Sentinel

Arch Stanton Where I swim there is an overflow pipe but we get very little sewage from it. To be honest, you can smell and sewage discharge from about 200 yards away and the last one was about five years ago. Whilst I don't doubt the problems of sewage being released into the sea, it is at specific locations and my one is not one of them.

I feel your pain, as a fellow resident of Southend the last 12 months have been pretty turgid. The constant south-westerly winds have meant loads of my sailing has been cancelled and I haven't even been able to swim in the sea. I'm hoping things warm up a bit and I can start swimming but things still don't look great. Having said that, I can remember in 1990 when we got just 10.5 inches of rain in the whole year. In fact 1990 - 1994 were very dry and we had severe concerns about drought. Not anymore we don't!

What's causing the constant SW-lies?

What I don't understand is why the weather pattern has changed. Normally the wet weather goes west - east across southern England, but for the last 12 months or so it has been going SW - NE. What starts off over the Channel Islands six hours later goes over my home in Southend. Does anyone know what's caused the change?

Same here, on the spectrum. Maybe we need a thread for people like us as I'm always fascinated by the weather!

Yep, standing water on Hadleigh marshes and winter has barely started. I wonder what it'll look like after Storm Ciaran.

Standing on Southend seafront half an hour ago there was an easterly wind coming off the North Sea. I looked up and saw clouds moving in from the west. Within ten minutes the wind had changed direction and it had got very dark as rain clouds moved in. Now awaiting the rain.

Horrible thick cloud down here in Essex, i'll be surprised if we see the sun before midday.

Down here in Essex it's just started to rain. There's been some rain form over SW London, north Kent and Essex which I hadn't expected to see. Plus with the wind it's cold along the seafront.

They can call them what they like, I just want to see some storms!

Huge downpour on Canvey Island at the moment. I was hoping to find some geocaches before watching Concord Rangers play, but I'm stuck in the car watching huge rain drops bouncing off the bonnet. First really meaningful rain for a couple of months round here.

What on earth is lingering twilight, can anyone explain please?

The wind is increasing on Southend seafront and is more constant than Eunice.

Snap, same as me! I'm going for 80mph with all the boats in the TBYC boatyard scattered over Shoeburyness!

I would try somewhere down on the coast. Brighton, Southend, Portsmouth, any of them will give a decent view and give an opportunity to see a swell.