<<< The British And The Weather >>>

If there is one defining characteristic of the British citizen, it must be our obsession with the weather, or more to the point our constant moaning about it. During 2007 we experienced some very freak weather conditions, which lead to some quite serious flooding in certain areas of the country. While my sympathy goes out to those affected, it was hard not to note that many of these submerged areas lay on well known flood-plains. That means that these areas are prone to flooding and will every so many years be affected.

It does beg the question why anyone would live in a place that has a high risk of ending up under four feet of the wet stuff. My first thought would be that the property prices were lower in these particular areas, although I doubt that is always the case because some of these places are quite sought after and carry with them a certain amount of status. One very horrific revelation at the time was that quite a few of the families affected had no house insurance. Not even cover for basic damage, for example flooding!

Well it certainly gave us all something to moan about. Fortunately we did manage to get about a month of relative warmth through late August and early September, so you would think that we would be pleased with that. How wrong you are! During that time we began complaining about how warm it was getting and how the climate is being disrupted by pollution and all those mucky carbon-footprints. Yet in reality this was nothing unusual. I remember enjoying very mild weather as late as October and that was twenty years ago!

So to February 2008. We had been enjoying quite a mild Winter up until a couple of days ago, when snow fell in some northern parts of England across Scotland. In fact we had been warned last week that "Severe" and "Freak" weather would be moving in. So we all braced ourselves for this onslaught of blizzards and snow drifts. The only problem was that we did not quite get it. In fact the weekend here was bright and sunny, with strong winds but nowhere near the severity we had been warned about.

I suppose the phrase "better to be safe than sorry" is a good rule to follow, but there has to be a line drawn between realistic danger and just plain old scare-mongering! I suppose we should not be too surprised by all this panic. After all, if you watch the TV news long enough and listen to their chimes of doom enough, then you might actually begin to believe it all.

I still feel that commenting on the weather is a very British trait and from what is flying around in the media these days, we will have plenty more to say in the future too!

(Misterduncan).................................................................