Wind and Weather

As an English person I am, of course, accustomed to talking about the weather, and am also familiar with the fact that people who live in places which have real extremes of weather mock us for thinking we have extreme weather...

But this week was pretty exciting . ..

We've had some very wild and windy weather.

Storm Imogen hit the UK, and while we weren't in the worst hit areas, we were forecast to have winds gusting at up to 62 mph, and while I don't have a weather station on my roof so can't be sure, I suspect we got them - it was certainly very wild and noisy,and there were a lot of floods, although fortunately none which directly affected me, although a couple of colleagues had to make detours around fallen trees and blocked roads.

Things have calmed down a little now, but it's still breezy and wet. Although we have had one very bright and frosty morning.

A Dark and Stormy Night

(It was also a dark and stormy day, but that is less dramatic!)

Yesterday was incredibly wet - there have been a lot of floods, although (at least so far) they have mainly been west of me. ( BBC news have some pictures - both Bath and Bradford on Avon, are very close to me)

This morning, driving in to work, wasn't bad, although there was surface water in various places, but as the day wore on, it got a lot more windy and wet. At around quarter to five, one of my co-workers came in to say she thought I might want to know that one of the big bins in the carpark had just been blown across the car park and hi my car, and she was very sorry, but although she'd seen it, she hadn't been able to get to it to stop it. (I must say, I think this was probably a good thing. They're pretty big, metal bins and while I'd obviously rather my car didn't get hit, it's better than someone getting hurt. It looks as though there's a big scratch on the front of the car, but no real damage (it missed the headlights, at least) so I'm relatively sanguine about it (although that might change when I can see it in daylight!)

By the time I set of to drive home it was raining quite heavily and was very windy, and it was gusty wind, which I think is worse, as it's so unpredictable. My drive home is mainly along country roads, and there were a lot of small branches and other debris on the road. About half way home I found that the turning I usually take to get home was closed. (I suspect there was a tree down, blocking it. all that was visible were some blue flashing lights, and several very wet, cold looking police officers, trying to help people turn round, and I decided that it would not be helpful to start asking them questions about what the problem was.

I decided that it would not be a good idea to do what I'd usually do when that road is backed up, which would be to dive off and go through some of the smaller lanes, so I ended up having to take a rather long way home, and with the wind, and lightening, and rain, it really wasn't a restful drive.

I'm hoping that it will get better - not least because I am supposed to be getting a train up to London for the day on Saturday, and if it carries on like this half the track will be underwater (there are already several stretches of railway closed or on reduced services, although so far they are further towards Devon)!

I have to go to the far side of Bath tomorrow, for a meeting, so I think I shall have to leave extra time for the drive, in case of detours...

On the plus side, my house is wind-and weather-proof, and mercifully un-flooded (I had a flood 5 or 6 years ago, and although it was caused by improper drainage on the council's neighbouring land, and since they put in a new drain, it hasn't happened again, but I always get a bit stressed when we have a lot of heavy rain, just in case.)