All posts tagged: spring

More 2026 UK Heatwaves Are Likely Following 35°C Spring

More 2026 UK Heatwaves Are Likely Following 35°C Spring

Published by Sam Flores

!function(n){if(!window.cnx){window.cnx={},window.cnx.cmd=[];var t=n.createElement(‘iframe’);t.display=’none’,t.onload=function(){var n=t.contentWindow.document,c=n.createElement(‘script’);c.src=”//cd.connatix.com/connatix.player.js”,c.setAttribute(‘async’,’1′),c.setAttribute(‘type’,’text/javascript’),n.body.appendChild(c)},n.head.appendChild(t)}}(document);(new Image()).src=”https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=8b034f64-513c-4987-b16f-42d6008f7feb”;cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({“playerId”:”8b034f64-513c-4987-b16f-42d6008f7feb”,”mediaId”:”2bc7aa85-ab4f-4c5f-b2c8-3ce091eb0f8f”}).render(“6a228e89e4b0a18aef0b6502”);}); On 1 June, the official start of summer, the Met Office released its three-month outlook for the UK.  The meteorological service explained on its site that this outlook is not an exact prediction or a guarantee of what will happen in the season. Instead, they say, it’s about broader trends; you can’t say for sure whether something like a heatwave will happen based on this information.  Nonetheless, they added, the most “notable” part of their most recent outlook is the expected hotter-than-usual UK summer temperatures.  “It follows that there is an increased chance of heatwave conditions developing at times,” they said. We have already had an unusually hot start to the year, with temperatures reaching a record-breaking 35.1°C in Kew Gardens this May. The Met Office has previously said that hotter summers are becoming more likely in the UK in general. When will the next heatwaves be?  This outlook doesn’t aim to calculate exact dates, nor does it say there definitely will be heatwaves.  But it did mention that higher pressure, …

Greatest science books: How Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring changed the world in 1962

Greatest science books: How Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring changed the world in 1962

Published by skeptic

How does Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring hold up today? Rachel Carson was a marine biologist who wrote three books about life in the ocean, before a letter, published in The Boston Herald, prompted a change of focus. The letter described the deadly impact of the pesticide DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) on a bird population in Massachusetts. Carson set off to research the environmental effects of pesticides: she pencilled in “Silent Spring” as the title for a chapter on birds, but her agent suggested that it worked for the book as a whole. And what a move that was. Silent Spring was pivotal in a way very few books are, birthing the modern environmental movement. As the writer Margaret Atwood has said, people thought one way before Carson’s book was published in 1962 and another way after it. President John F. Kennedy was moved to order an investigation into the effects of DDT and other pesticides, citing Silent Spring as the reason why. The book led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, and also inspired …

My Allergy Survival Kit: 5 Products Keeping My Itchy Eyes at Bay This Spring

My Allergy Survival Kit: 5 Products Keeping My Itchy Eyes at Bay This Spring

Published by skeptic

Every spring, as much as I enjoy the blossoming of flowers and extra greenery, I dread their effect on me: a stuffy nose, red, itchy eyes and general sinus discomfort. As a seasonal allergy sufferer, this is sadly something I’ve become used to, but in the process, I’ve built an allergy toolkit of products that help me stave off my allergy symptoms and allergy-proof my home. Despite seeing pollen on every sidewalk in my neighborhood this spring, and considering that May is usually the worst month for allergies, I haven’t had a single allergic reaction. I think the following products are the reason why. 1. Air purifiers I’m such an air purifier fan that I currently have two, one in each of the high-traffic areas of my apartment: my bedroom and living room. When spring allergy season starts, I typically keep them running on low to continuously catch allergens and prevent them from entering my airways. I bump them up to high whenever my allergy symptoms are particularly bad, or there are wildfires in the …

The Best Madras Shirts Push Your Summer Fits Into Full Technicolor

The Best Madras Shirts Push Your Summer Fits Into Full Technicolor

Published by Jenni Sidey

The best shirts to keep you ventilated from now through mid-September are puckered seersucker tops and those scratchy, sand-ridden linen options that somehow feel better the sweatier you get. But there’s another fabric that’s even more recognizable than those two breezy standouts: Madras. You’ve seen those can’t-miss plaid patterns in vibrant reds, blues, yellows, greens, and purples—mostly stitched together in patchwork form, sometimes rendered as “bleeding Madras,” where the dyes literally run together. Madras is a centuries-old fabric originally handwoven (and still handmade by some brands) in the former Indian city of Madras, now Chennai. Long before sweat-wicking synthetics were introduced, Madras earned its reputation as a warm-weather fabric, thanks to its breathable natural fibers and airy weave. Recently, Madras has shrugged off its ivy pedigree and been embraced by the downtown crowd. If wearing Madras were like skateboarding, the regular-footed approach is classic: khakis, boat shoes, and canvas sneakers. Going goofy? That’s baggy-ass shorts, fisherman sandals, and beat-up mules. Some brands are still painstakingly producing madras in India. While heritage Ivy labels keep the …

‘Mind-bogglingly crazy’: climate experts alarmed by deadly spring heatwaves searing Europe | Extreme heat

‘Mind-bogglingly crazy’: climate experts alarmed by deadly spring heatwaves searing Europe | Extreme heat

Published by Jenni Sidey

Malcolm Mistry knew it was going to get “very warm, very quickly” on Monday morning but a slow start out of bed delayed his plans for an early game of cricket with his son. It was already 10am by the time the pair arrived at the sun-soaked nets of their local club in south-west London, and to the embarrassment of the 48-year-old scientist, who played cricket in his youth, his body was struggling after just half an hour of bowling. Had he continued for another hour, Mistry reckons he would have probably suffered from heatstroke. Had he and his son stayed until noon, they would have found themselves straining their bodies in direct sunlight while a nearby weather station logged the UK’s hottest May temperature since records began. “I could feel I was panting a bit more heavily,” said Mistry, a leading climate and health researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. “That’s when I said to myself: ‘I need to stop here right now, immediately, before something happens.’” The dark side …

For Jewish converts, the spring holiday Shavuot takes on special significance 

For Jewish converts, the spring holiday Shavuot takes on special significance 

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — Vanessa Bloom recalls her rabbi gently reminding her that she still had time to walk away. But she felt compelled toward the Jewish faith. “I knew my fate was already tied to the Jewish people,” she told RNS. Bloom, a Jewish day school teacher in Los Angeles, was raised in a multifaith family, threw herself into Jewish life at college and co-led local gatherings of the Asian-Jewish Lunar Collective. She’d completed a comprehensive modern Orthodox conversion program study course. Now the final decision was hers. So, she stepped into the mikvah, a ritual bath, and chanted blessings that sealed her commitment to God, the Torah and its teachings. On Thursday (May 21), like millions of Jews around the world, Bloom will celebrate the spring festival of Shavuot, which commemorates the pivotal moment in the Jewish story when God gave the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, offering a covenant of protection and intimacy, alongside the responsibility of commandments. It’s the culmination seven weeks after Passover that represents spiritual liberation through God’s laws …

Migratory bird numbers fall in Britain despite last year’s warm spring | Birds

Migratory bird numbers fall in Britain despite last year’s warm spring | Birds

Published by Jenni Sidey

After a mild, wet and stormy winter in the UK, spring 2025 was one of the warmest and driest ever, while the summer was the hottest since records began, most particularly in England and Wales. Good news, you might think, for migratory birds – especially for eight species of warblers that travel here from their winter quarters in Africa. Yet according to data from bird ringers, collated by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), last year’s breeding season was pretty disastrous. Four species – willow warbler, blackcap, garden warbler and common whitethroat – showed significant falls. Three others – sedge and reed warblers and lesser whitethroat – also declined, though less seriously. Only the chiffchaff, which winters closer to home in north Africa and Iberia, with some staying put in southern Britain, showed a rise in numbers. The BTO’s other major annual study, the breeding bird survey, revealed similarly mixed fortunes, notably for pigeons and doves. While woodpigeon and stock dove numbers continued to rise, the two smaller species, collared and turtle doves, continued their …

The Nike ACG Line Is Hitting a New Peak With the Pegasus Trail Shoe

The Nike ACG Line Is Hitting a New Peak With the Pegasus Trail Shoe

Published by Jenni Sidey

Nike’s ACG (All Conditions Gear) line dates back to the late ‘80s. The sublabel’s initial inception was built around the idea of exploration. My own interest in, and light obsession with, ACG started when I noticed the label’s approach to sneaker-boot hybrids online. This eventually led me down a dark path, where I spent many a late night skulking around eBay like Gollum, bidding on used gear from the ‘90s. The ethos of the gear that I grew up loving can still be found in the tech-y, cutting-edge designs ACG sells today. The brand helped usher gorpcore to the forefront of the menswear conversation, before we even had a term to describe the aesthetic so many of us love. The field is more crowded than it was back in the day, but if you spend time poking around Nike, you can put together an elite assortment of fits, all of which indicate that ACG has yet to reach its peak. Bowen Fernie / GQ I like to think that the ACG line is where some …