Weather in the general media (Newspaper features etc)

[Jo Farrow]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/posts/BBC-Weather-at-60

and more 

[Polar Maritime]

I like Darren Bett's last sentence in the bottom video...

[Summer Sun]

Magician Paul Daniels hit by wet spell

 

MAGICIAN Paul Daniels could only watch helplessly as floodwaters burst into his luxury riverside home. The TV veteran, 75, is among thousands devastated by weeks of heavy rain that have left swathes of Britain under inches of water.

The Berkshire property he shares with wife Debbie McGee, 55, was engulfed when the Thames burst its banks. Daniels tweeted residents enduring several feet of swirling floods in nearby Marlow: “Get inflatable paddling pools downstairs and dump everything you can into them. You will save so much stuff.†He said yesterday: “Thank you to all those who asked about our flooding but don’t worry. We are nowhere near as bad as some we are seeing on the news.â€

 

It is not the first time his Wargrave home has been hit. It was swamped in 2000 when a wader-clad Daniels pulled Debbie to dry land in a rowing boat, and the Thames marooned them in November 2012. Heavy rain has left a trail of destruction across the region. The Environment Agency said the Thames, which has overflowed for several days, was still at risk. Its director Howard Davidson warned: “River levels are high and will continue to rise for the next few days. It is likely that we will see further flooding to properties over the coming days.†Daniels complained: “The last 10 years the Environment Agency have failed to control the waters, which were well predicted as going to come again.â€

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/453275/Magician-Paul-Daniels-hit-by-wet-spell

[Summer Sun]

Flood Warnings As River Levels Set To Rise

 

http://news.sky.com/story/1193524/flood-warnings-as-river-levels-set-to-rise

[4wd]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/10553640/The-storms-are-no-different-but-we-are.html 

 

 

This is the worst set of storms for two decades. But two decades is not long. How far back does your memory go? In January 1993 a deep storm (the most intense system of low pressure outside the tropics ever recorded over the north Atlantic) miraculously broke up the oil spilt from the tanker Braer. The Burns Day storm of January 1990 cut off power for half a million. The storm of 1987 blew down 15 million trees. Since history is anything before your own time, history for me includes the storm of 1953 that killed more than 300 in Britain. Who remembers 1928, when 14 drowned in London and piles of Turners wallowed in the Tate?If the effects of the winter storms today seem worse (although they are not), it is partly because power cuts now instantly deprive a generation that has grown dependent on them of technologies that didn’t exist three decades ago: chiefly mobiles and the internet. Their sudden loss brings isolation, alienation, and a desire to blame someone.

[UV-RAY]

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/09/uk-extreme-weather-climate-change-met-office

So the record cold in the states is down the circulation of the jet and heights over the Ne Pacific, yet our bad weather could be down to climate change. Lol, they are making up as they go along.

[Jo Farrow]

Magician Paul Daniels hit by wet spell

 

MAGICIAN Paul Daniels could only watch helplessly as floodwaters burst into his luxury riverside home. The TV veteran, 75, is among thousands devastated by weeks of heavy rain that have left swathes of Britain under inches of water.

The Berkshire property he shares with wife Debbie McGee, 55, was engulfed when the Thames burst its banks. Daniels tweeted residents enduring several feet of swirling floods in nearby Marlow: “Get inflatable paddling pools downstairs and dump everything you can into them. You will save so much stuff.†He said yesterday: “Thank you to all those who asked about our flooding but don’t worry. We are nowhere near as bad as some we are seeing on the news.â€

 

It is not the first time his Wargrave home has been hit. It was swamped in 2000 when a wader-clad Daniels pulled Debbie to dry land in a rowing boat, and the Thames marooned them in November 2012. Heavy rain has left a trail of destruction across the region. The Environment Agency said the Thames, which has overflowed for several days, was still at risk. Its director Howard Davidson warned: “River levels are high and will continue to rise for the next few days. It is likely that we will see further flooding to properties over the coming days.†Daniels complained: “The last 10 years the Environment Agency have failed to control the waters, which were well predicted as going to come again.â€

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/453275/Magician-Paul-Daniels-hit-by-wet-spell

Carol Kirkwood used to live next to Paul Daniel, she moved in time, that's magic

[Cloud 10]

Carol Kirkwood used to live next to Paul Daniel, she moved in time, that's magic

 

She liked living there,but not a lot!

[Summer Sun]

More rain on the way: As parts of the country remain underwater forecasters warn of 48 hours of downpours starting on Wednesday

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537699/Just-thought-As-parts-country-remain-waterlogged-forecaster-say-UK-48-hours-downpours-starting-Wednesday.html

[Summer Sun]

Risk of further floods as Britain faces even more rain

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/453336/Risk-of-further-floods-as-Britain-faces-even-more-rain

[Summer Sun]

Flooding: Heavy Rain To Bring More Flood Woes

 

http://news.sky.com/story/1193774/flooding-heavy-rain-to-bring-more-flood-woes

[Summer Sun]

Snow-Hit Sheep Farmers Fear Worse Is To Come

 

Farmers will have to prepare for the impact of more extreme weather on livestock and crops, according to the National Farmers Union. The Union's deputy president has told Sky News he believes climate change may be to blame for unseasonal conditions like the damaging spring snowfall in 2013. Meurig Raymond told Sky News: "The industry is facing the volatility of weather - maybe climate change. So feeding the world is going to be important going forward. We as farmers have to face up to that, but wake up for society as well."

 

His comments come as farmers say it will take years to recover financially from losses suffered during the coldest spring in 50 years. Months on from snowfall that struck during lambing season, farmers have told Sky News their industry is still reeling from the heavy losses of livestock. On the hills above Llanfairfechan in North Wales farmer Gareth Wyn Jones feeds the sheep that survived the heavy snow. In March and April he spent weeks digging through feet of snow to recover the bodies of sheep and lambs that had perished.

 

http://news.sky.com/story/1193471/snow-hit-sheep-farmers-fear-worse-is-to-come

[Summer Sun]

BBC weather for the week ahead with Stav Danaos

 

Some showers Monday

 

Dry Tuesday

 

Cooler

 

2nd half of the week

 

Unsettled

 

Further rain followed by sunshine and showers

 

Windy at times especially Wednesday and Thursday with Gales in the south and west

 

 

 

[Coast]

Flooding in Britain: Anatomy of a storm

 

Britain's stormiest December since 1969 came from somewhere south of Newfoundland, according to the Met Office - and there’s more bad news to come...

 

We have taken a battering lately, and our winter woes are not over yet. Forecasters at the Met Office say the weather will turn much colder over the next week or so, bringing frost, ice and even snow – a disaster for those whose homes have been flooded and are still full of water. “We are sitting in the battlefield between two weather systems,†says the Met Office chief meteorologist, Paul Davies. One is pushing in from Scandinavia, threatening extreme cold. The other – which has been winning for the past month – is coming across the Atlantic from North America.

 

At times like this, the weather charts on banks of screens at the futuristic Met Office headquarters near Exeter look like war maps. Arrows show the forces of destruction have been gathering far to the west and rushing across the ocean at phenomenal wind speeds of up to 270mph, bringing torrential rain and mighty waves. “Getting storms is one thing, but the wind is what has made this exceptional,†says the forecaster Helen Chivers, after the stormiest calendar month since 1969. Lives have been lost, defences destroyed, homes ruined.

 

So what, exactly, has been happening, and what will happen next? We are often told “it is all about the jet stream†but what is that? And why is it dropping what the Americans call “weather bombs� The story begins somewhere over the sea just south of Newfoundland, where the jet stream often starts. Essentially, this is a fast-moving stream of air going from west to east high in the atmosphere, up where airliners fly. You can’t see it, but you certainly can feel it – and if you are an airline pilot heading home to Britain from the States then you want to find it. “If a pilot can find the jet stream and ride the wind, they will save money on fuel and get there quicker and everybody is happy, thank you very much,†says Chivers. If you have ever seen the movie Finding Nemo then think of the scene in which the turtles hitch a ride on the fast-moving undertow that pulls them along with barely any effort at all. (If you haven’t, then you really should…) That is how the jet stream can work for pilots, and it can usually be found somewhere between 25,000ft and 32,000ft.

 

It is always there, although the height, depth and exact position changes. Much of the time it meanders across the Atlantic like a great unseen river, at about 100mph. Broadly speaking, the weather above it on the map is cold and nasty, while below it is warmer and more pleasant. That is because the jet stream exists on the fault line between cold air coming down from the North Pole and warm air coming up from the tropics.

 

The line shifts around and so does the jet stream, which is created by interaction between the two forces. Davies compares them to the warm air that sits over an English beach on a hot day and the cold air that sits over the sea. “At some point, usually towards the end of morning, you begin to feel wind on your face,†he says. “The air over the land is being heated and rising, leaving a gap. This has to be filled, so cold air comes rushing in from the sea and that is the wind you feel.†Now think of the same thing happening on a vast scale where the tropical and polar air meets, with one rushing in to take the place of the other. “Basically, that is how the wind is generated that becomes the jet stream.â€

 

The strength and speed of the stream increased dramatically in December because of the interaction between tropical air and the extreme cold snap freezing the eastern side of the United States. Caribbean hurricanes also contributed, says Chivers. “Storms can make the jet stream stronger, and the jet stream can make storms stronger; they can feed each other. That is probably what happened in this case.†So pulses of wind began to surge along the jet stream, not meandering now but heading straight for us with undiluted power. This brought storms, torrential rain and, latterly, huge waves. The peak of the assault came on January 3, when the charts showed the surge in the jet stream as a massive force beginning at Newfoundland and reaching right across the Atlantic, bending away towards the Bay of Biscay, then swerving north to us. Imagine a mighty onrushing river that is relatively shallow but hundreds of miles wide and thousands of miles long. On this day, it was 36,000ft up in the air and coming towards Britain at speeds of up to 270 miles per hour.

 

Away to its left, on the edge of the jet stream, the wind speed dropped suddenly and the atmospheric pressure fell. That is what usually happens, but this time the effect was dramatic, says Chivers. “If the pressure falls by 24 millibars in 24 hours, then that is what we call 'explosive deepening’, and the Americans call a 'weather bomb’.†They mean the same thing: “You get really strong winds and rain.†The jet stream had been creating weather bombs and dropping them on Britain for a few weeks, to devastating effect. Homes had been flooded, power lines had come down, hundreds of thousands of people had been left in the dark at Christmas. But now something more was brewing. “If you want huge waves, then you don’t want your storm to come whipping across straight away,†says Davies. “You want it to drop off and sit out there in the Atlantic for a while, so that it has time to link to the ocean and start moving things up and down. It’s like in the bath, you can do splishes and splashes, but if you really slow it down and generate big movements you can make waves that go over the edge.â€

 

Other factors came into play, says Chivers. “The low pressure system does not put as much weight down as a high pressure one, so that pulled the sea up a bit more. We started to get really high astronomical tides coming in anyway. Then the wind blew, and this raised water mass towards the shore, which is when you get your storm surges.†The shipping forecast for Jan 3 was terrifying, with arrows warning of Force 11 in the areas Sole, Fitzroy and Lundy. Huge waves crashed against the west coast, endangering lives. Still it was not over. On the same day, a weather system left the United States that would bring a second assault to us a few days later. “It was a depression that had brought snow to the States, went out on the jet stream, dropped off in the mid-Atlantic and stayed there,†says Chivers. “Then it came slowly across as this enormous low pressure system, pushing water towards us.â€

We feel the effects of such storms more than ever, thanks to our dependence on electricity and electronics, but how unusual is this weather? “We live in the UK, we get battered by storms all the time,†says Chivers. “There was the Royal Charter Storm of 1859, the Great Storm of 1987, the storms of November 2012.†But that was just over a year ago. “Is it happening more often? You’d have to do a lot more research to work that out.â€

 

David Cameron, the Prime Minister, believes we are seeing “more abnormal weather events†and climate change is part of the cause. Officially, the Met Office says the link is unclear. The woman who briefs the PM at times of national emergency, such as we have had lately, is Pat Boyle, head of civil contingencies. “It’s a person-to-person conversation, what is happening now and what is going to happen in the future, setting the scene and setting out the risk,†she says. So let’s ask her what we have in store. The weather has calmed down but the computer models can see up to 10 days in advance, so what do they say?

“We are definitely now going into a quieter period, with good spells of dry weather in between the rain, which will allow things to recover a little bit,†she says. “But it is going to return to normal temperatures for this time of year, which means frost and ice by night and snow on high ground.â€

 

The weakening jet stream has actually brought us relatively warm weather after the storms, but that could now be pushed back by the cold from Scandinavia. “It has been remarkably mild because we have had all this Atlantic weather and we have had very little snow. But the temperature will drop in the middle of [this] week, and that will come as a shock to people,†says Boyle. She does add a note of caution. “The atmosphere is still very uncertain and unstable, so we need to keep an eye on things.†There is no doubt the Met Office is doing that. The operations room is like the set of a James Bond movie, with countless screens displaying the weather secrets of the world. Nobody does it better. But we need them to be this good, because somewhere out there in the atmosphere, the forces of destruction may be assembling again…

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/10564661/storms-met-office-flooding-weather.html

[Summer Sun]

UK braced for gales and threat of more flooding

 

FLOOD-ravaged Britain faces more misery with a week of torrential rain and gales on the way. Heavy persistent downpours and gusts of up to 60mph are in prospect until the weekend. Parts of the UK flooded by relentless rain are braced for continuing chaos as a deep low-pressure system sweeps in from the Atlantic. Forecasters say two inches could fall in parts of the South.The Environment Agency is warning that river levels will keep rising with swathes of the country at risk of more severe flooding. It has issued 114 flood alerts and 72 more serious flood warnings for the next few days and said communities in Somerset, the Midlands, Oxford and along the Thames and Severn should be prepared. Spokesman Craig Woolhouse said: “River levels will remain high for a few days.â€

 

Government forecasters warned more heavy rain was due to set in last night. The Met Office said plunging temperatures in the North will compound the mayhem with roads freezing over and snow likely over high ground. Forecaster Helen Roberts said: “We have a band of rain pushing in from the West overnight and this is going to spread eastwards. “Today the showers will become increasingly frequent across the UK, and on Wednesday we have another spell of rain pushing in from the West which, as it is going to be quite slow moving and will last for a long time, could cause some problems. “Behind that there is another band of showers.â€

 

More wintry weather could result from a huge swathe of bitterly cold air from the East which is currently “battling†milder, stormier conditions from the West over Europe. If the colder front moves towards the UK forecasters say temperatures will plunge bringing the chance of snow. Miss Roberts said: “There is still some uncertainty about this. This battle could happen later on and it is something we will have to watch.†The threat of more rain comes as parts of Britain are still knee-deep in floodwater after relentless rain which started before Christmas. The South has been worst hit with parts of Somerset cut off while hundreds of homes have been flooded and roads left impassable. David Cameron insists the Government is doing all it can to help those people affected. He insisted the Environment Agency was “properly resourced†despite cuts. “The emergency services have done great work,†he said. “But there is always more to do and lessons to be learnt.â€

 

Loftus in North Yorkshire is bucking the weather by being drier. It is the only town in Britain to have had less rain than last year and the daffodils are starting to bloom. Just three miles from the coast, it has high cliffs and is sheltered by moors. Gardener Doreen Bramwell, 68, said: “Maybe it’s just not our turn to have rain at the moment – these things go round.†Local councillor David Fitzpatrick said: “We had two days of torrential rain in September. We are just grateful it has been pretty good since.â€

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/453498/UK-braced-for-gales-and-threat-of-more-flooding

[Coast]

Talking about the weather is as British as standing in a queue for too long or saying ‘sorry’ for something you haven’t done. But even by British standards, there has been an awful lot of talk about the weather in the past few weeks. It’s difficult to find time to talk about anything else, given the recent storms and floods that have torn their way across the country.

 

Unfortunately, 2014 has brought tragedy and misery for many people who have lost loved ones or their homes. A number of people have been killed and thousands have had their homes flooded in the severe weather, as more than 100 flood warnings were put in place last week. The devastation has led to calls for the government to do more to prevent the kind of flooding that is becoming a regular occurrence – it has pledged almost £400m a year to fight the problem, but some climate experts believe more needs to be spent on Britain’s flood defences.

 

But the conversation about weather has gone global in recent days, because it’s not only Britons who have suffered. In the US and Canada, more than 200m people were caught up in freezing conditions, believed to be caused by a polar vortex – a pattern of strong winds that has brought a mass of cold air. On just one day last week, the temperature in all 50 US states fell below freezing. Another different weather extreme could be found in Australia, where temperatures rocketed to the 50C mark, just days after it was revealed that 2013 had been the hottest year in the nation’s history. In October, New South Wales was ravaged by a series of bushfires.

 

But are periods like the past week or so, filled with differing extreme weather patterns in different corners of the world, freak occurrences or the new norm? ‘The atmosphere globally is all connected, so we shouldn’t be entirely surprised if we get extreme weather in one place and another place at the same time,’ said Doug Parker, professor of meteorology from the school of earth and environment at the University of Leeds. ‘There is some evidence of global connections. The Australian heatwave is perhaps linked to what is happening to us. It’s like throwing a stone in the pond – if you’re having an event somewhere in the Earth’s atmosphere, then it causes waves to move out and they can move across the globe. If you have a big disturbance somewhere, like a storm, then that will cause changes in the atmosphere away from it and those changes move outwards around the world.’

 

Prof Parker pointed out that there is already a well-established link – another special relationship, almost – between weather systems Britain and in the US. The recent storms here have been caused by a jet stream crossing the Atlantic. ‘Our weather comes from that direction,’ he said. ‘You can get a seesaw effect across the North Atlantic – it’s called the North Atlantic oscillation. Quite often, if we’re getting one kind of weather, North America might be getting the opposite. That’s kind of what we’re seeing at the moment. They’ve had severely cold temperatures and we’re quite mild. Those temperature changes go hand in hand with the winds. In these conditions, the jet stream is pointing at us and firing these storms across us. They’re riding along the jet stream, effectively.’

 

Scientists cannot be definite on whether or not we are going to see more instances of severe weather like this in the near future, said Prof Parker, but when it does come, it will be hard-hitting. ‘One of the expectations with a warming climate is the storms that we get will be more intense, deliver more rain and have stronger winds,’ he said. ‘The big open questions are to do with the frequency of those storms and where they occur. We might get fewer of them or we might get more of them. One way of looking at climate change is to think that our climate will become more like those of warmer countries that we know.’ He said the public are beginning to ask the same questions about weather patterns as the scientists, and that they are becoming more interested in what exactly is happening in the atmosphere, illustrated by the recent interest in the polar vortex. ‘It’s a scientific term that we use a lot and the media have picked up on it – for some reason, it sounds kind of exciting,’ said Prof Parker. ‘Polar vortices are just one of those phenomena that move around.’

 

Although future weather events cannot be accurately predicted, there is a fear that fairly stable periods in Britain could be a thing of the past. ‘We seem to have had season after season of intense events,’ said Prof Parker. ‘We had some really cold winters a few years ago and we came from a period of drought in the UK into a period of really intense flooding – and that rainy season was record breaking. We don’t seem to have had a season that has been unremarkable for quite a long time.’ But he said there is still uncertainty about what exactly is behind the recent extreme weather around the world. ‘Scientists are wondering if this is just a roll of the dice. If you roll the dice a lot of times, occasionally you get three sixes in a row… or is it something where the dice is weighted by climate change?’

 

 

http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/13/a-polar-vortex-flooding-and-50-degree-heat-world-is-hit-by-extreme-weather-4257710/

[Jo Farrow]

Compound the mayhem????? Really?????

 

We had a frost on Sunday morning, that's all. It caused us to scrape our windscreens. Talk about melodrama!

I did see 2 people fall over this morning, that could have been it 

Edited January 13, 2014 by Jo Farrow

[Summer Sun]

Polar Vortex II Set To Strike US This Week

 

America is set to be hit by another blast from the polar vortex - although temperatures are likely to be warmer than last week's extreme conditions. The polar plunge is expected to move south from Canada, bringing colder air and sub-zero temperatures to the US this week. Forecasters say it will sweep over the lower Mississippi Valley and Midwest on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then hit the East on Thursday. The main thrust of the cold air will follow up a couple of days later.

 

However, the conditions will be far less challenging than last week's record-breaking polar air blast which affected more than half the US population. "Following the retreat of arctic air this weekend, waves of progressively colder air will move southward over Canada this week," said Paul Pastelok, AccuWeather.com's lead long-range forecaster. "We will likely see a piece of the polar vortex break off and set up just north of the Great Lakes spanning January 16 to 20. "This next main arctic blast will not rival, nor will be as extensive as the event last week." Many areas are still recovering from last week's polar vortex, which saw the mercury plunge to -12C (11F) in New York City, and -24C in Chicago.

 

http://news.sky.com/story/1194253/polar-vortex-ii-set-to-strike-us-this-week

[Bobby]

Polar Vortex II Set To Strike US This Week

 

America is set to be hit by another blast from the polar vortex - although temperatures are likely to be warmer than last week's extreme conditions. The polar plunge is expected to move south from Canada, bringing colder air and sub-zero temperatures to the US this week. Forecasters say it will sweep over the lower Mississippi Valley and Midwest on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then hit the East on Thursday. The main thrust of the cold air will follow up a couple of days later.

 

However, the conditions will be far less challenging than last week's record-breaking polar air blast which affected more than half the US population. "Following the retreat of arctic air this weekend, waves of progressively colder air will move southward over Canada this week," said Paul Pastelok, AccuWeather.com's lead long-range forecaster. "We will likely see a piece of the polar vortex break off and set up just north of the Great Lakes spanning January 16 to 20. "This next main arctic blast will not rival, nor will be as extensive as the event last week." Many areas are still recovering from last week's polar vortex, which saw the mercury plunge to -12C (11F) in New York City, and -24C in Chicago.

 

http://news.sky.com/story/1194253/polar-vortex-ii-set-to-strike-us-this-week

 

Don't most of the US's cold snaps come from the polar vortex, they don't have easterlies so cold is sucked down from the Arctic? The polar vortex bringing severe cold is hardly new? Also many in the media calling it "a" polar vortex, you mean compared all the other ones we have around this part of the world? Grr.

Edited January 13, 2014 by Bobby

[Summer Sun]

Here comes polar vortex TWO: Just when you thought it was safe to go outside... another blast of Arctic air to hit US next week

• Experts don't expect temperatures as severe as last week's chill
• New cold-front is expected to hit the East Coast on Thursday
• Most of the country's temperatures will remain above zero degree - unlike the last Polar Vortex
• Cities near the Great Lakes should expect lake-effect snow

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2537831/Dont-winter-clothes-away-just-ANOTHER-Polar-Vortex-expected-hit-U-S-week.html

 

Even more rain expected to bring misery to flooded Britain as light dusting of snow is seen along with frosty start in parts

• More than 170 flood warnings or alerts - with river levels rising in Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset and Somerset
• Concern over the likes of Hampshire Avon, Stour in Dorset, Parrett in Somerset and Severn through Midlands
• Communities along Thames throughout Surrey, Berkshire and Oxfordshire warned they are at risk of flooding
• Photographs taken at Tan Hill in North Yorkshire this morning show a light dusting of snow covering ground
• 200 people turn out to help clean-up Aberystwyth promenade after it was wrecked in the storms of last week

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2538072/UK-weather-Further-heavy-rain-expected-bring-misery-flooded-Britain.html

Edited January 13, 2014 by Summer Sun

[Coast]

The BIG freeze: Get ready as sharp icy blast returns to last three months

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/445766/The-BIG-freeze-Get-ready-as-sharp-icy-blast-returns-to-last-three-months

 

And now the Daily Star and Daily Mail are copying the Express

 

Three months of winter hell will see coldest Christmas on record

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2515481/Freezing-weather-March-Britain-stuck-cold-months.html

 

WINTER 2013 TO BE LONGEST IN HISTORY: Heavy snow could fall until MAY warn forecasters

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/444385/Long-range-UK-weather-forecast-warns-snow-storms-and-Arctic-winds-could-last-SIX-months

 

So how do you think we are fairing against the apocalyptic headlines from last year so far then?

Edited January 14, 2014 by Coast

[Summer Sun]

So how do you think we are fairing against the apocalyptic headlines from last year so far then?

 

Not very good.............

 

[Summer Sun]

Outlook is wet, wet, wet with yet more flooding

 

FLOODS were continuing to wreak havoc across Britain yesterday as forecasters said another band of persistent downpours is due to sweep in. Up to an inch of rain is expected to fall in some areas tomorrow. Worst hit will again be the South, where communities already battered by weeks of wet weather are still under several inches of water. Parts of the South-west, including Somerset, have been cut off by the deluge with hundreds of homes and businesses flooded. In Oxfordshire and Berkshire the ground has been left saturated, with flooding in places after the Thames burst its banks and rivers overflowed. Forecasters warned of more heavy rain tomorrow with showers continuing until the weekend. Lean Brown of The Weather Channel, said up to an inch could fall in places, including the flood-hit South. Jonathan Powell, forecaster for Vantage Weather Services, said: “Rainfall will be slow-moving so once again there is a risk of further flooding especially across the South. It is going to be showery for the rest of the week.â€

 

Environment Agency bosses last night warned people in Dorset, South Wiltshire, Somerset and the Thames Valley to expect further flooding. River levels are high in Hampshire, West Berkshire, Surrey, West Sussex, Wiltshire, along the River Severn in Worcester and Gloucestershire. The River Thames has risen to its highest level for more than a decade in some areas, with warnings for London, Surrey and the Home Counties. The Environment Agency said groundwater levels were still rising along the River Avon, in Tilshead and Wylye, Wiltshire, and in the Solent region. Spokesman John Curtin said they were urging people to stay vigilant. “Environment Agency teams are out on the ground, maintaining flood defences, clearing watercourses and deploying pumps and temporary defences to protect communities at risk,†he said. The Met Office also issued warnings of ice this morning across the entire country, with wet roads expected to freeze.

 

http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/453728/Outlook-is-wet-wet-wet-with-yet-more-flooding

 

James Madden's name hasn't appeared in the Express since January 9th now.......

 

This was his last quote in the express

 

James Madden, forecaster for Exacta Weather, said rain over the weekend is likely to turn to snow with the North braced for a “significant†deluge. He warned the extreme cold and snow threatens to hold out into next month with much of the country in for weeks of winter misery. He said: “Rain is also likely to turn to snow in some places throughout Sunday and into Monday, especially across some parts of Scotland, Northern England, and some parts to the west of the country and Wales.

 

“Some significant snow is likely across parts of Scotland, with the potential for some moderate falls of snow in parts of Northern England, even some parts of the far south may be at risk of seeing some non-significant wintry showers. “The remainder of January is likely to see a dominating theme of rather cold conditions that are also likely to persist into February. “The cold conditions will also be accompanied by widespread snow showers and some lasting accumulations of snow across the country.â€

 

[Coast]

Not very good.............

 

 

[Summer Sun]

Australia Heatwave Sparks Bushfire Danger

 

http://news.sky.com/story/1194762/australia-heatwave-sparks-bushfire-danger