The Weather and Climate Fluctuations
'Funny weather we are having' is a statment of the obvious wehave used for generations as a greeting. When the deep cold lastslong and heavy snow and blizzards give us the shivers we replace"funny" with something stronger, such as "terrible", "ghastly".At times like these people ask what is happening to the weather.So we go to the experts, who tells us, in language appropriate tothe subject, what happened yesterday, what is happening today,and what might happen in the next few years. Weather and climatespecialists all over the world have ammassed a vast quantity ofinformation. They can describe what is happening around us. Withsatellites they can forecast more accurately what might happen inthe immediate future. Their research has produced evidence of whypast climatic changes took place.
There have been many climate fluctuations over the 10,000years since Britain was last covered with an ice sheet. Advancesand retreats of ice in the northern hemisphere during the past500,000 years can be accounted for by changes in the warmth fromthe Sun.
This was caused by alterations in the Earth's orbit atperiods of 96,000, 40,000 and 20,000 years.
Although that theory is widley accepted as a possibleexplanations for ice ages, it has not been proved. More than 50theories have been put forward, but only a few have not beencompletely dismissed.
Not long ago a new theory was published in the sciencejournal "Nature". According to Dr. Garry Hunt, of UniversityCollege, intense radiations from the nuclear explosion of anearby supernova - a star - could cause the destruction of partor all of the ozone layer and in this way trigger an ice age.
As for me, i like autumn best of all. The days becomeshorter and the nights longer. It isn't so hot in the day-time.The trees are covered with yellow and red leaves. At the end ofsummer apples, pears, plums and other fruit become ripe. In theSouth there are many oranges, peaches and tangerines. Autumn isplesant when it does not rain. General autumn is a rainy seasonof the year. When it rains the weather is nasty. The sky iscovered with heavy clouds. It drizzles. It is muddy and wet.