Mild weather thus far saving Europe from an energy crisis
Countries across Europe are currently experiencing warmer-than-expected weather for the first few days of the year. Experts say that even if an energy crisis has been averted for the moment, cold weather or supply delays could still create an upheaval further down the line.
Published: January 21, 2023, 7:59 am
After supplies of gas and oil from Russia to Europe fell sharply in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, Europe had braced itself for high energy prices and a harsh winter. But a number of different factors, including milder than expected weather, seem to be mitigating the crisis.
According to Bloomberg, various factors, including clement weather, alternative gas suppliers, efforts to curb demand and sufficient gas reserves, are playing a role in keeping prices relatively stable.
According to Scientific American, Europe’s weather stations recorded their highest January temperatures ever on the first day of the year.
Climatologist Maximiliano Herrera told the newspaper that Germany alone broke almost a thousand records in the first days of the new year. All of Europe saw thousands more records being broken and Herrera described the hot weather as “probably one of the most intense ever seen”.
France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands experienced the mildest weather, while Luxembourg, Poland and Belarus also broke local records. Herrera said some weather stations showed temperatures that were higher than average for the month of July. London-based meteorologist Scott Duncan pointed to several factors, including an ongoing La Niña, that parts of the North Pacific and Mediterranean are unusually warm and, of course, “climate change”.
“Our warming of the atmosphere and oceans ultimately makes it easier to break temperature records, and that undoubtedly played a role,” Duncan told Scientific American via email.
Enough reserves?
According to Fortune, the world’s largest energy customers now have enough reserves to feel at ease. Germany, through a combination of warmer weather and lower activity over the weekends, has increased its gas stocks to over 90 percent full. At the same time, gas storage throughout Europe is 84 percent full – that’s well above the five-year average of 70 percent, according to Fortune.
This is because the EU has managed to reduce gas demand, develop new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and import more fuel from the US and Qatar, according to Newsweek. Industry in the EU has reduced its consumption by a fifth without significantly reducing its production, Henning Gloystein, head of energy, climate and resources at Eurasia Group, told the newspaper. Gloystein added that warmer weather and higher costs have caused households to moderate consumption.
Experts said the worst-case scenario would be a “super cold winter” in Europe. Adam Pankratz, a professor at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, pointed out to Al Jazeera that Europe lacked access to its own natural resources.
“The worst economic scenario is that the European economy goes into an absolute free fall… because they can’t produce anything, because it’s too expensive… and the government prioritizes using gas to heat people’s homes instead of for industry,” Pankratz said.
“The second worst scenario is that you actually run out of gas and people can’t heat their homes, but I don’t see that as a likely event,” he added.
Experts have warned that higher electricity bills, rising unemployment and an economic slowdown could lead to people taking to the streets to protest. Pankratz added that Europe’s problem was that it did not have enough time.
“Saying you need an LNG import facility or a nuclear reactor in a few years is like saying you need it tomorrow morning… It has to happen very quickly, and these things are very complicated,” he added.
Economic meltdown averted?
Optimists maintain that the current conditions, if they continue to prevail, would moderate inflation and stabilize economic conditions.
“The danger of a complete economic collapse, a meltdown of European industry, has been – as far as we can see – averted,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told Bloomberg.
“We are very optimistic, which we really weren’t last fall,” Klaus Mueller, head of Germany’s gas network authority, said on Friday. “The more gas we have in the warehouses at the beginning of the year, the less stress and expense we will have to fill them again for next winter.”
Experts, however, told Fortune that fuel prices could soar and that stocks could be depleted due to cold weather in late winter. The networks must also start planning for next winter while taking into account the lack of Russian supplies.
What does La Niña signify?
The La Niña climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean can impact weather worldwide. During La Niña, trade winds blowing along the equator are stronger than usual and push more warm water toward Asia. These shifts push the jet stream northward. During La Niña winters, the northern hemisphere may see frequent cold air outbreaks and heavy snowfalls.
This year’s winter, as indicated by the seasonal predictions from various climate models and statistical approaches developed at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, abnormal warming will very likely cover most parts of Europe under the control of the North Atlantic Oscillation and the anomalous anticyclone near the Ural Mountains, despite the cooling effects of La Niña.
However, how the climate will evolve in Europe is still subject to some uncertainty, mostly in terms of unpredictable internal atmospheric variability.
All rights reserved. You have permission to quote freely from the articles provided that the source (www.freewestmedia.com) is given. Photos may not be used without our consent.
Consider donating to support our work
Help us to produce more articles like this. FreeWestMedia is depending on donations from our readers to keep going. With your help, we expose the mainstream fake news agenda.
Keep your language polite. Readers from many different countries visit and contribute to Free West Media and we must therefore obey the rules in, for example, Germany. Illegal content will be deleted.
If you have been approved to post comments without preview from FWM, you are responsible for violations of any law. This means that FWM may be forced to cooperate with authorities in a possible crime investigation.
If your comments are subject to preview by FWM, please be patient. We continually review comments but depending on the time of day it can take up to several hours before your comment is reviewed.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, contain slander or foul language, or are irrelevant to the discussion.

Care prompts bishops to criticize transgender ideology
The Catholic bishops of the Scandinavian countries presented an open five-page letter criticizing transgender ideology on March 21, just before Easter. The document primarily expresses care and advice and was read aloud in Catholic churches in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland. Cardinal Anders Arborelius, Bishop of Stockholm, is one of the signatories of the document.

Brits Forced to Live in Darkness and Cold
Food prices are rising at a furious pace, fastest in Scotland in almost half a century. At the same time, energy prices are at record highs. People are forced to choose between freezing or going hungry, and a majority of Scots are forced to live in cold and darkness to cope with bills. Old generations' tricks for saving and keeping warm are returning. Nevertheless, it is feared that 10,000 Brits will die of cold homes this winter. We present the Swedish Public Health Agency's guidelines on indoor temperature. Governments in Europe are introducing rationing and monitoring of food purchases. Net-zero emissions are a lie that, in practice, de-industrializes the West and dramatically lowers our standard of living.

Thousands of Flemish farmers block roads in Brussels against nitrogen policy
BrusselsMore than 2500 farmers from Belgium's Dutch-speaking Flanders region gathered at Brussels' central Arts-Loi street and blocked roads with tractors toward Brussels to protest the regional government's plan to limit nitrogen emissions.

Orban: EU energy sanctions costing citizens billions
BudapestHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has warned that some western states could soon send troops to Ukraine. He also criticized the fact that the EU sanctions against Russia had cost Hungarian taxpayers tens of billions of euros.

Italy: New leader of the Social Democrats is one of Soros’ ‘preferred politicians’
RomeDuring the election campaign, Elly Schlein presented herself as the standard-bearer of the poorest. However, her background and previous work raise doubts about her honesty.

UK greenhouses shut down due to high energy costs
LondonIn Great Britain, a particularly depressing facet of the crisis is now showing its first contours - and thus anticipating what is likely to happen in other European countries in the near future: because of the exploding energy prices, agriculture is being strangled and fresh produce has to be rationed.

Lisbon opens borders to all Portuguese speakers
LisbonNot only the German and Italian governments keep opening new paths for immigration. Portugal, too, has opened a Pandora's box and is paving the way for possibly millions of non-European immigrants to the EU – something which is not mentioned by the mainstream media.

Illegal immigration to Italy has reached its highest level ever
RomeIn Italy, despite the overwhelming right-wing electoral success in September, there is still nothing to be seen of the promised asylum turnaround – on the contrary. Giorgia Meloni has been in office for five months, but the arrivals of migrants in Italy have doubled compared to the previous year.

Dismantling diplomacy with ‘feminist foreign policy’
BudapestGerman Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) wants to counter German security issues abroad with feminist politics. Gender training, LGBTQ events and quotas are now part of their new guidelines, which are intended to bring about "cultural change". The German ambassador to Hungary, Julia Gross, provided an embarrassing example.

Germans demand investigation of Nord Stream sabotage
BerlinAfter the sensational revelations by US investigative reporter Seymour Hersh about the perpetrators of the Nord Stream attacks on September 26, 2022, the German government has remained silent. It does not want to comment on Hersh's research results, according to which the pipelines were blown up by Americans and Norwegians.