By Thomas Harding
Electronic Telegraph
EUROPE'S
flora and fauna have been thrown off balance by one of the warmest
winters on record.
From Russia
to Germany and France people have had to adjust to the unseasonal
warmth. In Britain, the high temperatures have prompted a pair
of black swans to breed five months out of season.
The native
Australian birds, which in this country usually have offspring
between March and July, produced three grey-feathered cygnets
in Barnstaple, Devon, yesterday.
A spokesman
for the Royal Society for Protection of Birds said: "This
is pretty exceptional and very unusual. It is very strange for
any birds to breed at the height of winter. It can only be the
warm weather that triggered breeding in this pair."
Elsewhere
rhododendrons have flowered and roses have shown little sign of
losing their leaves. Gardeners have been advised to give their
lawns a light cut. In Berlin shirtsleeves have replaced fur coats,
and blossom adorns the hedgerows. Night and day the air is balmy
and the city resounds to birds chirruping. At lunchtime workers
and tourists opt for pavement seats at the capital's cafes and
soak up the sun.
In Salzburg,
Austria, strawberries are prematurely turning deep red and everywhere
flowers are coming into bloom. Skiers are in despair. In the Alpine
city of Graz a 44-ton ice Nativity scene has melted into slush.
The situation is similar across much of central and eastern Europe,
where the unseasonal mildness could lead to the hottest December
on record.
In Moscow,
plans to open an ice rink in Red Square over the holiday period
are under threat and chaos reigns on the streets, where piles
of slush are preventing motorists parking near the kerbs.
The German
television weather man Jorg Kachelmann attributed the temperatures
not to global warming but to persistent southerly winds which
had bought warm air to Europe for far longer than usual. He said:
"Many records that have stood for 200 years have been broken
as a result. What is most extraordinary is the length of time
the warm spell has lasted."
Usually temperatures
in lowland parts of Germany would be 37F (3C) at this time of
year. But on Wednesday they reached 55F (13.1C) in Berlin - the
highest since records began in the capital in 1908. Ragnar Kuhne,
a German zoologist, said: "Some ducks and cormorants are
getting ready to mate. That is most unusual. And the blackbirds
are singing."
But while
birds and animals appear to be enjoying the heatwave shopkeepers
in Berlin have already started to advertise their winter clothing
stocks marked down to half-price.
France too,
has experienced unseasonally high temperatures, with Grenoble
basking in 70F (21C) one day last week. Frederique Nathan of the
meterological office, France Meteo, said the weather was posing
problems in the Alpine ski stations.
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