Never Trust the Weather Man

After a partly wet holiday weekend at the end of May, the weather in the UK warmed up nicely, with temperatures on Friday reaching about 24C/77F.

By the middle of the week, the weather service was reporting that the weekend would be glorious, with temperatures reaching 27C/84F, and everybody prepared for trips to the beach, or for a Barbecue in the garden.

By Friday however, the forecast had changed to it still being a wonderfully sunny day on Saturday, but on Sunday we were due for heavy rain. What a shame, but hey, we still get one good day right!

Saturday morning the forecast was worse, with rain possible by Saturday evening, but at least most of the day would be sunny and hot.

In reality, we never really did have clear blue skies on Saturday, it was a bit hazy and partly cloudy, so although it was a very pleasant day for working in the garden (as I did), it wasn't the great beach day that they had forecast.

I had brought a new weed eater on Friday and there were plenty of areas of the garden, front and back, that needed attention. I also mowed the lawn, pulled up a lot of weeds and put weed-killer down, watered the garden, and did enough so that you could really tell the difference.

Late afternoon we sat out in the garden, after having finished our chores for the day, and decided that having a Barbecue would be a chore, especially if the weather was going to change to rain, and so we took the lazy option and ended up grilling burgers and sausages indoors instead.

After that, I went back out in the garden and lit a fire in the incinerator, to try and burn as much of the garden waste that had been accumulating as I could. It was a really nice evening, and by bedtime even the larger pieces of tree stump that I had thrown into the fire had burned down. No rain though...

We woke up on Sunday morning, early, to find the sun brightly shining into the bedroom, and were greeted by clear blue skies.

The fire had completely burnt down to ash, and what a surprise - no rain at all during the night.

As the day went on, with my spending a lot more time outside working in the garden, it just got nicer and nicer, and with clear blue skies all day, it got hotter than Saturday. It was a really nice weekend.

Woke up this morning, and guess what? More nice clear skies - and still no rain!

One of the most classic weather man blunders in the UK was back in October of 1987. The weather man for the BBC at the time, Michael Fish, said in his forecast that it might be a little windy overnight.

Well he was right, it was a little windy, and in fact it was REALLY windy, it was a HURRICANE!

The Hurricane of October 1987 devastated the South of England, causing tremendous damage to buildings, and bringing down countless trees all over the country. In many parts of the South of England, one in ten of the big old Oak Trees that are so typically England, came down that night, and it was a sad sight to see so many of them lying on the ground in every park or wooded area.

I was living in North London at the time, and I remember being kept awake all night, with the sound of the wind howling around outside the house. Things were being blown around from one direction to the other, and then back again, tree branches, dustbin lids, garbage, empty cans etc, and the whistling noise from the wind was just eerie.

Well it's supposed to rain today and for the next three days, heavily too, but do you know something? I will take that forecast with a pinch of salt, because as far as I am concerned, I don't trust what the weatherman says.

I hope you had a good weekend too.