As a hurricane is due to whump into the Eastern Seaboard of the United States any minute now (and I hope any followers of this blog in that area stay safe and aound) it does make me wonder how lucky we happen to be to live in the UK.
Although we are on the same parallel as (I understand) New York, Moscow, Oslo etc. we get nothing like the severe weather they get because of the warming effects of the Gulf Stream. This is a good thing for us as the alternative would be to be covered in snow for the best part of 5 months of the year.
As it takes just a light dusting of the white stuff to bring the entire country to a halt (as those that live in the UK will testify) its just as well that the warming effects of the Gulf Stream allow us to enjoy mild winters and generally balmy summers. Indeed once in a while we get an exceptional summer (although these have been thin on the ground of late - usually a British summer consists of an unseasonably warm week in April followed by constant showers, two warm days in June, two in July, three in August then back to constant showers until December).
Global warming has clearly helped in this regard. People used to regularly skate on the Thames and they used to have Frost Fairs on the frozen river - but that hasn't happened in hundreds of years (no doubt helped by the tons of effluence the locals used to dump in the river that not only changed the consistency of the Thames from 'clear liquid' to 'browny green custard' but also ensured that anyone unlucky enough to fall into the 'water' was ensured a brief and gruesome battle for survival which saw lack of oxygen and virulent pathogens combat each other to see which could polish off the victim first..
We do have rain. Enough rainfall to have a generally green and pleasant land - except for the bits that town planners in the 1960's and 70's were responsible for. Of course, our water companies transpire to lose about half of this through leakage out of ancient pipes - and general incompetence - meaning the country that has one of the highest rainfalls in Western Europe also has continual hosepipe bans to prevent drought. I know, you couldn't make it up. The pipes are not changed because all our water companies are now privately owned and run by chief executives whose first duty is to his shareholders and whose second duty is to his pension fund. Shareholders don't like expensive capital projects that reduce their dividend - so we see increasing prices for our water, while service and delivery gets worse each year.
But at least we have green fields and trees. I went to Greece this summer and it seems that they just grow rocks, dust and scrawny olive trees.
Although we do have storms and severe gales, they are nothing like the hurricanes and tornados that devastate whole swathes of territory in other countries. Which is a shame as there are plenty of urban areas of Britain that could do with being devastated.
We also don't suffer from earthquakes or volcanoes or tsunamis (not being on any fault line). I've read that if a significant part of the Canary Islands fell into the sea (which I understand could happen at any time!) then the subsequent tsunami wave would take out New York and the rest of the coastline in the US. However, if the opposite occurred then Ireland would take the brunt, leading only to damp shoes in northern Scotland and north Cornwall.
We do get the odd tremor - but this is simply an aftershock to a more devastating earthquake elsewhere in the world. And Britain hasn't seen a volcano in about 10 millions years (unlike Iceland just a few miles north which regularly shuts down international air travel by allowing their small, furry-footed natives to throw copies of the One True Ring into the nearest smoking mountain).
So while the rest of the world appears to be hit by snowstorms, heatwaves, earthquakes, monsoons, hurricanes, tornados, volcanos and tsunamis we get the equivalent of vanilla weather. Bland, boring and generally predicatable.
The only country that could claim a similar incidence of unseasonable bland weather would be Belgium. But who'd want to live there? It's full of Belgians for a start!
Although we are on the same parallel as (I understand) New York, Moscow, Oslo etc. we get nothing like the severe weather they get because of the warming effects of the Gulf Stream. This is a good thing for us as the alternative would be to be covered in snow for the best part of 5 months of the year.
As it takes just a light dusting of the white stuff to bring the entire country to a halt (as those that live in the UK will testify) its just as well that the warming effects of the Gulf Stream allow us to enjoy mild winters and generally balmy summers. Indeed once in a while we get an exceptional summer (although these have been thin on the ground of late - usually a British summer consists of an unseasonably warm week in April followed by constant showers, two warm days in June, two in July, three in August then back to constant showers until December).
Global warming has clearly helped in this regard. People used to regularly skate on the Thames and they used to have Frost Fairs on the frozen river - but that hasn't happened in hundreds of years (no doubt helped by the tons of effluence the locals used to dump in the river that not only changed the consistency of the Thames from 'clear liquid' to 'browny green custard' but also ensured that anyone unlucky enough to fall into the 'water' was ensured a brief and gruesome battle for survival which saw lack of oxygen and virulent pathogens combat each other to see which could polish off the victim first..
We do have rain. Enough rainfall to have a generally green and pleasant land - except for the bits that town planners in the 1960's and 70's were responsible for. Of course, our water companies transpire to lose about half of this through leakage out of ancient pipes - and general incompetence - meaning the country that has one of the highest rainfalls in Western Europe also has continual hosepipe bans to prevent drought. I know, you couldn't make it up. The pipes are not changed because all our water companies are now privately owned and run by chief executives whose first duty is to his shareholders and whose second duty is to his pension fund. Shareholders don't like expensive capital projects that reduce their dividend - so we see increasing prices for our water, while service and delivery gets worse each year.
But at least we have green fields and trees. I went to Greece this summer and it seems that they just grow rocks, dust and scrawny olive trees.
Although we do have storms and severe gales, they are nothing like the hurricanes and tornados that devastate whole swathes of territory in other countries. Which is a shame as there are plenty of urban areas of Britain that could do with being devastated.
We also don't suffer from earthquakes or volcanoes or tsunamis (not being on any fault line). I've read that if a significant part of the Canary Islands fell into the sea (which I understand could happen at any time!) then the subsequent tsunami wave would take out New York and the rest of the coastline in the US. However, if the opposite occurred then Ireland would take the brunt, leading only to damp shoes in northern Scotland and north Cornwall.
We do get the odd tremor - but this is simply an aftershock to a more devastating earthquake elsewhere in the world. And Britain hasn't seen a volcano in about 10 millions years (unlike Iceland just a few miles north which regularly shuts down international air travel by allowing their small, furry-footed natives to throw copies of the One True Ring into the nearest smoking mountain).
So while the rest of the world appears to be hit by snowstorms, heatwaves, earthquakes, monsoons, hurricanes, tornados, volcanos and tsunamis we get the equivalent of vanilla weather. Bland, boring and generally predicatable.
The only country that could claim a similar incidence of unseasonable bland weather would be Belgium. But who'd want to live there? It's full of Belgians for a start!
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