WEATHER

Today. 5.25am thrashing rain, high wind blowing over recycling and bins. 7.15 overcast but dry and calm with little breeze. 8.15 bright sunshine force 3 wind. 9.15 overcast again and noticeably colder. 3.10pm high hail stones with thunder and lightning – size of snowberries. And now sunny again. I just love our climate. 4pm sunshine

THE WINTER AHEAD

In line with recent times it looks like this winter could be ‘interesting’. Fuel prices are definitely going to be higher – by how much we do not know yet. The impact on commercial coal firms is already hitting with CO2 production slashed which has an impact on meat processing and fizzy drinks, as well as the NHS whose supply the government says is safeguarded. So food and drink supplies are likely to be disrupted rather than curtailed. Power supplies should be OK but it might be touch or go at times if we have overcast high pressure reducing wind capacity and leading to low temperatures.

HURRICANE NICHOLAS

With speed up to 110kph and 25mm of rainfall this tropical storm is dying down and although he rainfall could cause problems should not cause a major problem. There are no more imminent tropical. storms at the moment.

PASTA CONCERNS

The hot dry spell has hit the durum wheat crop in Canada, whilst the wet spring has already affected the Italian crop. Climate change hitting spagbol and pizza is a real crisis.

Prices for pasta are expected to rise by 50% in line with recent price rises of the wheat. I shall stock up on ‘OO’ flour.

HURRICANE LARRY

Likely to lash into Bermuda later today, at the moment is too far north to affect USA. 9th of September is early to have reached L in the alphabet of storms and there are 6 or 7 weeks of potential hazards to go.

WEATHER FORECASTS

Ok the BBC weather on 5Live says it might rain later, very vague so I check their weather web site and it says 14% chance at 2pm rising to 41% by 7pm. Alexa says 58% chance by 5pm, MetOffice says 30% chance of rain at 10pm and Siri says rain at 4pm and then continuing to the late night.

CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS

I like the quote ‘there is no need to give two sides of an argument about whether it is raining – just look out of the fucking window”. The fossil fuel industry, having spent $billions supporting spurious scientific claims about climate change is in retreat. However the Tory party is full of selfish pricks.

HURRICANE IDA

This hurricane has continued to wreak havoc as its wind intensity diminishes. Its capacity for rain though has caused multiple deaths in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile in the mid-Atlantic Hurricane Larry has already recorded wind speeds close to 130kph. Its course is too early for great predictions but could cause problems in a weeks time. At present it looks like it could cause problems in the Bermuda region and then then Canadas Atlantic provinces, having been deflected away from the USA coast by the jet stream. It is only the start of September so we can expect more activity over the next 6-8 weeks.

WEATHER

It would be a lovely day today if it was not for the clouds and was warmer. Definitely autumnal, but maybe some September sunshine awaits. Met Office suggests rain next weekend but end of September could be more settled and warmer.