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Bananas sprout in Rayleigh Garden UK after 15 years

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131–140 of 152 posts

Re: Bananas sprout in Rayleigh Garden UK after 15 years

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I'm sure the reason the UK had its hottest mean June temperature ever and recorded its highest ever June temperature in the village of Lingwood, Norfolk is all down to how many weather stations are located next to runways .

Some time ago an FOI (Freedom of Information) request to the UK Met Office got the following response: Background: Class 1–2 are regarded as excellent or very good exposures, Class 3 permits uncertainties up to about 1 °C, Class 4 permits uncertainties up to about 2 °C, and Class 5 permits uncertainties up to about 5 °C because of nearby artificial heat sources or other exposure problems. According to analyses of the…

What's involved in ensuring a weather station meets class 1 requirements?

Re: Bananas sprout in Rayleigh Garden UK after 15 years

#132
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, apparently the Gros Michel banana (which you can still get, if you try hard enough) tastes much more like artificial banana flavor, because that was the dominant variety when the flavor was developed.

It just has more isoamyl acetate, which is what artificial banana flavoring uses.

Which it uses because it bananas at the time had lots of it

Re: Bananas sprout in Rayleigh Garden UK after 15 years

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He added that growing banana plants in the UK is not new for a "geek in the plant world", but perhaps still niche to the average person. Also, do you think that it may have something to do with being cities with stone and steel that absorbs and radiates heat, and that cities are no longer as filled with trees due to urbanization and immigration filling them with people? For context, London, Rome, and Paris have res…

The population of London isn't much more today than it was in 1930. And the population density is more or less the same too. I think it's unlikely that people's bodies are the cause of heating. Greater London for example would receive about 1572 MW of solar irradiance on a sunny day.

The city burns quite a bit of fossil fuel for heating and transportation every day though. That certainly has effects on microclimates (think vents from the tube, which is getting ever hotter).

Re: Bananas sprout in Rayleigh Garden UK after 15 years

#135
post #19

Seems like an opportunity to plug the latest video by my favorite YouTube long form documentary maker, OTR: The History of the Banana https://youtu.be/YVVD1cYelUE?is=ADLXFR_-mIMdDfom Here gets into ancient innovations that allowed bananas to be grown outside of their native habitat in Papua New Guinea. If you haven't seen his content, and you get sucked in, then settle in without distractions - this is the opposite e…

Didn't expect to see this on HN, but it's definitely one of my favorite YouTube channels. Most food history content online feels like straight up readings from Wikipedia, but OTR does actual research and interviews. The Golden Triangle episode where they interviewed the anti-CCP rebel veteran who was like 90 years old was pretty neat. Doesn't sound like it'd tie into food, but it does.

Re: Bananas sprout in Rayleigh Garden UK after 15 years

#137
post #50

In South America there's a very aggressive spider that lives on the bananas (genus Phoneutria). Spiders usually shy away from humans but these attack and have a very nasty venom. I wonder if the heat will take nasty critters to Europe.

I grow a plantain orchard in South America and while i need to take double care of such spiders, they are not aggressive at all. I find them super cute and let visit my home as well. :)

Re: Bananas sprout in Rayleigh Garden UK after 15 years

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, it's better faith in the original argument which was a bunch of ludicrous FUD blaming measurement error for climate change, as if thermometers hadn't been located near heat islands and airports for decades and crank blogs had a better idea how to deal with measurement error than meteorologists. The irony is I could actually make a better argument for immigration being a factor in climate change (moving to a m…

I'd be happier if you'd thrown in some concession like "I admit data is sometimes bad quality". That wouldn't mean agreeing with your opponent's implicit denial that any warming is happening. Your side doesn't have to be perfect in order to be in the right, and if you claim infallibility it looks less credible, to me. Is it more important to laugh at this guy, than to be scrupulous? It may spoil an entertaining delib…

> I'd be happier if you'd thrown in some concession like "I admit data is sometimes bad quality".

"be reasonable, meet them halfway."

Re: Bananas sprout in Rayleigh Garden UK after 15 years

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some time ago an FOI (Freedom of Information) request to the UK Met Office got the following response: Background: Class 1–2 are regarded as excellent or very good exposures, Class 3 permits uncertainties up to about 1 °C, Class 4 permits uncertainties up to about 2 °C, and Class 5 permits uncertainties up to about 5 °C because of nearby artificial heat sources or other exposure problems. According to analyses of the…

What's involved in ensuring a weather station meets class 1 requirements?

It's a theoretical optimum location for measuring whether temperature at a weather station is likely to be representative of average temperature across the surrounding area, with requirements for flatness of land, vegetation of the appropriate type and height, no shade between sunrise and sunset, no windbreaks and distance from reflective surfaces.

Has nothing to do with its suitability for use in longitudinal study, because whilst a site next to a massive concrete windbreak might be a degree or two hotter than other locations in a region, unless the concrete windbreak is a recent phenomenon, it can't be the cause of temperatures at that site being higher in the 2020s than they were in the 2000s or 1970s...

Re: Bananas sprout in Rayleigh Garden UK after 15 years

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know, but currently we still have rhubarb. The article is extremely blasé about even more species losing their environment.

Rhubarb isn't native to the UK. Its origins are mysterious (the "barb" is for barbarian) but I think it came over with the Romans. I had a feeling that the Tiber was named after rhubarb, but I'm remembering something wrong there evidently.

I know it grows well in Zimbabwe at least. My mum used to make a lot of rhubarb crumble. Yum!
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