Flooding the news

I see that the BBC has run a news story about criticism of motorists for stopping their cars to take photos of the floods. Very sound.

But, hang on a minute - isn't this the same BBC that just 24 hours earlier used its news programme to show viewers' photos of the flood, and urged people to send in their photos of the flood so that they too could have their photos, and their name, celebrated in lights?

There's a stench here, and it isn't the floodwaters...

Sleeves up

Right, enough pleasantries. On with the complaining.



It appears, according to the infallible sages of meteorology, that there is only going to be one day of summer this year - July 15th. "There", they are saying, "get used to it. Don't come crying to us if your picnic is ruined and your sandwiches soggy. We warned you." All well and good, but if they can predict the weather 3 months ahead with such astonishing accuracy, why in the name of all that is temperate didn't they think it would be a good idea, maybe, to mention to the good people of Yorkshire that they might be in for a bit of a drenching? Or maybe even volunteer to fill a few sandbags and deposit them on people's doorsteps?

So, one fun-killing report but nothing actually useful like helping flood victims to prepare in advance. Which leads me to wonder - when was the last time you stopped your local weatherperson in the street and asked them to give a breakdown of the accuracy of their forecasts? It's been a fair while for me. Is it possible that some meteorologist sat down to his cornflakes, decided that he wasn't famous enough, and decided to make an outlandish claim to make the morning free paper, knowing that he would never be called to account? Maybe?

Nonetheless, this does appear to be an unusually prologned and unseasonal (Wimbledon aside - perhaps it's their fault for removing the roof from centre court?) bout of rain. Maybe there is some longer term weather pattern or change in climate that is beginning to happen. Someone should look in to that.