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Planet Earth Under Threat

Chris Sperring reporting from his back garden

  • Jody Bourton
  • 5 Oct 06, 12:15 PM

Tornado-for-web.jpg

Hi all heres another guest entry from our reporter

Its confirmed in the . 2006 has been the hottest summer since the 18th Century. Also here's another one, . Two weekends ago I tried digging my garden, now if there was ever an excuse not to garden this is the best one. The ground was so hard the handle of the spade broke, but its true! A road digging drill would not have got through the ground. However last weekend the heavens opened and thunder storm after storm rolled into the garden, at one point the ground could not take anymore rain and a flood began to appear. During one of these storms the wind felt really warm for the 1st of October. The wind got so strong at one point I guessed somewhere should have had a tornado, and sure enough on the national news a Tornado was reported, is it just my imagination or are Tornados really becoming more frequent in the UK? Have a look at the picture of a Tornado I took forming in Cumbria.

But if Summer storms and hot October winds are here can winter really be far away, well today has been another hot day with the best display of late butterflies and Dragonflies to date, the buddleia has flowered once more, and Swallows that are flying over head don't know whether they are coming or going (migration). I have just seen the weather forecast tonight as I will be leading group out watching the stars tonight and for me its great clear skies and wait for it, a good chance of a ground frost. An old West Country farmer once said to me, "During September or October you can get all four seasons rolled into one day".

Comments  Post your comment

  • 1.
  • At 09:18 AM on 08 Oct 2006,
  • Glenn wrote:

It's not only in Britain where 'today has been another hot day'. Here in Spain the summer just goes on and on, and those of us who live in Madrid can't remember the last time that it rained. (In fact, it's been calculated that the summer has 'grown' and that we now have one week less of spring and two weeks less of autumn.) At the same time, we have a very serious drought problem in the centre and south of the country.
The population is doing reasonably well at saving water but the media just don't seem to have got the message - every time a sunny, rainless day is forecast, it's presented in glowing terms (it was described today as 'enviable'). If sunny weather means that it isn't going to rain and rain is what we need, desperately, then maybe it's time those who present the weather (and maybe this is true in UK as well as far as the South East is concerned) got a little more 'environmental'.

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