near future in order to achieve the net zero target. How much will net zero cost? The government is required to set five-yearly carbon budgets after taking advice from the Climate Change Committee (CCC), an independent statutory body formed under the Climate Change Act 2008. The CCC’s Sixth Carbon Budget, published last December, estimated that the total costs of transitioning to net zero emissions would be “below 1% of GDP throughout the next 30 years”. This represents a significant reduction from the 1% to 2% of GDP forecast in the Fifth Carbon Budget, published in 2015. The CCC’s latest budget also made clear that reaching net zero “will be capital-intensive, with increased upfront spending” required. According to the report, to reach the 2050 target, the UK’s low carbon investment would need to increase to around £50bn a year by 2030 - roughly five times the level seen in 2020. The advisory body said that “the increase is deliverable, primarily by private companies and individuals, alongside other investment, provided effective policy is put in place”. Skip advert However, modelling by the National Grid of four “different pathways” to net zero - ranging from “Steady Progression” to “Leading the Way” - indicates that the cost could be far higher, with a net value of up to £3.2trn by 2050.

But like the CCC, the power giant’s forecasts indicate that immediate increased investment is needed. The experts argue that as well as benefitting the environment, such investment would make financial sense. The CCC says an inital increase in spending to hit net zero would yield “ongoing savings in fuel costs”, with the cost of electric vehicle batteries falling by 65% between 2020 and 2050, and the cost of renewable electricity supplies cut by up to 27%. Indeed, forecasts indicate that savings in operational spending “will start to exceed the annual investment” by 2040, the Financial Times reported in March. Green energy consultant Josh Buckland told the newspaper that while the challenges involved in transitioning to eco-friendly transport were relatively “solvable”, making UK homes greener would be “far more problematic”, requiring both significant financial investment and “a massive shift in consumer attitudes”. The CCC says that “against the current backdrop of low investment, low interest and high unemployment”, pumping money into low carbon should have a positive effect on the economy. But how the government conveys that message to the public may prove key to the success of the push to hit net zero. Who will pay? CCC boss Chris Stark told business leaders in 2019 that “further progress” in achieving net zero would require a “thorough review” of “how these costs are distributed”. “We must consider the appropriate balance of 1) cost for the Exchequer, 2) costs on the consumer, and 3) economy-wide costs,” Stark said. “And we must make use of the right tools - carbon pricing, tax, financial incentives, information or regulation.” Despite such advice, as the FT has noted, the Treasury’s plans for how the cost of reaching net zero will be distributed remain “vague”. The Spectator columnist Ross Clark last week claimed that Tory leaders have “a tradition of refusing to level with the public about the cost of their green ideas”. And Chancellor Rishi Sunak is “understood to be in rebellion against the costs of net zero - whatever they may be”, he wrote. Skip advert One leaked government assessment put the total expenditure at £1trn, according to Clark, who noted that the CCC has been ordered by the Information Tribunal to present the methodology behind its cost calculations, which the advisory body has “never properly explained”. As the Treasury prepares to publish its next net zero review later this year, recent polling suggests that public attitudes to green investment is shifting. Amid growing concern about the effects of climate change, 27% of almost 1,800 people quizzed by YouGov said they would be willing to support policies tackling climate change even if these measures negatively impacted their personal finances.


Inside Adelaide Cottage: the guesthouse set to become Prince ...

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are set to move into Adelaide Cottage, a “modest” property ten minutes’ walk from the Queen’s new official residence, Windsor Castle, according to reports.

In March this year, the Queen made the historic castle, founded by William the Conqueror in the 11th century, her permanent home and official residence. In the past, she tended to use Windsor Castle only as a weekend home and her residence during Easter and Royal Ascot week, with Buckingham Palace being her official home.

The monarch appears to have started a trend. Prince William and Kate Middleton are now set to relocate to Windsor, along with their three children: George, eight, Charlotte, seven, and Louis, four. The four-bedroom home needs “no extra taxpayer-funded security or costly refurb”, according to The Sun, and the move means that their three children will be able to start school in the area in the autumn.

According to the Daily Mail royal correspondent Rebecca English, the Cambridges have been planning a move to Berkshire since 2021 and “have enrolled Prince George in a new school there, where he is expected to be joined this September by his siblings”.

Along with being near the Queen, Adelaide Cottage is also closer to Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, who have lived for a decade in Bucklebury Manor, a seven-bedroom Grade II-listed Georgian property which is also in Berkshire.

Built in 1831 as a retreat for William IV’s wife, Queen Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, the cottage is the Cambridges’ “best and only option”, a royal insider revealed to The Sun’s royal correspondent Matt Wilkinson. The property is thought to have been refurbished as recently as 2015, with William and Kate keen to move in as early as this summer.

‘Grace and favour’ residence

Over the years, Adelaide Cottage has been used as a “grace and favour” residence for royal friends including Peter Townsend, the Battle of Britain pilot and equerry to King George VI who became the divorced lover of the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, between 1944 and 1952.

Princess Margaret reportedly spent “many Sunday visits” at the residence while Townsend lived there with his first wife, Rosemary. The princess "played with the children on the lawn and Peter Townsend, off duty, sat back in a deckchair”, according to a 1950 newspaper report, republished The Sun.

Top royal moments of 2018: Harry and Meghan wed, baby news and ...

USA TODAY

It was an especially busy year for the British royals, what with weddings, babies and birthdays on the calendar. And once again, the masters of pomp and pageantry showed off their skills to the delight of billions watching around the world.

Here are the top 12 moments on the royal stage in 2018:

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle say 'we do':

This was the marquee event, especially for Americans, given that the royal bride for Harry is historic: Older, divorced, biracial, American and an actress, she is the first such bride to be welcomed into the royal family in...well, forever.

The Los Angeles-born Markle, who gained modest fame on USA's "Suits," was the undisputed star on May 19 in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in an ancient ritual that featured the first gospel choir and gospel preacher from Chicago to shake up a royal wedding. Even her father's pre-wedding dithering about whether he show up (he didn't) failed to ruin the day; she glided down the aisle on the arm of Prince Charles, her father-in-law-to-be.

To all that, add Markle's stunning couture gown by Givenchy, with a veil that paid special tribute to the queen, a second gown by Stella McCartney for the two receptions, and a colorful carriage procession under brilliant skies through Windsor as thousands lined the Long Walk to cheer in person and people all over the world watched on TV and social media.

Now she's HRH Meghan the Duchess of Sussex, married to the sixth-in-line to the throne and pregnant with their first child, who will be the eighth great-grandchild to Queen Elizabeth II.

"The boss" takes to Duchess Meghan:

The queen is the head of the royal "firm," so her approval is crucial. Whenever a new bride joins the family, custom calls for the queen to carry out a joint engagement with the newbie. For Duchess Meghan, this debut came surprisingly quickly, in June less than a month after the wedding, and also featured an unprecedented invitation to board The Royal Train for a day of solo engagements with Her Majesty in Cheshire.

Meghan not only got to spend the night on the train – something even Harry hasn't done – she got a master's-class lesson in her royal job from her new boss. And both appeared to enjoy the experience judging from the photos of the two giggling together.

The 65th anniversary of the last British coronation:

As the queen approached her ninth decade, significant anniversaries began to fall: Her 60th year on the throne in 2012; her passing of great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria's record for longest-ever reign, in 2015; her 90th birthday in 2016; and now, in 2018, the 65th anniversary of her coronation on June 2, 1953 in Westminster Abbey.

(She became queen in February 1952 on the death of her father, King George VI, but the official crowning takes place later because coronations take time to organize.)

Hers was the fourth and final British coronation of the 20th century and it followed to a remarkable degree the ceremonial script set down nearly 1,000 years ago.

Except, it was the first coronation to be televised. Still, the most sacred moment of the hours-long ritual – the Act of Consecration when the monarch is anointed with blessed oil – was deemed so holy that it was kept off camera.

Prince Louis of Cambridge is born

Prince William and Duchess Kate of Cambridge welcomed their third child on April 23, 2018, a new little prince of Cambridge, a historic royal baby and the new fifth in line to the British throne.

Like his brother, Prince George 5, and sister, Princess Charlotte, 3, he was born at St. Mary's Hospital in London. Louis entered the world shortly after 11 a.m. local time, weighing 8 pounds, 7 ounces.

About seven hours later, Will and Kate emerged from the hospital, baby in arms and she looked none the worse for wear. The baby was named Prince Louis Arthur Charles, with the name Louis pronounced in the French way.

The baby is historic because he is the first male heir born in the royal family who will not displace his older sister Charlotte in the succession to the throne. Louis is the queen's sixth great-grandchild.

Shortly before Prince George was born, the United Kingdom changed its law on royal succession so that girls are no longer automatically displaced by their younger brothers in line to the throne.

The queen's seventh great-grandchild is born

Prince Louis was only one of several royal baby events in 2018: Next up was the queen's latest great-grandchild, Lena Elizabeth Tindall, who was born June 18, to Zara Phillips Tindall, the queen's eldest granddaughter, and her husband, Mike Tindall.

Lena (pronounced Lay-na), whose middle name is in honor of the queen, is the fourth grandchild for the queen's daughter, Princess Anne the Princess Royal, and the queen's seventh great-grandchild. Lena has an older sister, Mia, 4.

The Tindall girls also have two cousins, Savannah Phillips, 7, and Isla Phillips, 6, who are the daughters of Peter Phillips, Anne's son and the queen's eldest grandson.

The baby's arrival was especially joyful after Zara Tindall suffered a miscarriage in 2016.

A royal christening

The third Cambridge christening, for baby Prince Louis, occurred on July 9 in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace, where George was christened.

As per usual, the christening was an occasion for a close family gathering, so there were new pictures of George and Charlotte.

But the queen and husband Prince Philip were not there. It was not because of ill health on either's part, palace officials said, although the Duke of Edinburgh, 97, has largely retired from public life. The queen was scheduled to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force and then meet later in the week with President and Mrs. Trump at Windsor Castle.

Everything else about the short ceremony followed closely for earlier christenings going back more than 100 years, including the antique silver Lily Font and the handmade replica of the 177-year-old royal lace christening gown.

Royal wedding Number 2: Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank:

Princess Eugenie of York, daughter of the queen's second son, Prince Andrew Duke of York, married her longtime commoner boyfriend, Jack Brooksbank, on Oct. 12, dressed in a stunning Peter Pilotto gown and a royal Russian-style tiara, in a lower-key repeat of the nuptials that enchanted the world Harry wed Meghan.

The York nuptials took place in the same church – St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle – and featured some of the same elements, including gorgeous couture gowns and dazzling tiara, bridesmaid Princess Charlotte and pageboy Prince George, a colorful carriage procession, a reception hosted by the queen at the castle, hundreds of high-profile guests and the presence of the royal family from the queen and Prince Philip on down.

The bride, 28, is not as well known outside Britain, let alone her groom, 32, a former bartender-turned-tequila-brand rep, but a royal wedding is still something in the U.K. and the ancient town of Windsor celebrated with gusto.

Harry and Meghan announce she's pregnant:

More baby news: The new royal couple announced Oct. 15 that they will welcome their first baby in spring 2019.

When the baby is born, he or she will be the eighth great-grandchild for the queen and Prince Philip, and will be seventh in line to the throne behind Harry.

"Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Sussex is expecting a baby in the spring of 2019," the palace announced in a pair of tweets that landed as the couple landed in Sydney to begin their first long royal tour of Down Under and the South Pacific.

Immediately, people began more closely examining Meghan's midriff in person and in pictures as the duo explored the region.

There was widespread delight, especially on Twitter, but also in the royal family, including the queen and Philip, Prince Charles the Prince of Wales (this will be his fourth grandchild), and Prince William and Duchess Kate of Cambridge.

Doria Ragland, mother of Meghan, 37, also appeared overjoyed in a statement from the palace. “Ms. Ragland is very happy about this lovely news and she looks forward to welcoming her first grandchild," the statement said.

"A big congratulations to the #dukeandduchessofsussex," was a typical tweet. "You're both an amazing couple and very inspirational. Love you both so very much. Best news ever! I'm sooooo over the moon!"

Harry and Meghan's adventures Down Under

Thrilled about their pregnancy and eager to embrace their new role as Commonwealth ambassadors, Harry and Meghan embarked Oct. 16 on a grueling three-week tour of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga, traveling thousands of miles and making dozens of public appearances.

Plus, they presided over the 2018 Invictus Games in Sydney, the competition for wounded warriors founded by Harry in 2014, and the place where they unforgettably debuted as a couple, and were photographed together for the first time, in 2017 in Toronto.

The trip was a deemed a resounding success even with a fashion mishap or two (like the price tag dangling from the bottom of Meghan's dress hem or the see-through skirt that seemed to show her underwear) or the brief security scare at one venue.

But those images were trumped by pictures of the two walking barefoot on the beach, meeting koalas at the zoo, posing in romantic places, rubbing noses in the traditional Maori greeting, laying wreaths at memorials, watching dance performances and looking consistently fabulous at fancy receptions.

Prince Charles turns 70

The Prince of Wales, already the longest-serving heir to the throne in history, turned the big 7-0 on Nov. 14 and was celebrated by his family and friends at a major bash at Buckingham Palace hosted by the queen.

She toasted her first-born with a warm tribute to his lifelong environmentalism, his dedication to conservation and the arts, his prodigious charitable work, his dedication as the heir to the throne, and as a "wonderful" father.

"It is a privilege for any mother to be able to propose a toast to her son on his 70th birthday. It means you have lived long enough to see your child grow up. It is rather like – to use an an analogy I am certain will find favor – planting a tree and being able to watch it grow," she said in remarks shared by the palace.

It was only the latest of a series of birthday year celebrations for Charles, which began as early as May with a garden party at the palace to mark the prince's indefatigable charity efforts.

His just-married second son, Prince Harry, and his new wife, Duchess Meghan of Sussex, even postponed their honeymoon to make their first appearance together since their wedding to praise Charles at the garden party.

It could still be many more years before he becomes Britain's 42nd sovereign as King Charles III, but for now the Prince of Wales has been showered in esteem and affection.

Prince Philip really disappeared from public life:

This time he really meant it: He was retiring from public life and would not be seen much in public in 2018 except for family events such as the weddings of his grandchildren, Prince Harry and Princess Eugenie.

At 97, the Duke of Edinburgh had been saying for years that he was cutting back on his busy round of appearances, but he still had a robust schedule even after he turned 90. Now the queen does most of her hundreds of engagements per year on her own.

Philip announced in August 2017 that he was hanging up his spurs after his last solo public engagement – No. 22,219 for those keeping score – but it seemed especially obvious in 2018 when he didn't turn up for the usual big-deal ceremonies, such as Trooping the Colour or the Order of the Garter ceremony. His last appearance at Royal Ascot was in 2017.

Then there was his hip replacement surgery in April. Would he be up and about for Harry and Meghan's May nuptials? He was; he didn't even use a walker. Same for Eugenie's wedding in October. He was prominent in the media photos of the weddings and the official family photos taken later.

Aside from that, he was photographed as per usual walking to church at Sandringham on a Sunday in January, and by paparazzi at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in early May and at a polo event in Windsor in June.

Philip's absence may not mean much to Americans but for the British it's hard to imagine seeing the queen without her husband of 71 years, who has played the role of subordinate to his wife in public for the 66 years she's been on the throne.

Harry and Meghan to move from Kensington Palace to Windsor

Goodbye, cramped, two-bedroom Nottingham Cottage. Goodbye, paparazzi lurking outside the palace gates. Goodbye the never-blinking eye of the media everywhere in noisy, sprawling London.

Hello, five-bedroom Frogmore Cottage. Hello, quiet, suburban Windsor Home Park. Hello, security cordon around Windsor Castle. Hello, gardens and picnics and the glamour of nearby Frogmore House, the longtime royal residence where Prince Charles hosted Harry and Meghan's sit-down dinner reception after their wedding.

On one level it should be easy to understand why the new royal couple would want to strike out on their own and seek a little more of the privacy they're entitled to as two royals who are not going to sit on thrones.

On the other hand, their announcement on Nov. 24 that they intend to move to Windsor when their baby is born in the spring (and after a good deal of renovation of the somewhat ramshackle "cottage") was instantly pounced on as "evidence" that the Sussexes wanted to escape the Cambridges because they allegedly don't "get on."

This sparked a tabloid frenzy of stories exploring such breaking news as Meghan's alleged "difficult" demands on staff and Kate's alleged tears after a dress fitting for Princess Charlotte.

But maybe all Harry and Meghan really want is more privacy, and less noise. Maybe they want to be closer to where they married and to the queen, who spends most weekends at Windsor Castle and loves hosting her grand kids for tea.

Or maybe they just want to be closer to Heathrow.