Monday 28 January 2013

Scare headlines

We happen to live in an area of hills and dales and the result of this is that the weather varies mile by mile.   Quite often I speak to my friend early in the morning and she comments on the rain pouring down the window, or heavy snow falling, whereas where I am, about three miles away, the sun is shining.   The difference is that her village is considerably higher than ours is.

Walking through our Post Office this afternoon I noticed a newspaper headline in one of today's papers which said something along the lines of the worst storm in fifty years or somesuch was coming our way this afternoon.   At the time it was quite a pleasant sunny though breezy afternoon here.

Then on our evening news I saw where a small child was blown into the sea in his pushchair by a giant freak gust of wind.   Only the incredibly brave actions of a man on the shore, and the wonderful mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a passer by, saved the life of this little lad.   Fierce storms in one place, quite calm, pleasant conditions in another - and all in what is after all a relatively small island.
 Yesterday our rivers and becks were all in flood following a rapid thaw and sadly a man in his thirties was drowned in a canoeing accident.   And this in a beck which usually is a gentle trickle into the River Swale.

Our fields are soaking wet again after the thaw.   The rooks (one of my favourite birds as my regular readers will know) are blackening over every field in their search of the newly cleared grass - suddenly there are grubs and worms to be had and they are taking full advantage of it.   So are the blackbirds who have deserted my feeders and gone out into the hedgerows to scratch about for bugs - by far their favourite food.

I shall look at the weather forecast, as I do every night.   But I shall also bear in mind that what is happening here is probably quite different from what is happening ten miles up or down the road.

 

10 comments:

angryparsnip said...

I read about the canoeing accident so sad but wonderful to know about the child who was saved. I have BBC news on my computer.
The news here keeps telling people, just because it the water is low it is not raining and it is a sunny day, does not mean there is no risk. We are in our winter rainny season now. After a storm the water will rise sometimes into a wall of water bearing down in the once quiet stream.
50 yes 50 hikers had to be rescued after they were trapped by runoff water in Bear Canyon after record rainfall on Saturday. 50 people ! it took the rescue six hours !

cheers, parsnip

Heather said...

How true Pat. Our youngest daughter lives only a mile away and she mentions weather conditions that we have not had. It is amazing how localised our weather can be.

Elizabeth said...

The weather has gone quite mad world wide it seems!

Country Gal said...

It is the same here with the valleys and higher lands . Papa only works 20 min away and yet we can have totally different weather , it is weird . The weather has been quite out of whack this year all over ! Have a good day !

Tom Stephenson said...

A comet is going to destroy the world this summer, but it should be quite a spectacular sight before it hits.

Reader Wil said...

The weather here is also very unstable. Last week lots of snow, today rain and wind. I hope you will have better weather.

Everything Changes said...

Wow!

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

Strange weather all over.
Tomorrow we are supposed to have temperatures at 70 degrees F. The next day, strong thunderstorms are predicted before it drops again into the 30's. We don't know if we're coming or going!

Bovey Belle said...

We have had local flash floods in the past, but nothing in Carmarthen (where girls were at school).

On Saturday night our river was really in spate - yet we had only had "normal" rain. It was the melt-water from snow in the Cambrian hills and the river rose 4or 5 feet VERY quickly.

The Weaver of Grass said...

If Tom is to be believed, we are all going out with a bang this summer - but seems we shall enjoy the view.

Glad to know that the contrary weather is happening everywhere.

Thanks for visiting.