That is a picture of the sky over the South Downs just to the north of Brighton and it was taken on Friday afternoon. It may seem strange to some, but that shade of blue is not the usual colour for an English sky. Our skies are either a pale blue or grey and cloudy. Even this year we have generally seen pale blue skies. I say "even this year" because the weather this year is so different from our norm. The south and east of the country is crying out for rain - at least, the farmers and keen gardeners are. It is becoming a little boring to keep reading in the paper that this is the warmest/driest/longest etc April/May/start to the year/spring etc since 1066/records began/1948/last year etc. Lawns have turned brown, crops are showing every sign of failing. Rivers are dry and fish are having to be rescued. The outlook for otters and kingfishers is said to be alarmingly poor and they are likely to die in large numbers.
The last time we had a really bad drought, the Prime Minister of the day appointed a Minister of Drought (or some such silly title) and immediately the heavens opened. So, come of, Dave! Appoint a Minister for Drought and let's get this over and done with!
(Despite all this, last Sunday was so cold that many people - including us - put their heating back on!)
1 comment:
Brian - I know where your rain is. GS and I sneaked off to the Bay Area. They set a record for rainfall yesterday. Where yhe previous record was less than .2 inches, it's now 1.25 inches, which is about what one would expect for all of May and June.
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