Tag Results: Weather
Britain Shivers!
What a week it’s been! This is the 7th day that we’ve had snow on the ground after the worst series of snow storms the UK has seen for nearly 20 years. Schools have been shut most of the week, millions have been bunking off work and on Monday, London ground to a complete halt, making headlines around the world. Shops have been closing at lunchtimes or not opening at all while bus and train services have been cancelled.
While many have had their lives seriously disrupted by the wintry conditions, life for me has been reasonably normal. Unlike some, I’ve been into work on time, every day. I normally get to and from work by bus or car, but this week I’ve mostly walked. As a result, I’ve walked 15.96miles (25.69km) more than I would have done normally. Work has been a bit of nightmare what with staff shortages. I work in the office of a major retailer, but I’ve spent most of the week on the shop floor covering for people who couldn’t get in. On Friday, there was so few of us, we had to close our biggest floor and run the smaller ground floor only. It was very eerie standing alone in the middle of a darkened shop floor at one of the peak trading periods of the week.
Right now, the snow’s slowly thawing, although it’s too slow for it to vanish completely before the next weather systems sweep in over the next few days, potentially delivering another 20cm of snow to most of the country. I’m really enjoying living in snowy conditions, so bring it on!
It’s A Bit Wet
It’s now been over two months running of almost autumnal weather here in the UK. Give or take a few days here and there, Summer hasn’t begun yet at all. Last Friday, a massive weather system rolled over central England dumping double the monthly average of rain on the area in less than 24 hours. Flooding has been the obvious result. At the moment, 350,000 homes are without clean water, thousands are without electricity, hundreds of people are currently living in emergency shelters. One county ran out of emergency services and the military had to be called in (almost unheard of in Britain). There are queues in supermarket car parks as people start to panic-buy groceries and bottled water.
The excess water is now making it’s way down river and the government is warning the worst is yet to come. Parts of my town centre is likely to flood later this evening.
Update: 24 July 2007
Just been down to The Embankment in town where flood levels have peaked. We didn’t get anywhere near the same volume of flood water as others in other parts of the country. Unfortunately however, the only death to come of these floods did happen here. We arrived minutes before a body was dragged from the river.
Other photos can be found on Flickr.
This post will be updated if or when there’s something new to report.
