rain

You may remember that earlier on this year, meteorologists predicted that we were in for a good summer. The papers were all over it, revelling in pictorial fantasies of long, hot days, cricket and skimpily dressed ladiez.

After a little research, I discovered that their predictions were entirely based on simple probability. Apparently, the chances of having three bad summers in a row are so slim that the weather forecasters simply gambled that we wouldn't get another. No fancy satellite readings or oceanography analysis; just simple probability.

Well, May and June were fine; but then April and May were fine the year before. And now we're having another damp July, and the short range forecast doesn't show any improvement.

The clouds are low, heavy and lead to sudden intense downpours, though, rather than constant rain. I can live with that. The rain can be quite spectacular, as long as you don't get stuck out in it. After it's finished, the air seems fresher. It's good for cycling in, as the bike travels slickly along the damp road and I don't get too sticky.

So is this going to be our weather from now on? A fine end to spring, followed by a humid mini 'rainy season' and a mild autumn and winter? The recession has rather pushed the climate change agenda, so fashionable two years ago, off the news pages. The clarion call to go green has muted.

Among the sceptics are some folks who say that while climate change is inevitable, it isn't man-made, so we might as well keep burning that carbon. This is a strange argument; if the climate is changing, why hasten its adjustment by added more & more gas to the greenhouse?

With that in mind, I will switch off this power hungry little laptop and go and read a book.

ADDENDUM: My dear old mum pointed out that the weather the last few weeks has followed the same pattern: a bright cool start, incresing cloud, intense afternoon downburts and finally a calm but cloudy evening. It's mostly true, and today's weather was definitely just like that. It's a mini-monsoon season, I reckon.