Nigel Farage has lamented the apparent lack of gritters in central London whilst suggesting the ‘Beast from the East’ weather system currently dumping snow across the UK is proof global warming isn’t real.
The former Ukip-leader’s tweet posted on Wednesday morning provoked a tide of scientific debunking mixed with utterly scathing put-downs.
Firstly, some science - Farage is wrong to imply global warming results in solely warmer weather and any freak cold spells prove the phenomenon’s absence.
The Arctic is currently experiencing “crazy” high temperatures, as much as 20C above normal levels.
This warm air is pushing colder air and blizzards south which is what the UK is currently experiencing. It could prove to be a freak event but it could also mean global warming is eroding the polar vortex and even scientists’ most pessimistic forecasts of the effects of climate change may need to be revised.
Either way, Farage is way off the mark, as Twitter wasted no time in pointing out.
It’s not the first time Farage has demonstrated a fundamental misunderstanding of meteorology. In 2013, he tweeted:
And guess what - climate change has been linked to more frequent and more powerful typhoons.