The Europeans Prepare

...for the inevitable increase in extreme weather events brought on by Global Warming by designing a very cool website:

It looks like a color-coded terror alert scale—and meteorologically speaking, that's exactly what it is. With climate change making conditions more unpredictable, national weather services from across the European Union have joined forces to create new Web site providing up-to-the-minute information on "extreme weather" across the continent.

The initiative, managed by Austria's Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, is designed to give Europeans a single source for details on flash floods, severe thunderstorms, gale-force winds, heat waves, blizzards and other violent weather that poses a threat to life or property.

It also issues 24- and 48-hour warnings for heavy fog, extreme cold, forest fires and "coastal events" such as high waves or severe tides.

Lots of pretty colours and symbols! And a quick glance tells you that there's 145 kmph winds in Germany, heavy wave action in The Netherlands, and freezing rain in old Ireland.