1987 will forever go down in blighty folklore as the year of the great storm, or what we now know as an "extra tropical Cyclone".I must admit that I get a certain perverse pleasure out of hearing that someone else is even colder than we are here in my area. We're right around -20C now, about 5 degrees colder last night, with a warming trend over the next week forecast...about typical for this time of year. You're definitely in a cold snap,RD. but I'm sure it isn't the first time and it won't be the last. You're inconvenienced, but not terrified and not unprepared.
But it's a little scarier to hear the forecast for so many people further south who may never have seen this kind of weather, especially if they're on the younger side. Time to hunker down and bundle up, and don't leave your dogs outside even if they are accustomed to your "normal" winter weather. I shudder to think of the homeless in areas about to be hard hit.
It's simple: they can't. They seem to bat about 50/50 on forecasts for a week ahead. A whole year, or a whole season? Ha! The weather supercomputer pulls a forecast out of its digital anus...the meteorologists blithely repeat it...and then one of two things happens.
Possibility #1: the forecast turns out to be correct. "See? See? We told you this would happen!"
Possibility #2: the actual weather does not even resemble the forecast; it's as though two different planets are being discussed. Crickets...followed by the next forecast...
It was mid October and the weather man on tele who, afterwards, for all the wrong reasons, became a household name. His name was Michael Fish and during his evening weather bulletin tried to calm people down, some who had rang in beforehand about tales of a hurricane on its way to us.
He calmly told everyone this certainly wasn't the case. During that evening, I think it was 15th-16th October, the worst storm in our history hit us!
To be fair to him, I suppose the meteorological technology of the time wasn't half as advanced as it is now, but still, he made a right arse of the weather that evening, lol.
