Snow!

Part One:

Well here it is again... snow! This year's winter is set to look more like the sort of winters we used to get when I was a child where snow was pretty well on the menu every year around this time. As I write, late at night, it is snowing fairly hard and the landscape is gradually turning white. And the short-term forecast is that snow will continue to fall throughout the night and perhaps into tomorrow. So we shall see what we shall see. But snow or no snow, it's damn cold!

Part Two:

It's all over. At least as far as the next few days are concerned. It didn't snow in this part of the country today and now it's all clearing, moving northwards to hit those tough northerners.. But I dare say if we don't get any more snow this year the likelihood is that we will get some early next year. Pity though that it never coincides with Christmas or at least Christmas Day anymore.

Part Three:

Snow or no snow, it's coooold... brrrrrrrrrr! And once snow has settled in any quantity, ice will begin to form in the days that follow and that's even more treacherous than snow. Oh well, happy days!

Hey, this is looking very civilised... a handful of cars moving along in a very orderly fashion, considerately spaced out, all very gentlemanly! Not the usual bumper-to-bumper crawl of hundreds of cars that we are used to seeing. On the other hand they are probably in some god-forsaken out-of-the way part of the country where five cars in a row are already seen as traffic congestion!

Britain under Water

Giant waves, driven by gale-force winds, pound Britain’s sea defences and threaten homes along the coast.

Flood waters sweep through the town centre, past closed shops. Ducks and swans however make the most of the new-found watercourse.

A car forces a path through a water-logged street which will soon become impassable as more rain falls overnight.

A police officer wades through knee-deep flood water in rescue operations throughout the stricken area. A bridge finally collapses under mounting pressure from a fast-flowing river swollen by torrential rains. A rescue team takes to a dinghy to search for survivors and others trapped in buildings by the fast rising water level. Storm or no storm, Fido must be walked and, if the worse comes to the worst, a swim in the park is no bad thing!

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So is this violent weather the result of global warming or is it just the start of a bad winter? Is global warming the result of the greenhouse effect or is the earth going through one of its hot phases? Is mankind upsetting the earth's weather patterns and provoking violent climatic excesses that will eventually lead to disasters and catastrophes on a global scale? Time will tell.

. . . . .

But one thing's for sure, regardless of the effects of global warming, man has caused untold damage to the earth over the centuries and has wreaked destruction on his environment in a way that could not easily have been imagined. No other creature on God's earth has inflicted such deep scars on the face of our planet and produced such widespread pollution. What else do we need to make us act? Global warming and the disasters that come with it are the nails in our coffin lid that may seal our fate. And, i have to say, we will have deserved it!

Lighthouse under attack

The storm had been brewing all day and as dusk fell it came off the sea and struck land. It hurled the raging waters with full force against the rocky promontory, sending huge waves up the sides of the lighthouse that stood there, a lonely sentinel half way between land and sea.

The water swirling about its base frothed and raged and repeatedly slammed against the lighthouse’s sides, sending long foamy tentacles high into the air as though it sought to snuff the very eye of the lighthouse, the guiding beacon at its summit.

The roaring gale raged ceaselessly, smashing against the surrounding rocks and overrunning the coastal strip. Time after time it drove giant waves onto the land, engulfing everything in its path like a devouring pitiless behemoth.

As night fell the tempest showed no sign of abating. If anything, its fury was now even more terrible and its howling roar had grown deafening. In the midst of this raging maelstrom the lighthouse stood its ground whilst taking the full force of the storm.

Tall and proud the lighthouse stood, though battered by the storm.

No pounding wave nor beating wind could shake its firm resolve.

And there it stands as tall and proud as well it stood before its trial,

and bright its beacon burns to guide all ships that come in sight,

for proud the lighthouse stands, unbroken and defiant all the while.

The Great British Summer

WELL, folks, here we are again, it's the height of summer and, surprise surprise, the weather here in Britain is SHIT... yet again. Overcast skies, rain, wind, even cold at times. Now and again the sun timidly manages to peek through a break in the cloud cover and send its heart-warming rays and heat down to us just to remind us that, yes, it is actually summer even though it's more like winter! But it's not long before the clouds gang up on it again and literally close ranks against it, forcing it to retreat.

BUT that's British summers for you. It ever was so and i suppose it ever will be. However, we now have a new factor to contend with. Global warming! And it seems that the more global warming we have, the colder it gets here in Blighty. God help us if global warming continues unchecked, because it seems we're set to cool down and eventually freeze up the hotter the world gets! Makes a lot of sense that, doesn't it?

NOW imagine if instead of global warming we had global cooling. On the analogy of global warming causing a countrywide cooling here, the corollary would be that global cooling would trigger a heatwave! Far-fetched? Well, maybe, and maybe not. But one thing's for sure... the worse that global warming gets, the worse our weather gets and specifically the cooler it gets, thus producing, as i have already said, SHIT summers.

THE bottom line is that the british weather never has made any sense and now it is making even less sense than it's made in the last few million years. For those who yearn for the sun, they must do as many thousands of other Brits have done before them... high-tail it to Southern Europe and join all the other ex-pats who already live there and are enjoying life in the sun. Cos, global warming or not, the weather isn't going to get any better here and, by the looks of it, is set to get a lot worse... ohhhh, Perfidious Albion!