More to the diabolical weather than a load of hot air

IT is a true saying that the British love to talk about the weather. So, there are many sore throats here these days. For most of Britain, the weather for the last three months has been diabolical. Storm after storm and floods all over the place. Total rainfall has been the highest ever (well since they started measuring it, but then that is around 250 years ago).

Part of the country, not too far from here, has been under water since Christmas. Since we are having our roof rethatched, we have been looking for scaffolders and one of those we tried has all his scaffolding used in setting up walkways from village to village along roads that are up to six feet (1.8 metres) deep in water. The storms have been so intense that our region (Devon and Cornwall) no longer has main line train access to the rest of the country. One part of the line collapsed into the sea, another remains flooded and the last link was covered by a landslide.

Meanwhile, Singapore is suffering a drought, despite it being the monsoon season.