Preparing for El Niño

JenniRen

Well, we should always look on the bright side.
If we have a very wet winter, the reservoirs will fill and there'll be less chance of a drought/hosepipe ban/standpipes next summer 😀

Oh yes, plan for the worst and hope for the best, always be positive.

I think the weather extremes caused by this El Niño will be severe, but will be glad to be proved wrong. Not only should people be sensibly keeping some non perishables to one side - I do this anyway, we should also be thinking about keeping warm this winter without overspending on bills and keeping cool next summer when it is predicted temps over 40 degrees will be reached as regularly as temps in the late 30s were reached this year. We are seriously considering installing AC here in London. Costly, but with my husband to care for I cannot struggle through another summer like the one we just had.
And those ready to dismiss the heatwaves as just what happens sometimes might care to look at their geographical location in the UK, quite frankly if you don’t live in areas hardest hit this summer you really don’t know what it was like.

Fallingstar,How do you think this extreme weather will affect us?
Do you remember " warm spaces". The funding for that seems to have stopped.

Is El Niño a way governments are getting Europe to stock up against cyber attacks I am asking myself.

greyfur16

*Fallingstar*,How do you think this extreme weather will affect us?
Do you remember " warm spaces". The funding for that seems to have stopped.

Flooding and wind damage are the most likely, power cables could be down, and water supplies compromised?
We’ve got designated warm spaces, I think most councils are still funding them?

Yes I think warm spaces are still going to be available but I suppose it depends on local councils as Casdon said. My guess is some charities might do this if warm spaces are not funded by local councils, or at least I would hope so.

mokryna

Is El Niño a way governments are getting Europe to stock up against cyber attacks I am asking myself.

I suspect that is a serious possibility.

There is always that chance Oldnproud.

There seemed to be a flurry of warm spaces in my area, a lot of Churches got on board. Then it stopped. Funding I suppose.

For us, one priority is loo rolls. With various stomach issues in the family and an OCD grandson, we get through an inordinate amount in normal times.

No one has mentioned chocolate!

It would have to be a dire emergency indeed for me to eat cold baked beans or cold tomato soup.

But Usedtobeblonde I’m going one better than you. I’m going to drill holes in the bottoms of old cocoa tins, join them with string and create my own telephone exchange.

I routinely keep the following in supply and was glad of it recently as I had no transport to the shops :
Biscuits
Chocolate
Tinned and packet soup
Noodles
Potatoes
Tinned fruit
Nuts
Tea bags
Coffee
Drinking chocolate
Coffemate
I also have flour and c

Can make bread if necessary
Sugar
Soda
Wine
Brandy

If there is no electricity for one reason or another, no heating or cooling systems will work nor water/ waste. It would be better to stock up on water, long life milk, tinned food and food that does not need heating/ cooking,

We are stocking up on wood for the wood burner. At least if there is no electricity, we shall have warmth and the means to heat food.
Quite often in the winter we light it and open all the internal doors. The house is soon warm. With thick, knitted blankets we do not need the central heating on.

Pet food and lots of soup

It only has to be a lot of toilet rolls, boxes of tea and lots of the new white chocolate Digestive biscuits. That's about it.

CarrotTop

There's no such thing as someone who only speaks English. It's a mongrel language originating from many sources and has evolved through many influences over many hundreds of years. You can't get from one day to the next without using a "foreign" word.
Even the word "troll" has evolved from several sources.

Looking at a children's book on Celts, I discovered that words like Daddy and Gob come from the celtic language.

I have just done Sainsbury’s order and have included quite a selection of chocolate bars, kitkats, dark and milk chocolate bars but…… will it still be there when El Niño arrives?
I can’t put it in a safe place, I have too many things in safe places that have been lost over the years, only to be discovered when out of date or I can’t remember why I hid it in the first place.
This includes an expensive bottle of perfume I bought for myself last Christmas, Miu Miu , never to be seen again.

Dog food - although the dogs could eat baked beans. There will definitely be some food shortages in any case due to the drought and failed harvests.

Cash. I think the likelihood of a cyber attack is much more likely.

TheWeirdoAgain60

You've never heard of El Nino!!
Really?
Or were you just being ironic?
.

El Niño affects the Pacific. That’s a looooong way away.

watermeadow

El Niño affects the Pacific. That’s a looooong way away.

Yes it does.

It warms the water in the Pacific leading to more evaporation, and then more rain.

The increased heat leads to heatwaves all over the world.

It disrupts the underwater currents like the jet stream, which keep the temperatures in the UK at reasonable levels in winter.

It leads to more tropical storms, even in the Atlantic, which bring us storms through October and November that can stop shipping and cause damage to houses.

It may bring us an early and colder Winter, possibly not a problem in the South but in the north there could be freezing temperatures before Christmas when people are travelling to visit family. So lookout for lots of road accidents due to ice.

It causes higher temperatures world wide which have led to crop failures and droughts. Thousands of people have died heat related deaths over the last year - about 35,000 of them in Europe alone.

How much will it affect us over Winter? Nobody knows. We've never recorded temperatures like this year before. That's the point though - nobody knows what to expect so it's being suggested that you make sure you have a few stocks in. In case of power cuts. In case of flooding. In case of freezing temperatures when you can't get out. Some areas will be affected more than others whatever happens.

Oldnproud

mokryna

Is El Niño a way governments are getting Europe to stock up against cyber attacks I am asking myself.

I suspect that is a serious possibility.

There has been concern for years about the possibility of changes to el nino, and the consequences if it happens. I don't think we should underestimate the disruption they could cause.

I wouldn't put the blame for them on any government. They are all too well aware of the knife-edge on which our climate balances at the best of times to interfere with that balance deliberately.

Be prepared. Nothing wrong with that.
Most of us know the drill for electricity outages and water shortages.
Good tip about the cash, thanks. 💸