Articles Tagged "Betting"

Fifty freezing residents were last night finally dug out of their village after being marooned in the snow without food, electricity and heat over the weekend as Britain was blasted by severe weather.

A council highways team attempted to clear a road in Strinesdale near Oldham, Greater Manchester, on Friday, but were met with monster snow drifts. However, they eventually got through last night.

Local Jane Holroyd, 34, said: ‘A lot of us use solid fuel up here, and once we ran out of coal through trying to keep warm we had to use bits and pieces of wood. And we struggled to get enough food.

‘Then the electricity cut out on Saturday afternoon too. It's been terrible. It’s like the Antarctic up here. There's a local fireman who’s been delivering bread and milk to the elderly residents.’

BRITAIN’S long winter shows no sign of ending with two more weeks of freezing conditions lasting until April – and possibly the coldest snap so far.

All the UK faces snow by next weekend with up to five inches in the hills and “significant” falls on low ground.

With Easter only two weeks away, bitter gales from the Arctic circle will push temperatures lower than -15C (5F) in some regions, say forecasters.

The Met Office issued severe weather warnings for snow across northern and eastern regions over the next two days with the risk of travel disruption.

Forecaster Helen Roberts said: “There is a mix of snow and ice potentially right the way through the week.

“The worst affected area will be the northern half of the country although we have already seen snow in the South-west and Oxfordshire."

She added that “significant snow” is expected in Scotland, the Pennines and eastern parts. Around three inches fell in north Devon yesterday, causing treacherous conditions on roads and motorways.

Britain faces a week of Siberian weather as the odds of a white Easter fall as fast as the temperature.

The freeze that struck Britain at the weekend after a spell of warm sunny weather will continue today, with temperatures expected to plunge as low as -7C and winds reach up to 50mph in the South West.

A band of light sleet and snow falling from East Anglia to Lancashire yesterday is expected to become heavier today, with the whole of the South Coast facing snowy conditions.

Click source for FULL report inc. VIDEO

Oliver Letwin, David Cameron’s chief policy adviser, has conceded defeat in a £100 climate policy bet with Nigel Lawson which they had agreed four and a half years ago.

Towards the end of a climate debate between the two Conservative heavy-weights in the July 2008 issue of Standpoint, the following exchange took place:

Oliver Letwin: Nigel can’t know whether there is going to be a successor to Kyoto.

Nigel Lawson: Well, look, there’ll be an international agreement in the sense that there will be platitudes. The acid test is: will there be an agreement to have binding cutbacks for all participants on their carbon emissions? Instead of arguing about it, we could have a wager on it.

Oliver Lewtin: I’d be very happy to have a wager, and I offer you a £100 bet that before either of us is dead, whichever is the first — our estates can pay — we will see a very substantial agreement on carbon reduction.

Not

I've just been listening to BBC Radio 4's More Or Less. It was the episode announcing that the Global Warming Policy Foundation's scientific adviser Dr David Whitehouse had won a £100 bet made on the programme four years ago with climatologist Dr James Annan. Annan predicted temperatures would rise in that period; Whitehouse predicted they wouldn't. Annan lost.

But you'd never guess it from his high-handed tone when he was asked why he'd lost. "Just bad luck," Annan explained, going on to insist (contradicting most available real-world data, it must be said) that the trend for global warming remained "robustly positive." He then agreed to another four-year bet. If it went against him a second time would he change his mind, Annan was asked. At first he appeared to agree that it would but then he started backtracking, insisting that it wouldn't change in the slightest his view that carbon dioxide causes global warming….

This "Even though I was wrong I'm still right" syndrome afflicts a lot of people in the climate alarmist community. But then, you can hardly blame them for their wilful self-delusion and glib complacency for they seem to operate in a bubble in which there are no punishments for failure.

Click source to read FULL report from James Delingpole

A climate bet proposed by the BBC's radio programme “More or Less” four years ago has been won by Dr David Whitehouse, a former BBC Science Editor and a scientific adviser to the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

In 2008, the BBC programme-makers came up with the idea of a bet. It was for £100 that, using the Met Office's data set (HadCrut3), there would be no new warming record set by 2011. It was made between Dr Whitehouse and climatologist Dr James Annan.

Later today, the BBC’s “More or Less” (16:30 on BBC Radio 4) will report about the outcome of the bet and announce the winner.

A full report of the scientific background to the bet is available here:

Winning A Climate Bet by Dr. David Whitehouse

BRITAIN looks set for a White Christmas as forecasters last night warned of “killer ice” on the roads with temperatures plunging as low as -10C (14F).

Drivers yesterday faced treacherous conditions as up to three inches of snow, and torrential rain, lashed the country.

The Met Office issued a rare nationwide ice warning from 3pm yesterday until Monday morning. Drivers face black ice, even on gritted roads during the day.

Yesterday bookies slashed the odds on a White Christmas as bets increased tenfold. Coral spokesman Gary Burton said: “The current snowfall has had many more punters rushing out to get their bets on. Betting on a White Christmas is busier than ever this year and turnover is up 25 per cent on the previous year. We are already facing a six figure payout in the capital if it snows on the 25th.”

Newcastle is now the city with the shortest odds at just 5/2. Glasgow, Manchester and Leeds are priced at 3/1 and London is 9/2

But last night it was feared the big freeze could cost the economy hundreds of millions of pounds if shoppers stay away from the stores on the busiest retail weekend of the year. Yesterday the Highways Agency, police, the AA and the Met Office issued alerts amid fears of a rash of fatal accidents as the Arctic blast sweeps in.

#Met Office issues severe weather warnings for Scotland, Northern Ireland, much of northern England and the Midlands

#Forecasters warn four inches of snow will fall in next 48 hours

#A lorry driver died after his vehicle skidded off the A160 in Lincolnshire

#Police warn motorists to take care in treacherous driving conditions

#Wintry showers set to continue throughout week in northern and western parts. Dry but cold elsewhere

The big freeze has finally hit Britain, carpeting much of the north in snow and ice, while temperatures plummet across the rest of the country.

After the second-warmest November since records began in 1910, many woke up to frost this morning and the task of de-icing their windscreens.

Forecasters have warned that four inches of snow will fall in the next 48 hours causing misery for motorists....

This year's story so far: in May, I accepted some bets but was still trying to come to terms with Rob Dekker. In the comments there we came to agreement on the following:

"If both NSIDC and IARC-JAXA September 2016 monthly average sea ice extent report are above 4.80 million km^2, RD pays WMC US$ 10,000. If both are below 3.10 million km^2, WMC pays RD US$ 10,000. In all other cases the bet is null and void

The numbers are a bit of a compromise, and of course the large "null gap" in the middle means a no-payment result is quite likely. Now is a sort-of good time to announce this, because this years ice has temporarily stopped falling off the cliff:

My previous post contains my reasoning, and also the other bets. At some point I'll transfer that and those to here for completeness, but just for now its getting late so I'm going to put this post up

Nice try Ken, but it's not just down to the Moon, as you should see in the next few days, your need a solar factor as well (well maybe!!)

A maverick "lunar forecaster" who claims to have predicted both New Zealand's major recent earthquakes provoked fear and outrage when he warned that another devastating jolt would strike Christchurch last Sunday. Scientists made a public bet that it wouldn't – and were then left exasperated as the city was shaken by the biggest aftershock since the February catastrophe.

Ken Ring, a grey-bearded, hitherto obscure fishing commentator, has become the subject of heated public debate in recent months over his earthquake predictions, based on the pseudoscientific belief that quakes are caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon on tectonic plates.

Although rubbished by seismologists, the theory gained traction as word spread that the "Moon Man" appeared to have predicted both the initial September quake, and the February disaster which killed about 182 people.