WC Archive

Reuters reports that French scientists have worked out a way of measuring summer temperature variation using the records of grape harvests. Such records stretch back to the 14th century. The results were unsurprising. While there were periodic warm stretches, the summer of 2003 was unusual. "The summer of 2003 appears to have been extraordinary, with temperatures that were probably higher than in any other year since 1370," claimed Pascal Yiou of the Laboratory of Sciences for Climate and the Environment in Gif-sur-Yvette, France.