Weather or Climate ?

Thought I would start this off with a religious theme, just to stir people up !


I live in Spain, at 2,500 feet, so can be dispassionate about the flooding,
It is dreadful for all concerned, but amongst all the horror stories are people saying things like
"It isn't quite as bad as 1947"
So is it 'weather" which can be good, bad, prolonged, short, or whatever, or climate, which is allegedly longer.

Incidentally, either way, it seems fairly clear that there should be sufficient defences,
AND that no planning permission should be given for people to build on cliffs made of sand or gravel, or on land below mean sea level,  for railways to be built next to the sea on heaps of gravel,
for people to be allowed to concrete over vast areas of land
for farmers to be allowed to rip out trees and hedgerows and copses . . .
Or for people to protect the "Thames fresh water Mussel" at the expense of hundreds or thousands of houses.

But it's not all bad news.  With that amount of wind there must be lots of electricity ! !
Of have I misunderstood ?

ETA I have just discovered it is actually called a Depressed river Mussel ! Seriously !

I find it a little odd that there are many photos of people with inflatable boats rescuing people and they are only ankle/shin deep in water, so why not just hand the flood victims some wellies? I do have every sympathy for those whose homes/businesses are ruined.





And here we have MelB and her husband in deeper water having fun!



And this is Mel B and her husband in deeper water on holiday!

I had my fair part of surprise weather today: NO warnings whatsoever for my neck of the woods. And then at 4 pm the sky darkened, like it was NIGHT. Strong wind, then a thunderstorm, heavy rain, HAIL ... A breathtaking 30 minutes and then all was back to normal again. NATURE takes its course. And ... I'm 50 meters above the river. So IF I ever have an inundation it's called DELUGE ...   

Anybody who has been affected by these floods has my utter sympathy but to put it in perspective - 5800 homes and businesses have been flooded since December last year but in 2007 48,461 homes and 6,896 businesses were flooded http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26172688


I've just clicked another link on the BBC website to find that the young residents of Porthmadog were scared by the powercuts! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-26168532 It's a good job these poor delicate little poppets weren't around in the 1970s!

@kinell wrote:I find it a little odd that there are many photos of people with inflatable boats rescuing people and they are only ankle/shin deep in water, so why not just hand the flood victims some wellies? I do have every sympathy for those whose homes/businesses are ruined.





And here we have MelB and her husband in deeper water having fun!



And this is Mel B and her husband in deeper water on holiday!

Picture #2 cracks me up - what's with the umbrella?

'an Englishman is never without his gamp?'

@kinell wrote:I find it a little odd that there are many photos of people with inflatable boats rescuing people and they are only ankle/shin deep in water, so why not just hand the flood victims some wellies? I do have every sympathy for those whose homes/businesses are ruined.





And here we have MelB and her husband in deeper water having fun!



And this is Mel B and her husband in deeper water on holiday!

I thought the same thing Kinnell until I heard a reporter say that because of stones, bricks and other objects under water which cannot be seen, the emergency services have to use the inflatables, especially with youngsters and the elderly.

I've just clicked another link on the BBC website to find that the young residents of Porthmadog were scared by the powercuts! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-26168532 It's a good job these poor delicate little poppets weren't around in the 1970s!

Everytime our lights flicker in the wind my 10 year old jumps up with excitement. She has got everything charged up and assembled torches, batteries and candles. Much to her disappointment (but not ours) we've not lost power. She's taken to going to bed by torchlight to practice.