By Paul Homewood
h/t Tim Scott
There was a drought in Germany, and naturally, the media went hyperbolic to link it to global warming:
As Europe experiences a long hot summer, one of the continent’s great rivers is becoming drier – posing huge problems for the people and businesses that depend on it.
Captain Andre Kimpel looked experienced, but anxious, across the Rhine, where the water level has dropped dramatically in recent days.
Some ferry services in and around the town of Kaub have been forced to shut down, but he still carries people and their vehicles across the water to the opposite shore – for now.
“No joke,” he said as he navigated the water that sparkled in the summer sunlight. “We have 1.5 million [5ft] Our water and boat are located 1.20m deep. So we have 30 cm of water left below us”.
Captain Kimpel says a drop in water levels here is not unusual, but it does happen more often. “We used to have a lot of floods. Now we have a lot of low water.”
On the riverbank nearby, there is an old measuring station. Any captain wishing to enter the Upper Rhine will consult the official water levels recorded here.
The current level has not fallen below the lowest figure ever recorded here, in October 2018. The measurement was then 25cm (measurement was taken from the same domestic benchmark, not the deepest point. on the river bed).
It is currently 42cm – but is forecast to drop further in the coming days.
The government agency that monitors water levels says the current low water may just be part of a normal pattern. However, they note, such events are becoming more and more intense as a result of climate change, and they say the situation will get even worse in the second half of this century.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62519683
This report was covered in media coverage and almost identical wording suggests a well-coordinated, produced story, almost certainly from one of the news organizations. well-funded climate bias.
The BBC’s title is completely misleading, as 30cm is water under the boat; According to Captain Kempl, the actual depth of the river is 1.5m.
The 42cm gauge at Kaub is also widely reported, but equally misleading, as this measurement was taken near the riverbank, rather than in the deepest part of the stream.
None of the dozens of reports I’ve read have any actual historical data to compare with this event, whether rainfall or water level data. We are told this is the lowest water level since 2018, as if this means anything. No evidence has been presented to suggest that this drought is unprecedented, or that the drought is becoming more extreme; Merely this statement appears in most articles:
“HGK and other shipping companies are preparing for a “new normal” in which low water levels become more common as global warming makes droughts more severe, depleting water along the coast. along the length of the Rhine from the Swiss Alps to the North Sea.
“Climate change is undeniably and the industry is adjusting to it,”
However, annual rainfall trends in Mainz, just upstream of Kalb, suggest that while recent years have been drier than the 1980s and 90s, they are no drier than the 1950s. We also see similar trends. similar to the rainfall from April to September:
And finally, WUWT provides an insight into some of the past super-droughts in Germany, especially in 1540.
Therefore, there is nothing to suggest that this is more than just another weather event.
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