Melting Runways in the UK?

[russellwwest]

Going back to topic.

I think the issue with melting runways, whilst the high temps seen here in the UK maybe the norm elsewhere, they are certainly not normal in the UK. This is the reason a melting runway is quite a big deal.
Our transport infrastructure including road surfaces and railway tracks are only designed / tested for a range of around -10 c to 35 c

So when temperatures get extreme for the UK norms the surfaces can’t cope.

[MarcE]

Usually it takes much longer for these changes to happen but we have certainly accelerated it with our behaviour during the last centuries. But the damage is done, it doesn't help to point fingers or spread panic. We need to adapt and work on it to make it better but there is certainly no point to tear down everything we have. *cough* E *cough*

[MarcE]

Going back to topic.

I think the issue with melting runways, whilst the high temps seen here in the UK maybe the norm elsewhere, they are certainly not normal in the UK. This is the reason a melting runway is quite a big deal.
Our transport infrastructure including road surfaces and railway tracks are only designed / tested for a range of around -10 c to 35 c

So when temperatures get extreme for the UK norms the surfaces can’t cope.

Jup, not normal in the UK and not in any other country north of the Alps. But boulevard drama won't change it, will it? ^^ deal with it, behave accordingly and don't expect the world revolve around one self, when airports are down just don't fly for a change.. after Covid we're used to it anyway..

[GaryRR]

Well, climate is changing. Weather goes by yes... but if it becomes a recurring happening it becomes climate. I'm 35 now, when I remember back to my childhood only 25 years ago we had long periods of constant annoying rain, 3, 4 days at once. Ground was soaked with water, only in high July and August we had to use the hosepipes to water the garden. White Christmas was almost normal where I live in an elevation of 300m.

Now it's generally dry, the water comes in strong but short thunderstorms from the direction of France and Switzerland across southern Germany once in a while, the ground is hard and dry, it can't absorb all the water and it just runs down the streets, often enough filling the basements of downhill houses. My mother asks me to water the garden as soon as winter is gone when they are travaling and I regularily use the warm days in February and around Christmas (more than 20°C) to ride my bike. Snow has become a one day occurancy, maybe two days, only the Black Forest is covered in more snow than it can handle.

Climate is definitely changing, "melted" runways and roads are just another symptom of that fact. A couple of years ago our highways were limited to 80kph due to the heat and bumps on the tarmac. But we need to adapt to it, we can't change it back. Spreading panic as our beloved media does doesn't help anyone and I can only recommend to ignore it and tell them off. Britain won't change their roads with a snip of their fingers, they'll have to use their brain and take care. And so does the rest of the world. It's certainly not normal for the rainy islands in the old days but will become normal soon. The new generations will grow up with it as a new normality and won't know why their parents and grand parents always have a cloak next to the door.

Stay safe everyone and keep drinking before flying

There have only been documented records of temperatures going back 5 or 6 generations. In the late 18th century through the early 19th century there was a widespread cold trend. 150 years prior to that it was warmer. At the time of the founding of Virginia there were gators in the Great Dismal Swamp. None now, winters get too chilly but there were then. When Lief Erricson landed in Greenland the ice cap was receded. The name wasn't a real estate marketing ploy. But yet, in 40 something years Glacier Girl, the P-38 got covered in over 20 feet of glacial ice. And between 4000 and 4500 BC, much of the Sahara and Jordan Riff was well watered. The only thing that doesn't change is change itself.
Happy Landings