November sunshine (or not)
November, an unusual lack of sunshine, volcanic eruptions, blocking out the sun, a couple of old videos, and some other recent observations
Dear Church Leaders (and everyone else)
November
For some people, January is the bleakest month of the year. The Christmas and New Year festivities are over, but not yet paid for. The weather is cold and dark. And it’s back to work, with the prospect of warmer weather months away.
But there are some things that I quite like about January. I appreciate the quiet contrast it provides to the run-up to Christmas. I find satisfaction in watching the snowdrops emerge, which to my mind marks the beginning of the year in nature. And I enjoy planning ahead for the spring and summer.
If I had to select the month of the year I find bleakest, I would nominate November. The prospect of months of journeys home in the dark after the clocks go back. The cold November rain. And nature very much in its dying phase.
I generally find November to be the month when I have least energy. At least in January the days are getting longer, and the sunset is getting later with each passing day — something which actually starts from around December 12th.1
By mid-January, sunset is barely any later than on Bonfire Night. But in November the already-short days are getting shorter, and the Christmas holiday period feels far away.
I can thus identify somewhat with Thomas Hood, the author of the poem November:
No sun — no moon!
No morn — no noon —
No dawn — no dusk — no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member —
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! —
November!
An unusual lack of sunshine
But I wonder if Thomas Hood — who died in 1845 aged 45 — ever experienced ten days like those at the start of November 2024.
In the context of recent headlines such as this one…
…I wondered how exceptional this November has actually been.
The University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory generates daily raw data on the weather. Here, for example, are the charts for August 2012 when the Olympics were being held in London:
In recent months, there seems to have been something of an issue with the automated equipment, but it appears that the data for temperature, dew point, rainfall and sunshine has still been recorded.
Here is the chart for the first 20 or so days of November 2024, along with the corresponding charts for the previous fifteen Novembers.2
On the x-axis (left to right) are the days of the month. On the y-axis is the number of hours of sunshine.
Two things stood out for me:
Something odd was going on with the measuring equipment in 2015 and 2016
The period of 10 consecutive days with zero hours of sunshine this November does appear to be, to say the least, very unusual
Volcanic eruptions
In his teenage years, Thomas Hood presumably experienced the “Year Without a Summer” following the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in April 1815:
And it’s worth bearing in mind that in early 2022 there was another almighty volcanic eruption on the other side of the world (albeit thousands of miles away from Mount Tambora):
The event was described in this BBC News item — Tonga volcano: ‘The biggest eruption recorded by instruments’:
According to the abstract of this article:
The eruption of the submarine Hunga volcano in January 2022 was associated with a powerful blast that injected volcanic material to altitudes up to 58 km. From a combination of various types of satellite and ground-based observations supported by transport modeling, we show evidence for an unprecedented increase in the global stratospheric water mass by 13% relative to climatological levels, and a 5-fold increase of stratospheric aerosol load, the highest in the last three decades. Owing to the extreme injection altitude, the volcanic plume circumnavigated the Earth in only 1 week and dispersed nearly pole-to-pole in three months. The unique nature and magnitude of the global stratospheric perturbation by the Hunga eruption ranks it among the most remarkable climatic events in the modern observation era, with a range of potential long-lasting repercussions for stratospheric composition and climate. (Emphasis added)
It thus seemed somewhat odd to me that, when I searched the BBC website for an update recently (November 2024), I found relatively little, and nothing in the past year:
I don’t know how much it has to do with the Hunga Tonga eruption, but it seems that sea surface temperatures have been falling recently…3
…which doesn’t fit too well with the “global boiling” narrative:
Blocking out the sun
But back on the subject of sunshine, there have also been headlines like this one in Time magazine:
An article from the magazine that brought us covers like these…4
…featuring the man who brought us books like these…
…and who is now backing projects to block out the sun. What could possibly go wrong?
Is it too much to wonder whether the powers that be are practising blocking out the sun at a time of year when it might go relatively unnoticed?
According to this BBC article:
In what is already a multi-billion-dollar industry, scientists around the world, including in the UK, are researching geo-engineering — ways of manipulating the climate to tackle global warming.
I was aware that geo-engineering was a multi-billion-dollar industry. Although curiously the article at this link…
…in which BBC Lead Weather Presenter Simon King mentions “a £103bn ($135bn) industry” is now apparently “unavailable”.5
And, in a perhaps-unsurprising development which is at least consistent with the recent appearance of the skies, the Met Office seems less than transparent about what is going on:6
Climate-Engineering Projects
In May, independent journalist Lewis Brackpool submitted a series of FOI requests to seven government departments concerning the use of geo-engineering technologies.
In response to his request to disclose any ongoing research projects, the Met Office revealed they’ve researched reflecting the Sun’s energy back into space. But it has only been carried out via simulations. In effect, they’re just messing around with models.
Yet, towards the end of their response, they said they withheld some information because it is still in the “course of completion”. Among other reasons, the Met Office’s legal team stated releasing “incomplete data” could mislead, prevent their scientists from working in a “free and undisturbed way”, and “undermine the process of input and analysis”.
In theory, the Met Office could claim their research is ongoing for the next 100 years and reject all disclosure requests. We don’t know if any future physical research is scheduled. Nor we know if regulations allow them to deny the existence of any ongoing physical research. The real kicker, though, the Met Office admitted they have no oversight mechanism. They manage themselves.
The Met Office is a trading fund—an agency that handles its own revenues and expenses like a private business—of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).
Should we trust that the authorities are acting in our best interests? I am less convinced than I used to be about that. Consider e.g. this report from 2002 (long before the BBC became part of The Trusted News Initiative):
A couple of old videos
But in any case, geo-engineering is nothing new.
Here, for example, is an NBC news story from the US in 1980:
[Newscaster] On clear days you can often see long white lines being traced high in the sky. They are contrails of jet aircraft — actually long slender clouds. Weathermen are finding them especially fascinating because a theory is being developed that those long white lines may be changing our weather for the better.
[Reporter Roger O’Neill] The exhaust from jet engines, usually seen as long thin trails of white clouds behind high-flying jet airplanes, may be a big reason why there are 30 fewer days of sunshine a year in the Midwest now than there were in 1900. The daily range between high and low temperatures has also narrowed. Weather researchers studying cloud cover in 10 Midwestern states found a sharp increase in cloudiness with the increase in commercial jet travel, particularly in the main east-west jet corridor [where] there were even more clouds. A jet produces a contrail — or a cloud — because its exhaust consists primarily of water vapor.
[Richard Semonin, Illinois Institute of Natural Resources] In the absence of natural clouds, given the correct atmospheric conditions, jet aircraft in high frequency can almost completely cover the visible atmosphere with clouds.
[Reporter Roger O’Neill] Semonin says [that] unlike most changes in the atmosphere caused by man, this one is beneficial. Clouds help farmers in the Midwest by blocking the sun. Temperature extremes can damage plants and speed up the evaporation of soil moisture. In the winter, city people benefit because clouds act as a blanket preventing warm air from escaping into the atmosphere.
No-one is trying to make clouds now using jet engines, but this study suggests that jet travel is inadvertently making our days more cloudy. And someday weather researchers may be able to use jets on purpose to change our weather.
And here is a presentation to the United Nations from 2007 featuring Rosalind Peterson of the Agriculture Defense Coalition (short transcript below;7 longer transcript in footer8):
[From 1:00]
One of the things that is affected by climate change is agriculture. But some of what we are seeing is man-made, but man-made in a different way than you may guess.
Weather modification programs — experimental ones — done by private companies, then by the United States government, then by state are underway. There’s more than 50 of them in operation across the United States…
[From 7:22]
This is our skies. And I want you to know that what you are seeing now… many scientists know, especially at NASA… that the skies we are seeing are not normal cloud formations. These are man-made…
The pictures look odd. The formations don’t look like normal clouds that people have seen before historically. This [picture] is another type of man-made cloud… we have the photographs from the time that the jet leaves its first trail… as a thin spindly trail, to where they form into these different types of cloud formations. All of you can start looking up and seeing this…
The skies that you see up here… have a white haze to them. When crossing the United States two days ago, we saw this man-made… haze all the way across the United States. There were few real clouds. We saw the persistent jet contrails from the jet windows. And the skies and the white haze looked a lot like this.
[Update]
Further to posting this article, it has come to my attention that the state of Victoria, Australia, passed this Rain-making Control Act in 1967:
And that the US enacted this Weather Modification Act in 1953:
Some other recent observations
As it happens, just days after the covid lockdowns were announced, 2020 saw the sunniest April for over a hundred years:
And 2020 also saw the sunniest May for over a hundred years — around 20% more sunshine than almost every other year:
Make of that what you will.
Other things I have seen of late include:
Legislation from US states such as New Hampshire and Tennessee (among others) “prohibiting… cloud seeding, weather modification…”
…and “excessive electromagnetic radio frequency, and microwave radiation…” (!)
This clip of an aircraft apparently running out of whatever it is spraying (well worth watching):
And this curious footage from Devon, UK, on 30th October…
…which, as it happens, was apparently recorded just before the ten sunless days at the beginning of November
It seems somewhat fitting to finish this post with some words from Psalm 148,9 sometimes known as the Weather Psalm:
Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding… praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendour is above the earth and the heavens.
Dear Church Leaders most-read articles
Some posts, including a version of this one, can also be found on Unexpected Turns
The Big Reveal: Christianity carefully considered
The latest sunrise occurs around December 30th
There is data available back to 1995; the charts for the Novembers of 1995-2008 look rather like the charts for the Novembers of 2009-2023
See also e.g. this article
And these:
See the section Climate-Engineering Projects around 60-70% down the page
US spellings used; NB as far as I can tell the presentation is from 2007 rather than 2006
Here is a longer transcript of the presentation:
[From 1:00]
One of the things that is affected by climate change is agriculture. But some of what we are seeing is man-made, but man-made in a different way than you may guess.
Weather modification programs — experimental ones — done by private companies, then by the United States government, then by state are underway. There’s more than 50 of them in operation across the United States. All of these impact agriculture because they change the microclimates needed for agriculture to survive. None of these programs that I know of today — and this is all public record — are available at any time with agricultural oversight or public oversight.
These programs impact agriculture. And there are programs around the world. International corporations are modifying our weather all the time. And they are modifying it in ways that cover thousands and thousands of square miles. Most of it is chemically altered… so that what happens is that we are putting… ground-based chemicals… that are shot into the air. Or chemicals coming from airplanes that change and modify our weather.
[From 4:42]
One of the things that is impacting crop production right now in the IUS and reducing photosynthesis, and also impacting the ability of solar panels to generate the power that they should, is persistent jet contrails. NASA talks about persistent jet contrails as exacerbating global warming because they trap warmth in the atmosphere when they produce… man-made clouds
NASA these aircraft leaving persistent trail are also changing our climate. And when they change our climate to the degree that one jet can leave a contrail which will spread across our skies…
A trail left by a jet can expand to 4,000 km and last for 20 hours . This was unheard of in the early 1960s and 70s. And it wasn’t until the late 1980s that we started to have contrails that persist
NASA studies show that part of our global warming problem could be attributed to these types of contrails and the jets that leave them. One of the issues as we go through is, “How do you like your skies? Natural or man-made.” And right now we are making man-made clouds, and this is trapping warmth in our atmosphere.
The climate change that is produced by these jets — not all jets, mostly some non-commercial — but what happens to our skies is that we start to see the changes. The man-made clouds do trap the warmth and they increase the humidity. This allows for pests to proliferate, diseases, molds, mildews, funguses and viruses.
[From 7:22]
This is our skies. And I want you to know that what you are seeing now… many scientists know, especially at NASA… that the skies we are seeing are not normal cloud formations. These are man-made. And what happens as we reduce the amount of sunlight — in a form of “global dimming” — we reduce the solar power with these types of clouds and we reduce photosynthesis which is going to impact agriculture.
The pictures look odd. The formations don’t look like normal clouds that people have seen before historically. This [picture] is another type of man-made cloud… we have the photographs from the time that the jet leaves its first trail… as a thin spindly trail, to where they form into these different types of cloud formations. All of you can start looking up and seeing this.
What happens is that there are experiments. And… you can see some colour in this photograph. And part of what we are doing also is we are sending up canisters — the United States government, NASA, the US airforce — canisters into the atmosphere filled with chemicals, to modify and experiment with our ionosphere. And when we modify and experiment with our ionosphere… we create experiments which they can see through these persistent jet contrails as they stay in the sky for long periods of time. And they can watch the experiments.
The type of chemicals they are using are aluminum, barium, strontium. And these canisters are sent up on rockets. And what they do is they superheat the canisters to create experiments in our atmosphere. The experiments can give you colourful auroras which they talk about as being wonderful. Many times people think that the auroras in Alaska, and the ones we see, are normal. But there’s beginning to be more and more seen across the United States and elsewhere, where aluminum — trimethylaluminum experiments to make clouds — are beginning to impact us.
I am reminded of this post I did back in May:
And this recent update.
The reason I am concerned for agriculture is that many of these experiments [don’t have] public oversight nor agricultural oversight. Our drinking water is impacted because the chemicals are now beginning to show up in our drinking water. In California, the… drinking water tests were examined between 1970 and [2006]. And we found unusual spiking in barium, aluminum, strontium, magnesium, calcium, manganese. And all of these spiked at the same time, in various drinking water supplies across the state of California. And also in Arizona.
[For those who remember GCSE chemistry: strontium and barium are Group 2 alkaline earth metals like magnesium and calcium.
As to the effects of some of the metals mentioned:
Barium is toxic in high doses, and can cause muscle weakness, respiratory diseases and heart issues.
Aluminium exposure can cause neurotoxicity, bone disorders, kidney damage, and oxidative stress, potentially contributing to Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline
Excessive strontium intake may weaken bones and disrupt calcium balance (given strontium is chemically similar)
Manganese is neurotoxic at high levels, leading to motor dysfunction and cognitive impairment
Also, the metals mentioned can be used in fireworks giving the colours green (barium), white (aluminium and magnesium), red (strontium), orange-red (calcium) and purple (manganese). These elements can be identified by flame tests, which are a staple of many GCSE chemistry courses.]
So what’s happening with these atmospheric tests is that aluminum — as one example — gets into… the root systems of our crops trees and our trees. And it looks like the trees are dying of drought. But they are not. What happens is that the root systems can no longer absorb the water and the nutrients needed to survive. Many of our forests… are dying… the oak trees, the redwood trees, the Douglas fir… across the United States in many areas. We believe that these trees are impacted because they cannot absorb enough water because aluminum is going into their root systems. Also… molds, mildew and fungus from warmer temperatures produced by persistent jet contrails are also allowing pests and molds to proliferate, also impacting tree health and crop health.
The skies that you see up here… have a white haze to them. When crossing the United States two days ago, we saw this man-made… haze all the way across the United States. There were few real clouds. We saw the persistent jet contrails from the jet windows. And the skies and the white haze looked a lot like this.
