False claims that heatwave is bogus spread online
www.bbc.com
Weather forecasters wrongly accused of using misleading data to "drive fear".

False claims suggesting that the BBC has been misreporting temperatures in southern Europe have been spreading on social media.

A clip of Neil Oliver, a GB News presenter, accusing the BBC “and others” of “driving fear” by using “supposedly terrifying temperatures”, has been viewed more than two million times.

For the past few weeks, an intense heatwave has been sweeping through parts of southern Europe and north Africa, with extensive wildfires breaking out in Greece, Italy and Algeria - leading to more than 40 deaths.

Speaking about the fires on Rhodes on GB News on Monday, Mr Oliver accused the BBC, and other broadcasters, of trying to “make people terrified of the weather”.

    • Mynameisnotdoug@lemmy.worldEnglish
      45·
      1 year ago

      I’ve watched flat earthers conduct foolproof experiments to prove the earth is flat, then come up with excuses when their experiment fails.

      The heat is caused by Jewish space lasers or something.

      • SupraMario@lemmy.worldEnglish
        241·
        1 year ago

        Here in parts of the south USA it’s been a normal summer, getting adequate rain and temps not hitting 100+ like last year as well. So I can see some of the skepticism but the world is fucking huge…If I drive one hour further north or south…the weather has changed…

              • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
                212·
                1 year ago

                Yeah… And?

                I can write all sorts of garbage stuff on a blog. It’s not hard to claim that “OH GOD IT’S OVER 110 THAT’S HOT”… when the AVERAGE high for basically the whole month of July is 106.8 degrees.

                Look at the actual history data. https://www.wunderground.com/history/daily/us/az/phoenix/KPHX

                May has been below average… June below average. This July has been a bit warmer than average.

                • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyzEnglish
                  161·
                  1 year ago

                  That link shows the temperature today is 10 degrees over average. That’s hot. It’s a weird flex to try to claim 115 isn’t hot. Are you a lizard?

                  • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
                    112·
                    1 year ago

                    It’s a weird flex to try to claim 115 isn’t hot.

                    It would be a weird flex. Good thing I never said that. Strawman someone else asshat.

                • agent_flounder@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  13·
                  1 year ago

                  Yeah 110 is warm for phx not hot. When I was a kid Tucson would easily get into the 112-117 range often. Phoenix was always hotter by a few degrees.

                  • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
                    17·
                    1 year ago

                    I love when people who’ve never lived here act like they know better about it though.

                    Temps over 110 are indeed regular here. It’s something we’ve generally learned to deal with. And yes… the dryness of heat makes a HUGE difference in the matter.

                    How you know that it’s been a cooler summer (At least in June) was that humidity was up a bit. Now we’re back to “normal” and it’s dry and hot. But it’s about August… and Monsoon season is going to kick in, it will cool down again.

                    For those of us that have lived here for a while… you will remember at least a few years where there were 3 solid months of “heat”. This year is shaping up to feel more like 1.5-2 months of that heat.

        • Muddybulldog@mylemmy.winEnglish
          3·
          1 year ago

          We’ve been unseasonably mild her in the mid-Atlantic. We’re just getting our first run of 90F/32C+ days this season, whereas we usually see that sometime in June. Seeing what’s going on in the rest of the country I consider us to be damn lucky.

          We’ve been getting hammered with rain, though. About 3-4x normal in June.

        • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.comEnglish
          32·
          1 year ago

          I can tell you that here in AZ… We’re normal right now. Earlier in the Summer is was SUPER mild. And more wet than normal.

          No where near “worst”. I remember a few years back hitting 118 and back in the mid 2000’s hitting 122… This year has been great… We’re already hitting monsoon time, where the humidity kicks the temp down a bit. Then september rolls around and it’ll cool down again.

      • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        2·
        1 year ago

        Didn’t June break some heat records in the UK? I thought that I had read that. I’m in Southern California and this summer has been super mild.