Weather 2008

[Paddy Tobin]

Where is Maggi, the Pun Punisher?

She is badly needed here.

Torrential rain in the south east of Ireland yesterday afternoon and evening; went out to  my local garden club meeting and had great difficulty getting back home as I encountered a stretch of water about 50cm deep in a dip in the road; drove through very carefully and got home safely...and dry.


Paddy

[Paul T]

Paddy,

That's lucky.  Glad you didn't get flooded out, or caught in it.

[David Nicholson]

Howling gale here from West South West, driving rain, and the lights on all morning so far. Just going to look at holiday brochures!!

[Maggi Young]

Where is Maggi, the Pun Punisher?

I am here, Paddy.... and I'm expecting chocolate from Cliff, Paul and David.... just hope my postman can cope with the extra work 

[Paddy Tobin]

Ah, there you are Maggi, good to see you are keeping a watch on these punners.


Paul,
Normally there is a field between my house and a river; today there is no field, just more water, everything is flooded. However, my garden is on a slope and the water runs through. Down one side of my garden I have a field dyke which is normally dry but today is it under a torrent of water. This happens only after heavy rain. They dyke is part of the field drainage system for the farmland round about me.

Paddy

[Paul T]

Maggi,

Sometimes life doesn't live up to our expectations!!    I mean I COULD send you some chocolate, but by the time it is taken from the post box outside the post office I would imagine that half of it will be on the surrounding letters.... 34'C outside seems common here at the moment (forecast again tomorrow) so I'd imagine the post box will be 60 or more degrees.  What will the postman think when he or she tries to deliver this mass of mail all melded together with chocolate, and just think of all those other people deprived of their mail because it was stuck to your chocolate parcel.  I mean there could be really important letters lost just because I sent you that chocolate.  Could you live with that??      And besides, heat affected chocolate goes funny and white and doesn't taste nearly as nice as before it is heat affected.  I guess I should wait until it is winter here to send to you, but then you're summer over there (although that shouldn't be a problem anyway, as your summer is about the same as our winter isn't it??  )

Paddy,

Not goo at all.  Here's hoping it doesn't rise any more.  Dry here for the last few weeks, but up in the north of New South Wales they've had record floods (highest in for the last 50 years).  Some areas got 300mm in a few hours.

Ooooh, I think I'm going to get into trouble!!   

[Maggi Young]

Glad to hear you are just about dry, Paddy. I must say, when I first saw the photos of the position of your property, I was a bit concerned as to the closeness of that river... I am very pessimistic about flooding... dangerous stuff, water and so clever at getting everywhere. I have been horrified by the photos on the Forum of Dominique's flooded garden... see here, for instance ....
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=374.360
I'm really scared of flooding like that. Funnily enough, only time I've actually lived in a property with river side access, I wasn't bothered....( too young and stupid to know better, I think now!) The house was quite high above the river, though and we never had any flooding.... now we're at the top of a hill and I am very pleased about it!

[Maggi Young]

Paul, you are indeed living dangerously... however, I must consider the safety of the post, I am, after all, a reasonable person... it is my other half who is the Despot!!

[Paul T]

So.... it's the Despot and the chocolate Desperado eh?  What a pair!! 

[Maggi Young]

So.... it's the Despot and the chocolate Desperado eh?  What a pair!!

What a team, Paul, what a team! It's the secret of our sweet success..... oops... that's a choc I owe myself 

[Luc Gilgemyn]

It's been very wet and reasonably "warm" for the last couple of days.  Winter has vanished.

Today we have 8 to 10°C - sun - clouds and lots of wind !
Not exactly January like...
We're promised a lot more rain for the coming days.... 

[Martin Baxendale]

Got stuck on a snowed-in road in the Cotswolds today on my way back from Northamptonshire to Gloucestershire. Me and a couple of hundred other cars and lorries on our road, apparently hundreds more on surrounding roads.

Thought I was going to be there all night. Cars were turning round  to go back but then going nowhere as the traffic wasn't getting through on the way back either (steep hills all around, 3-4 inches of snow on the roads, blizzard conditions and lorries sliding back down the hills!

Finally managed to turn my car around when someone coming the other way told me they'd been told the hill ahead was completely blocked with snow and stuck lorries. Very long, slow snowy slidy round-about drive back and around onto the M5 via Cheltenham finally got me back 3 hours late (normaly a 2 hour drive for me but 5 hours this time).

First time I've ever hit standing surface water on a motorway - at 50 mph with loads of traffic behind doing 50mph! Not fun! The motorway signs said 'Slow. Spray.' and advised 50 mph. 30-40 would have been better advice! Apparently the M5 further south was completely shut due to flooding. Loads of flood warnings out around here tonight (again!)

[Paul T]

Wow, you are getting it bad!!  Glad you got home safely.

Other extremes here..... 36'C yesterday, with overnight minimum of 21'C.  Fermi probably had it worse, if not yesterday then the day before (he tends to get the weather systems before we do in most cases).  Currently a balmy 29'C at 11am.  Last rain recorded for Canberra on Dec 28th.

[Martin Baxendale]

How are the Australian floods going, Paul? Receding by now I expect. They were on the news here for a day then vanished. They said it wouldn't make much difference to the drought problems, and only on the western coast.

[Martin Baxendale]

Or was it the eastern coast? Mmmm. Eastern. That's the trouble with our TV news, there's always some amazing celebrity news or other crappo trivia that's much more important than reporting that the world's climate is going to hell in a hand-cart - or that our government thinks a new generation of nuclear power is the answer. Oh goody, goody - we're getting another 20-odd new nuclear power stations with no idea of what we'll do with all the nuclear waste we've already got let alone what the new ones will produce. Wind power? Wave power? Nah! We're only the windiest country in Europe with the largest coastline. What would be the point of investing in wind and wave power?