When do we get taxed on this weather ?

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Lets be careful out there !

Praise where praise is due.

I really feel for the folk who have seen their homes and businesses badly affected by this event, but it could easily have been so much worse.

Thankfully the flood defences have been improved over the years, but with the best will in the world they will never be enough to cope with every eventuality in every single location as last night proved. However the response of the Authorities, Emergency services, Met office, Environment agency and members of the general public are to be commended for their actions.

http://weatherearthnews.blogspot.co.uk/ ... ember.html

The organisations which have in my opinion rightly been singled out for widespread criticism though are the news media, BBC and Sky in particular. Just as the threat to life and limb in our coastal regions was approaching its peak, they ditched all coverage of that to give blanket coverage of the sad, but not exactly unexpected death of Nelson Mandella.

Folk who had for hours been relying on the tv news for up to the minute information regarding the flooding risk were suddenly left with no information at all. That is just not good enough and complaints were justified.

Moley

Your not the first person who has criticised the almost blanket coverage of the sad death and almost ignored local events. Whilst sad, he was 95 and had been ill for ages and not expected to live long.

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Lets be careful out there !

I hadn't thought of this angle, and it surely raises questions about the publically funded BBC ignoring tens of thousands of its 'shareholders' in a moment of crisis

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to read this topic.

It's been a few days since I have posted what I would like to think are my reasonably balanced predictions, but I see that in the meantime certain sections of the 'press' are now taking the scaremongering weather headlines to whole new levels, or should I say plumbing new depths.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest- ... -on-record

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/448115 ... hreaten-UK

It's not even funny anymore. There are no doubt many folk who actually believe this crap, and are genuinely concerned. The rags responsible for publishing this nonsense should be ashamed of themselves, but they are not. The Press Complaints Commission have been bombarded with complaints, but cannot act because the Daily Express and Daily Star have not signed up to the PCC, therefore cannot be investigated.

http://www.pcc.org.uk/

Please....ignore these headlines.

The weekend is showing some signs of being quite stormy, but mainly in the far north of the UK, and nothing at all out of the ordinary for this time of the year.

Moley.

You win some you lose some !! My post on December 3rd said this:

<<<....Beyond that there are signs of High Pressure settling close to or over the UK early next week, and would indicate another spell of dry, settled and mostly cloudy weather, becoming milder. In fact with the upper air temperatures expected with this High, and winds coming from the south, we could be looking at daytime temperatures of 14-16c if the sun manages to break through. >>>

Well the High Pressure did indeed settle over the UK, and temperatures reached 15.3c in the far north of Scotland on December 11th. On the same day the maximum temperature at Charlwood ( Surrey ) struggled to reach 2.9c under a blanket of fog and low cloud.

Moley

It can do what it likes now, the next time I'll be using the car is Xmas eve

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Lets be careful out there !

What no reindeer and sleigh this year Kremmen

Gales are currently affecting the far North of the UK this evening as one Low Pressure system sweeps through, to be closely followed by another on Sunday. This now seems to be the start of a period of very unsettled weather between now and Christmas for many parts of the country.

The high pressure of the last week or so is being shunted away as the Jet Stream shifts it's position, allowing a series of Atlantic driven low pressure systems to head our way. Whilst not on the scale of some of the previous newspaper reports I linked, it seems we are now entering a spell of wet and at times very windy weather for the forseeable future.

Next Thursday ( December 19th ) in particular is being closely monitored by a number of weather agencies. I hope to be able to update our local information nearer the time.

Further afield, places you would not normally associate with snow and cold weather have had a blast of the wintery stuff in the last few days. Cyprus, Istanbul, Cairo, Jerusalem and Amman have all had quite significant snowfalls.

Moley

The weather patterns are certainly changing. No doubt the Gov will try and use this as another taxing ploy but I bet if you look back in history its all happened before in the same locations.

All down to nature in the end.

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Lets be careful out there !

In my earlier post I mentioned that Thursday (19th ) was a day being monitored but in fact the system formed and has arrived a few hours early. The centre of the Low is to the north west of Scotland and it's the north of the UK that will see the worst of the weather.

Down here in London and The South East it will become wet and increasingly windy this evening and into tonight ( Wednesday ) with gusts expected to peak at 40-50mph inland,
60-65mph along Southern Coasts.

Thursday should be a quiter day but another low pressure system is heading our way later on Friday and into Saturday so the very unsettled theme continues.

With just 7 days to go there are signs that Christmas Day will be mild, but rather windy with a chance of rain. This due to yet another low pressure system which could produce some problems over the Christmas period, particularly on Boxing Day. More to follow nearer the time.

Moley