Since @knmi.nl & friends ( @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social, @icrc.org etc.) still refuse to address the issues with their work, let's revisit it once more. I've done this before focussing on what I think is the main conceptual error, but apparently that didn't resonate.

"Where were you when I needed you?"
Climate scientist Jos de Laat on the DOE CWG and the biases of the climate beat
rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/where-were...

This map really had me puzzled, I initially thought there's no way Portugal makes up a quarter. And that was before reading the post which mentions just the fires in September in Portugal make up a quarter of Europe's total for 2024.

The soil texture is often simplified by expressing it as fractions of clay, silt & sand. Since these sum to 100% a ternary plot can be used to easily visualise the 3 dimensions in a 2D chart. Any boundaries are somewhat subjective of course, shown here is the common USDA method:

Her methodology is absolutely terrible, it's depressing to see how few climate scientists or hydrologists are willing to speak out against it. It strikes me as activism over science.

The average precipitation (119mm) over Spain was the 2nd highest after 2013 for March in this CHIRPS dataset (since 1981). In the past decade the years 2018 (116mm), 2022 (115mm) & 2024 (106mm) had similar amounts for March.

Yes, often it's used in the absence of actual values, sometimes people don't even seem to realise the difference. It really depends how you define potential though and at what (spatial scale), which is all over the place in scientific literature.

A cycle plot of the monthly average temperature in De Bilt, The Netherlands. Made using Matplotlib (Python).

Data from knmi.nl

The precipitation anomaly for May till September, which usually covers the bulk of the West African monsoon.

It really highlights this season's anomalous northward displacement of the ITCZ (Intertropical Convergence Zone).