Hottest New Year Day ever in Warsaw

Climate-change deniers anger me. They are threatening the survival of their DNA - as well as yours or mine. Today, 1 January 2023, has seen the temperature record for Warsaw tumble - and by how much!

Wikipedia had the record high temperature for Warsaw as being 13.8C. Today, the weather station in central Warsaw recorded a high of 18.9C (the station in Reguły, on the other side of Warsaw Okęcie airport from Jeziorki, showed a high of 19.1C). This is 5C hotter than the previous record, which fell in 1993. Since then, we've had eight Januaries that have seen double-digit highs; however, 19.1C is really something. Seven years ago, the daytime high was -6C (see below - I was walking on thick pond ice then!)

On the one hand, it shows that climate change is real, it's here, it's happening. Extreme weather events don't have to be hurricanes or deluges - just unseasonably warm days like today. Putin must be cursing - Poland won't freeze without his wretched gas. Warmer days, less heating needed, less CO₂ emitted - there must be an upside. 

Another personal upside is being able to take a motorbike out on New Year's Day - this just doesn't normally happen! [A short ride, 8km; the bike burns 3 litres of fuel over 100km, so less than 250ml of petrol consumed and turned into CO₂ today - my first run since early October.]

I have just bought myself a digital thermometer for the działka, which is currently displaying an outside temperature of 10.8C at quarter to ten in the evening. Indoors, it's a balmy 21.7C, even with the heating turned down.

Anyway... You Can Always Depend on the Kindness of Strangers, cont'd. On yesterday's walk, I lost my reading glasses. I realised this as soon as I got home, but by then it was getting dark. I have two spare pairs on the działka, so not really a legal issue, and only 13zł at Rossmann, but I did like that pair, wire-framed, robust, elegant. Nicer than the black-plastic ones. So I set off this morning to retrace my steps - and guess what - I found them! Some kind passer-buy placed them where they could be found - and found they were. Thank you, stranger, whomsoever you may be!

12,000 paces walked today, plus a short motorbike ride around the manor. If it weren't for the eerie feeling that it's too darned hot for the time of year, all would be well! Below: canonical prospect in the midwinter warmth.

Below: selfie with shadow, between track and orchard. Too warm for a jumper - T-shirt, shirt and Harrington jacket, and perspiring. Almost summer heat.

Below: looking towards Nowe Grobice from ulica Słoneczna ('sunny street'), Chynów. Pareidolia time: in the centre of the frame, can you see a silver-grey tractor ploughing a furrow, or a fallen tree stump?

I was saddened to find a dead owl in my back garden. It was not dead long; I wondered whether the prolonged barrage of fireworks that went on for around 20 minutes last night might have been the cause or contributing factor of its demise. I watched after midnight from my rear patio, and was amazed at just how many fireworks were going off from all directions - from Jakubowizna to the south, Chynów to the west, Grobice and Sułkowice to the north-east and north-west. No respite for the wildlife. A few days ago, outside the Top Market in Chynów I witnessed the sight of a chap driving up to the makeshift firework stall in his stereotypical black BMW SUV. He walked up to the woman selling the fireworks and said to her: "Ma być dużo i tanio!" ("It must be many and cheap!"). The poor owl was properly buried.

This time last year
"communication/this is the gift you must not lose"

This time two years ago:
Wealth and inequality - an introduction

This time three years ago:
Gratitude for a peaceful 2018

This time four years ago:
Fighting laziness - a perennial resolution

This time five years ago:
A Year of Round Anniversaries

This time seven years ago:
Walking on frozen water
[Daytime high, 1 January 2016 was -6C]

This time eight years ago:
Fireworks herald 2015 in Jeziorki

This time nine years ago
Jeziorki welcomes 2014

This time ten years ago:
LOT's second Dreamliner over Jeziorki

This time 12 years ago:
New Year's coal train 

This time 14 years ago:
Welcome to 2009!

This time 15 years ago:
Happy 2008!