Thursday, February 21, 2008
Why did we get so wet?
Last summer when we set off from England on our bicycles we had dreams of long wonderful summer days and leaving our waterproofs at home, replaced by an extra pannier of suncream. However, in practice we were reaching for the ponchos more than expected and precipitation was an often occurence. The rain fell in France, we got soaked in Switzerland, and really rather damp in Romania. When the sun came out it never lasted for as long as we hoped. It felt that whenever we starting turning the pedals again, raindrops starting appearing on the tarmac. This article on The Times website, provides some further insight on the phenomena that was last "summer's" weather and also the Church of England's stance.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Do you guys not remember the vast amounts of sun we experienced? I think what it comes down to is that it rains in Europe. Rain is life giving. If you want sun everyday, go to a desert. I certainly did not get wet almost every day. In fact I remember many days in which we chose to get wetter because it was so hot. I do not think we experienced any climate abnormalities.
ReplyDeleteAndy's opinions do not necessarily reflect mine. That said, it continued to rain for the majority of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and European Turkey when you were basking in (sunny?) Dorset!
ReplyDeleteIs it not we remember in a generalised way? I'm sure we had the worst summer last year ( England 2007) that I can remember - day after day of grey though not necessarily cold. Also April was outstandingly sunny and unusually warm from my recollection.
ReplyDeleteWhat we need is weather recordings!!
Yeah - completely agree that we saw some different possible(!) effects of climate change - the blackberries in July, the early harvest - but what I'm objecting to (with good humour) is the way you guys go on about bad weather - it just seems very British. It didn't rain all day everyday, there weren't blizzards in France, and there weren't tsunamis on Lake Geneva. We experienced a fair mixture of different weather. I think we need to be careful about imagining trends that aren't there too. For example, in the mid 19th Century there was a mini "ice-age" and the Thames froze over, which was a freak occurrence.
ReplyDeleteIn low moments we all say, hell it's always raining isn't it?! If you go out looking for something you will invariably find it - much better to look at the longterm records, which I'll agree don't look particularly favourable.
Just because you found the Les Gets slopes almost unrideable doesn't mean anyone else did. :) he he.
just like old times
ReplyDelete