To our flooded friends in the UK

I'm so glad to hear from all of you - and Barrie, thanks for those links as the videos really bring it all home fast. We'd call this a hurricane over here.

Please everyone keep us updated about you and your neighbors.

"Mother Nature" clearly has been badly out of sorts all over the world.

P.S. Paul, I'd missed your worried post about turning into BillN ;) - and BillN, if you can set up some kind of group subscription for those pills, count me in.:big grin:
 
We'd call this a hurricane over here.

Hi BB, whilst some of these storms have generated winds equivalent to a category 1 hurricane we can't call them hurricanes since a hurricane has to form over tropical waters and it generates all it's energy from what it picks up over that warm water. These guys are formed by the collision of warm and cold air masses in the jet stream. The jet stream is particularly active this year and not in it's normal position. Also there has been some energy boost to the storms because the Atlantic is warmer than normal, so that is a bit like a hurricane, but not really, if you get me :)

Barrie
 
Hi BB, whilst some of these storms have generated winds equivalent to a category 1 hurricane we can't call them hurricanes since a hurricane has to form over tropical waters and it generates all it's energy from what it picks up over that warm water. These guys are formed by the collision of warm and cold air masses in the jet stream. The jet stream is particularly active this year and not in it's normal position. Also there has been some energy boost to the storms because the Atlantic is warmer than normal, so that is a bit like a hurricane, but not really, if you get me :)

Barrie

Can we call them cyclones - low pressure and anti clockwise!
 
- how big should the alula on a Parus major be,
exactly as big as they need to be, Bill, and no bigger

I've just seen an image of a major with a largish alula, from the UK, seemed different to the species out here, or is it that sometimes they stick out more depending on the position of the bird - Barrie will know.
(I am not hijacking the thread BB - it's just a sub species conversation!)
 
I've been following the progress of the small coaster "Bounder" that left Plymouth in the early hours this morning bound for Cowes on the Isle of Wight. She's made slow progress into the gale along the south Devon coast, at times making less than 2 knots (nautical miles per hour). In the last hour she's rounded Start Point, the most dangerous part of her voyage in these conditions and is now making over 6 knots across Start Bay, no doubt to seek shelter in Torbay and join the other 15 vessels currently anchored there to ride out the storm. :clap2: Would not have wanted to be on board.

Barrie
 
I tell you what though, the water isn't coming in under the door here, but it is actually being blown through the wall - we discovered yesterday the pointing is failing outside, and when the wind is in the SW (and it has shifted round exactly as predicted), the rain is blown through the "solid" wall only to emerge about 6 foot above floor level on the inside. It's faintly bizarre.
 
I tell you what though, the water isn't coming in under the door here, but it is actually being blown through the wall - we discovered yesterday the pointing is failing outside, and when the wind is in the SW (and it has shifted round exactly as predicted), the rain is blown through the "solid" wall only to emerge about 6 foot above floor level on the inside. It's faintly bizarre.

what pills did you say you were taking?
 
The weather does seem to be taking a more sinister turn. It was only around May last year that eastern Europe had major floods along the Danube and Elbe Rivers, I had a roadtrip planned starting mid June which included Austria and The Czech Republic but I had to cancel all the hotels we had booked & re-plan our route.

There's a live video webcam in Cesky Krumlov where we were supposed to be staying which showed the Vltava River running about 8 feet up the walls of the buildings close to our hotel - that was the defining moment that caused us to make some changes! From the Dolomites, instead of heading north we ended up going south into Italy which was very nice, but I was looking forward to driving through The Czech Republic and Bavaria. We'll do it one day :)

D
 
I thought Bill was on the Pills :confused:

Bounder has come to anchor in the relative shelter of Torbay within the last few minutes, virtually 12 hours to the minute for what is something like a 40 mile journey.

Winds in Plymouth now gusting in excess of 70 mph and waves offshore reported in excess of 30 feet trough to crest.

Barrie
 
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