Don't You Just Love the British Summer ?
 

July 2017 :eek:

Yep, sadly it is becoming a traditional summer feature nowadays!
We are moving house on Tuesday and at this rate the removal company will be using a landing craft or hovercraft, not a forty foot HGV. :eek::eek:

Speaks volumes the outside storeage area I am building in the garden at the moment remains 2 of 3 hours off completion because the weather has been lousy last 2 weekends and no better this one.

I thought British Summer had been abolished years ago.

Here in British Columbia, a tourist asked me a week ago if we ever got summer here ----- I replied "Yes, I believe last year it was on a Tuesday."

Bob Hope cracked a British weather joke to American troops he was entertaining during the D Day build up.

"I like having seasons ... just not all four of them in the same day."

Out checking livestock today, home soaked to the skin, misjudged how quickly the rain would come. I can report, the rain is quite warm so it must be Summer.
I enjoy a good walk in the rain, my waterproof defences got left, when I am back at home, camera in a bag with a drying sachet, change of clothes, boots full of newspaper, all is right.

#5, Tom, what's with this,"no summer in Nanaimo?"
We've had very little rain here in Vancouver this past month of July. Or was the tourist referring to smoke from the forest fires?
My brother, returning by ferry to Horseshoe Bay from Nanaimo, said you couldn't see the Coast Mountains because of the smoke.

I usually walk around Tamar Lake 3 or 4 times a week and over the last two or three months the lake level has been getting lower and lower (it's a reservoir lake created behind a dam on the River Tamar.) At the top mud flats appeared and these had actually grassed over !! much to the delight of the Canadian Geese that live there. In fact I've never seen it that low, a good four or five feet below the dam spillover.

Then last week we got a couple of days of thunderstorms and their torrential downpours and I was very surprised last Sunday to see the lake spilling over the dam, the mud flats all disappeared and the Carp fishermen all having to back up onto the banks. Not something you expect in late July.

More rain today, I can practically hear my lawn growing. The synoptic chart looks more like February or March than July ...

http://www.newquayweather.com/wxisobars.php

The Barograph seems to have gone skiing.

Mary, bear with me --- I didn't say NO summer. My remark was very tongue in cheek -- actually Southern Vancouver Island has had no measurable rainfall so far this July, but it has been somewhat cooler, and with some intermittent cloud cover. I do remember some months of July in the past though where there were daily high temperatures in the high 20's to low 30's with not a vestige of cloud anywhere to be seen. Then again, I remember one August in the early 1980's, sailing from Ganges on Saltspring Island down to Bedwell Harbour where it rained all the way and we collected over 3 gallons of rain running off the main boom.

Sorry but I can't help the northern summer but here we have the most wonderful winters day. crystal clear and warmed uo from 8* to almost 19*. Everywh3re desperately needs rain!!!!!!!

Tom, question: From your Vancouver Island viewpoint, can you see the smoke over the Mainland from the forest fires in the Interior?

Well, British Summer!!!
Loaded wagon on Tuesday in Wales in brilliant sunshine and unloaded on Wednesday in Scotland in continuous torrential rain. Would you believe that in the afternoon, as soon as the removal men started the wagon to return south, the rain stopped and the sun put in an appearance.
We had to run the central heating last night to dry our effects out!

Hi! Mary ---- Haven't noticed any -- the Coast Mountains are high enough to obscure the interior where the fires are, and quite often the peaks are capped with cumulus even further obscuring any view inland.

For many years, however, there has been a noticeable "smeech" on most summer days, expecially when there is a South-Easterly breeze, essentially spreading from the First Narrows area, up the coast past Sechelt. Looks like pollution from the metropolitan Vancouver area.

Tom.

Thanks, Tom, for your observations. Vancouver has been having some hazy days, so this morning I checked, via Google, the air quality for the past few days and read that it is smoke from the Interior. It is also drifting into Alberta. Australian fire fighters have been brought in to help.
I know the smudge you refer to. It used to make me cringe when I came in on the ferry from a trip to Saturna Island to think I would soon be breathing that junk.
I hadn't realized it is showing as far north as Sechelt. Last summer there was a huge forest fire north of Roberts Creek that polluted the Sunshine Coast.

British Summer, AKA British Columbian Summer.......:jester:

As long as the days are sunny and bright in August when I go back to Devon for a few days, the weather can please itself. In our climate, if you don't like the weather we are currently enjoying, (enduring?), wait a couple of hours and it will be completely different!

Wasn't it Charles Warner who, via Mark Twain, said: "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it." ? :big_tongue:

Went down to Portsmouth yesterday to see the US carrier in Stokes Bay.. dull, wet & cold

British summer at its best

Regarding British weather generally, I think this just about sums it up!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eT40eV7OiI

SPOT ON !! :jester:

"I don't believe it !!"

I'm going into Victor Meldrew mode because the rain right now is so torrential it's knocking out the signal on the satellite TV box !!

(Loud sounds of swearing and abuse from Cornwall.) :really_mad:

Here in good old North Norfolk we are basking in sunshine, the temp here has been averaging 20-29 degrees for a week or two. We have on several occasions been promised amber warning rain and thunder that has not happened. Although Friday and Saturday night we had a bit of rain.

Hi! Mary -- if you're still on -- today was particularly clear across the Strait and yes, there did appear to be a smoke haze faintly visible above the Coast Mountains -- no cloud to obstruct the view.

Tom, yes, and today it's even worse with an air quality warning. The sun appears red in a hazy grey sky from the smoke coming south from the forest fires in the Interior and north from a new fire in Washington State.

We have finally got out "come-uppance" on Vancouver Island. The mainland outflow pushed a considerable amount of smoke our way, looking like brown fog on the Strait, obscuring the mainland, and even rendering Mount Benson in a browninsh haze. :(

We can always tell when it is summertime here in Scotland. The rain gets warmer!

Same again today --- can even smell the smoke at times.

Smoke reminds me -- this thread is not about British Summer, but there is also something else British that has to do with smoke:-

Lucas Electrical Theory:

Positive ground depends on proper circuit functioning, which is the transmission of negative ions by retention of visible spectral manifestation known as "smoke". Smoke is the thing that makes electrical circuits work. We know this to be true because every time one lets the smoke out of an electrical circuit, it stops working. This can be verified repeatedly through empirical testing.
For example, if one places a copper bar across the terminals of a battery, prodigious quantities of smoke are liberated and the battery shortly ceases to function. In addition, if one observes smoke escaping from an electrical component such as a Lucas voltage regulator, it will also be observed that the component no longer functions. The logic is elementary and inescapable!
The function of the wiring harness is to conduct the smoke from one device to another. When the wiring springs a leak and lets all the smoke out of the system, nothing works afterward.
Starter motors were considered unsuitable for British motorcycles for some time largely because they consumed large quantities of smoke, requiring very unsightly large wires.
It has been reported that Lucas electrical components are possibly more prone to electrical leakage than their Bosch, Japanese or American counterparts. Experts point out that this is because Lucas is British, and all things British leak. British engines leak oil, British shock absorbers, hydraulic forks and disk brake systems leak fluid, British tires leak air and British Intelligence leaks national defense secrets. Therefore, it follows that British electrical systems must leak smoke. Once again, the logic is clear and inescapable.
In conclusion, the basic concept of transmission of electrical energy in the form of smoke provides a logical explanation of the mysteries of electrical components especially British units manufactured by Joseph Lucas, Ltd. (This has also been referred to as the "smoke theory" because when the smoke comes out its finished, cooked or done for.)
And remember: “A gentleman does not motor about after dark.”
Joseph Lucas “The Prince of Darkness”
1842-1903
A few Lucas quips:
The Lucas motto: “Get home before dark.”
Lucas is the patent holder for the short circuit.
Lucas - Inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
Lucas - Inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
The three-position Lucas switch--DIM, FLICKER and OFF. The other three
switch settings--SMOKE, SMOLDER and IGNITE.
The Original Anti-Theft Device - Lucas Electrics.
If Lucas made guns, guns would not fire.
Back in the ‘70's, Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which did not suck.
Q: Why do the British drink warm beer? A: Because Lucas makes their refrigerators.

I can confirm (along with a squillion others I imagine) that what Tom says is true. The smoke escaped from the Lucas electricals under the dashboard of my brother's Hillman Hunter years ago and nothing worked after the smoke was gone.

I can also confirm that dry powder from a fire extinguisher is not suitable to replace the smoke as after a kg or so of powder was released under the dashboard still nothing worked.

Is it possible, I suppose, that Australian dry powder is not a suitable substitute for English dry powder which might well be a substitute for Lucas smoke?

:huh:

Perhaps Lucas had no reserve of smoke. Instructions for Marconi transmitters were tune for maximum smoke and so must have employed a substantial reserve of smoke. Possibly in those glass bottles that we changed when the smoke stopped? Or possibly piped up from the engine room in those copper pipes that Leckie looked after as soon as they went through the radio room bulkhead. That would explain why we were not allowed to transmit in port - insufficient smoke after FWE.

Also lends support to the controversial law of sending smokers outside of pubs where they can leak their smokey innards into the bad weather out there while we non-leakers can sit inside and drink .... and gloat. :smoking:

I have to confirm this theory after my experiences of yesterday which I spent upon our smaller sister-island where they had 7 power cuts (in British terminology) between 8 and 9 in the morning. Observing the generating plant from 100 feet up a nearby communication tower I could see vast quantities of black smoke emerging from a vertical pipe adjacent to the building.

Naturally I immediately telephoned the plant to advise them that all of their smoke was escaping and that's why there was no electricity around the island.

For some unaccountable reason the person at the other end of the telephone was markedly unappreciative of the information.

I climbed down, caught a plane and came home: can't do my job if others keep losing their smoke!

It rained all night last night. I thought, a front must be going through. So I looked at the synoptic chart !!

Words fail me ... :eek:

It's raining hard again. I think I've started to figure it out. That double celled low over Baily, Rockall and Hebrides is throwing out a whole spiders web of fronts, cold, warm and occluded. Five of these are approaching Cornwall.

Given five fronts, call them the front front, front of the middle front, middle front, back of the middle front and back front, I think last night's rain was the front front, and the rain now it's the front of the middle front, or the middle front ... or both !!

Of course, I could have all this back the front. :eek:

I'll be glad to see the back of those fronts:bye:
Should be passed around midday tomorrow.

The next lot, passing Thursday, don't look quite so ferocious.

The problem here is that you get all the rain and the clouds are nearly empty when they get to me. That means I still have to water the flower tubs and window boxes even though it has 'rained'.

Wow! Even on the Island we had a few days of fairly heavy smoke -- couldn't see mount Benson from downtown for a while!! Has cleared nicely in the last day though.

Here in Cromer we have had to water the garden every day for the last 5 days, no rain. Still it is Cromer carnival today, at the moment it is hot and sunny, but on past experience it is bound to turn cool and rain by 1900 when the carnival parade starts.

To all our American cousins.

I see, I see, I get the picture.

You're sending hurricane Gert our way, (or at least what's left of it.) So, you are refusing to keep bad your weather down your end of the pond ?

Well, if this keeps up, we'll probably have to burn Washington down again (come on guys, think about it, we'd be doing you a favour right now.)

This bloody summer is bad enough without having to wear cast offs .... :big_tongue:

Yesterday I worked most of the day on my conservatory roof. I actually started to wobble a bit it was so hot, apparently now the hottest August Bank Holiday Monday on record.

Today when I went out to do a bit, I had to put a coat on against the rain and cold wind ...:big_tongue:

Summer or no summer I drove up to the Malvern Hills yesterday (Sunday Sept 10th) for a break. Stopped off at Tewkesbury on the way to walk around the battle field of 1471. A decisive battle was fought there near the end of the Wars of the Roses which secured the throne for Edward IV. Some parts of the battlefield are built on, but there's a good path around the site, which runs through 'bloody meadow.'
Here apparently the Lancastrian Army was slaughtered. Medieval battles were a close in bloody affair and once one army buckled little or no quarter was given.
Edward had a good run for ten years or so, then died unexpectedly, which left the field open for his younger brother, Richard to move in and become Richard III .. and we all know how that ended up.

Then I walked up the Worcestershire Beacon, the highest point on the Malverns with a view to die for. Today I did the Herefordshire Beacon, at the other end of the ridge. An ancient fort adorns it call 'The British Camp' which legend has it stood fast against the Roman invasion.

Tomorrow I'm going to walk the ridge line. You can see the Bristol Channel, the Welsh Mountains and the Shropshire plain from these hills. That's enough history here for anyone to chew on.

So far the weather has been fair to good, few heavy showers. Nothing compared the bad weather some poor folks are getting the world over.