Green Room
In this edition of the Green Room, we look at the highs (and lows) of the Met Office as it celebrates its 150th anniversary. And we offer a suggestion of how it is possible to enjoy the sights and sounds of a safari without leaving your front room.
This month, the UK's Met Office is celebrating its sesquicentennial. To mark the occasion, the agency has .
Among the highlights is a video that charts the .
It has also produced a timeline of some of the historical moments in its 150 years. These include the publication of the first forecast (in the Times) in 1861; the start of the shipping forecast in 1925, and the great storm of 1987.
Admirably, it also refers to one of its less glorious moments - the , and led to the demise of publicly available seasonal forecasts.
Extreme times
However, people living in parts of the US would give anything for a summer washout. The show the Mid-South in the grips of an "exceptional" drought.
Writing in the , Jason Samenow said that showed how the region was experiencing "blistering heat" that "torched large parts of the country".
While Oklahoma recorded its warmest 4 July on record, the blog also recorded how the nation experienced its :
"The primary factors which led to such an extreme July were: extreme warm minimum temperatures, extreme wetness in the northern plains and western Great Lakes, extreme warm high temperatures, and extreme drought in the south central U.S. through Gulf Coast."
In Texas, one of the states hardest hit by the drought, the waters of one lake retreated so far that was revealed for the first time.
Sofa safari
Web cams have come along way since the early, narrowband days of grainy images of concrete walls and roads that updated once every minute.
Now, it is possible to have a family safari without having to crouch behind a bush for hours on end, or even having to spend a penny.
One such example of what is on offer on the web is . With cameras at a vast range of locations, you are almost certain to see something.
And if you want to know when you could literally have an elephant in the room, then you can sign up for the site's in front of the cameras.
