Weather Eye

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From The Times November 25, 2008

Storms along the east coast of Australia

Paul Simons Weather Eye

The greatest storm surge yet recorded was 14.6m (43ft) high and struck Bathurst Bay, on the northern peninsula of Queensland, Australia, on March 4, 1899. A ferocious storm, Cyclone Mahina, drove an enormous bulge of water ashore. More than 400 people were killed, many of whom were pearl hunters. Their houses and fleet of 152 schooners and other boats were destroyed in a surge of seawater so powerful that fish and sharks were found washed up 5km (3 miles) inland. By comparison, the storm surge of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 was half the height of the Bathurst disaster.

Scientists have collected reports of this and other storms along the east coast of Australia, dating back to Captain Cook’s voyage in 1770.

This extensive archive of ships’ logs, shipwrecks and local weather reports has revealed a long-term pattern in which the prevailing climate alternates between drought and storms over a period of several decades. It appears that the east coast is coming to the end of a 30-year drought and that a new bout of stormy weather that could last for decades is beginning.

As if to underline the new threat, Brisbane was battered by two violent storms last week. Hail the size of golf balls, torrential rains and hurricane-force winds tore through the city causing mayhem. Roofs were ripped off houses, and thousands of homes were left without power. “It looks like a war zone,” declared the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on visiting the area. When it seemed the worst was over, a second exceptional storm struck a few days later and dropped almost 200mm (8in) of rain, setting off flashfloods.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5225954.ece

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From The Times November 26, 2008

What can we expect this winter?

Paul Simons Weather Eye

With such a big freeze over the past few days, ducks have had plenty of opportunity to practise their ice-skating skills. This brings to mind the old adage:

Ice in November that’ll bear a duck,

The rest of winter will be slush and muck

But what of the predicted slush and muck? Can we expect the rest of the winter to be mild, wet and muddy?

As often happens when using folklore to make long-range winter forecasts, there are mixed signs. This month, Bewick’s swans arrived from Siberia, raising fears that the birds’ late arrival carried some ominous warning. Athough the birds migrate here to escape the cold in Russia it does not necessarily mean that a freeze will follow here.

With the Bewicks came large numbers of waxwings from Scandinavia. These beautifully coloured birds attracted much interest, but their invasion was caused by a lack of berries in Russian forests, while there were rich pickings here in Britain.

In 2004 large flocks of waxwings arrived here, raising fears that this gave warning of icy weather on the way. But it was a false alarm — that winter was fairly unremarkable.

However, 2004 was more notable for the death of Bill Foggitt, probably the best-known folklore forecaster in recent times. The colourful Yorkshireman was especially interested in forecasting cold winters from the behaviour of animals and the numbers of berries and nuts on trees and bushes. And he scored some successes, but whether it was by luck or judgment remains open to debate.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5232428.ece

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From The Times November 27, 2008

Weather station battleground

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Greenland has made a landmark decision by voting for self-rule (report, November 26). But although it seems a remote place, much of our weather is influenced by Greenland and plays a crucial part in weather forecasting across the North Atlantic and Western Europe. And in the Second World War it became a battleground between the Allies and Germans for establishing weather stations.

The Germans made repeated attempts to smuggle in weather teams and equipment, but ultimately most were either captured or destroyed by the Allies. However, they did relay enough weather information to plan the deadly U-boat operations in the Atlantic. An intensely cold northern winter of 1940-41 forced both sides to rely on sporadic aircraft weather flights, and the Germans also used U-boats to relay weather reports.

By 1941 the British patrolled the Greenland Sea, and scored a big coup by capturing the weather ship München with its Enigma code books, the first advance in breaking the German naval codes.

Greenland also established its own army of 26 men, the smallest army to fight in the war, and began patrols along its eastern coastline. In March 1943 a four-man sled team discovered a force of 27 Germans in northern Greenland. In the ensuing fight one of the Greenland team escaped and made a heroic 600 mile trek over the ice to report the Germans’ position, which was destroyed in an air attack. By the end of the war the Germans could rely only on automated weather stations in Greenland.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5240427.ece

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From The Times November 28, 2008

Pitztal and Zermatt make snow to secure future

Paul Simons Weather Eye

A refrigerator used to cool the world's deepest gold mine in South Africa is now being used to make snow in the Alps. The machine was first installed in the 1990s to cool mine shafts reaching 4km (2.5miles) deep, where temperatures can soar to more than 60C (140F). The refrigerator not only worked well, but to the surprise of everyone, also made snow - an amazing sight for mine workers who had never seen snow before.

The device uses a powerful vacuum to create the right conditions for an occurrence called the triple point of water, when water vapour, liquid and ice can all exist at the same time. As some of the water evaporates, the rest freezes into a slurry of ice, which can be turned into snow.

Seeing a new business opportunity from the inadvertent discovery, the manufacturer flew out the Norwegian ski team to test the snow, who pronounced it was good. But it was much tougher trying to convince ski resorts.

However, this September the first of the new snow machines were installed in the Alps, at Pitztal in Austria and Zermatt in Switzerland. These resorts use glaciers as ski runs, giving them a long ski season. But as the glaciers are receding rapidly in the warmer climate of the Alps, so skiers are having to trek farther to reach the ski runs. The artificial snow helps to bridge that gap. It could also become a lifeline for ski runs at lower altitudes, which rely on natural snow. As reliable snowfall has become less predictable over recent years, ski resorts have been facing a very uncertain future.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5247361.ece

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From The Times November 29, 2008

Exotic jungle discovered in Cornwall

Paul Simons Weather Eye

An exotic jungle has been discovered in an overgrown valley in Cornwall (report, November 27). Sub-tropical palms, shrubs and ferns were found growing in a gorge at Trebah Gardens near Falmouth, where they had remained hidden by later growth for more than a century.

These botanical wonders have thrived in the mild conditions of Cornwall. The maritime climate, warm breezes blown off the Gulf Stream and a sheltered location all help to protect the gardens from frost and severe cold.

A sub-tropical Mexican fuchsia shrub at Trebah caused great excitement when it flowered non-stop for a year.

A short way up the Cornish coast lies another surprise. The Tregothnan Estate, near Truro, has established the first commercial tea plantation in Britain. The climate there is remarkably similar to Darjeeling, averaging an annual 13.7C (56.7F) compared with Darjeeling’s 14.7C (58.5F). The tea bushes also thrive on rainfall averaging 940mm (37in) a year, although not quite the Indian monsoon that helps to soak the hills of Darjeeling with a yearly 3,037mm (120in).

Most crucially, the Tregothnan estate has no spring frosts, when the buds and young leaves of the tea bushes are most vulnerable. The plantation covers 20 acres of mature tea bushes that are harvested from April to October and produce a tea that is reckoned to almost match Darjeeling, although a lot more expensive.

Already, the Tregothnan plantation has attracted interest from elsewhere in Cornwall, and the hope is to form a UK tea growers association. Climate change could extend tea-growing to other areas in southern England.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5254080.ece

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From The Times December 1, 2008

How fog cleared the way for Napoleon's men

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Yesterday was the 200th anniversary of an extraordinary battle in the mountains of Spain.

Napoleon’s Spanish campaign during the Peninsular War had not been going well, and he personally intervened by marching on Madrid with a force of 45,000 men. He made swift progress, and by late November the only remaining obstacle on the way to Madrid was the Somosierra Pass in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains to the north of the city. The Spanish had fortified the ravine with cannons but were heavily outnumbered.

On November 30 the mountains were shrouded in thick fog, and at 9am the French infantry pushed up the mountainsides but met withering musket fire from the Spanish. By midday Napoleon seemed to have grown impatient with the battle’s progress and ordered his Polish light cavalry to charge up the narrow road and take the Spanish batteries of cannons. Perhaps he thought a cavalry charge appearing out of the fog would panic the defenders or give the artillery little time to take aim. But as the 200 sword-wielding Polish horsemen drew close, the Spanish muskets and cannons mowed them down.

It was a massacre later compared to the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade. But despite the slaughter, the few remaining Polish cavalry managed to take most of the gun batteries. In the fog the defending Spanish troops could not see how few Poles were involved in the assault, and fearing a rout they began to retreat. The way was opened for the French troops to take the pass, and Napoleon entered Madrid a few days later.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5263185.ece

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From The Times December 2, 2008

Hurricanes aid evolution

Paul Simons Weather Eye

The hurricane season, which officially finished on Sunday, was busier than most. There were 16 storms, including 8 hurricanes, that left a trail of destruction across much of the Caribbean and southern US. But not all the consequences of such destruction are bad. Forests often show remarkable powers of rejuvenation, with fresh new vegetation soon sprouting up. Seas are stirred up into such a frenzy that they are refreshed with oxygen, and huge amounts of fresh nutrients and plankton are dragged up to the surface, offering a feast for marine creatures.

A new study in the journal Biotropica reveals that hurricanes can even lend a hand in evolution. When Hurricane Ivan ripped through the West Indies in 2004 it was the most powerful storm of the year, a Category 5 with winds that rose up to 165mph.

By chance, a team of scientists was studying bats on Grand Cayman island before the storm struck and so there was an opportunity to compare the bat populations before and after the hurricane blew through.

It was no surprise to find that bat numbers were much reduced.

But one group of bats seemed to buck the trend. The common fruit bat on the island received an unexpected boost when two new varieties of the bats appeared after the hurricane.

Bats are not known for making long-distance flights across the sea, so it is more likely that the storm blew them from another island — the nearest possibility was more than 80 miles away. So by blowing bats from one island to another, hurricanes help to boost the gene pool in isolated bat communities.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5269932.ece

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From The Times December 3, 2008

The inadvertent yardstick of climate change

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Wine has inadvertently become a measure of climate change. According to research in the Netherlands, wine holds clues to the amount of carbon dioxide in the air where the grapes originally were grown.

A mildly radioactive yet harmless form of carbon called carbon-14 is a natural isotope that only makes up a minuscule proportion of the element in the air, but plants absorb it as they take in carbon dioxide for their photosynthesis and lock it away in their tissues.

But carbon dioxide given off from burning coal, oil or gas is virtually free of any carbon-14. This lack of the isotope leaves a telltale signature in plants, and in the case of grapes makes its way into the wine.

When scientists tested wines from different parts of Europe, the amount of carbon-14 revealed how much fossil fuel carbon dioxide was in the atmosphere in that region. Northern Italy and Germany had more fossil fuel emissions than the Swiss Alps.

And vineyards close to airports or power plants also had more evidence of fossils fuels.

With few ground stations across Europe measuring carbon dioxide levels, any extra information is a useful contribution to track down regional fossil fuel emissions.

And wine is an ideal marker for measuring these emissions because good-quality wines state the year that the grapes were harvested and the region they come from. And with a stock of old wines, there is the chance to delve back into the history of pollution in the atmosphere.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5275520.ece

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From The Times December 4 2008

Venice fights to avoid catastrophic flood

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Venice has been flooded twice so far this week, the worst floods for 22 years. And the problem is growing worse as sea levels rise and the foundations of Venice gradually sink.

Exactly how much the city has sunk over the years is not clear, though, because measurements of the local tides only began in 1871.

However, some intriguing clues were left by the 18th-century painter Canaletto in his work.

Canaletto made a good living painting highly realistic pictures of Venice for wealthy tourists. His almost photographic paintings relied on a portable camera obscura, which projected an image on to a sheet of paper, or canvas, from which he drew the contours with a pen. This gave not only pinpoint accuracy but also allowed him to crank out roughly one picture every three days during the 1730s and 1740s.

The pictures were so detailed that they capture a greenish-brown slime of laminaria algae lining the canals. Because laminaria float on the water’s surface they show the average high tide marks. In an ingenious study, more than a hundred of Canaletto’s pictures were closely examined for the algae to measure the sea rise. The calculations showed the tides rose about 2.7mm per year.

This fits with official tide measurements in the 19th century, which showed a rise of 2.4mm per year. Knowing this history helps to predict future sea-level change.

For Venice, however, the only hope of avoiding a catastrophic flood is the completion of a colossal underwater flood barrier, using massive hinged barriers attached to the seabed, which is due to be completed by 2011.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5281738.ece

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From The Times December 5, 2008

What is freezing fog?

Paul Simons Weather Eye

There has been much freezing fog in the UK this week — a wet, cold ground-hugging cloud, creating treacherous conditions on roads as it turned to ice.

Strangely, freezing fog consists of liquid water below freezing and can stay liquid even down to around minus 40C (-40F). This is called supercooled water and happens because water needs something to grab hold of to make ice crystals, such as tiny specks of dust, soot or salt floating in the air. But when freezing fog touches a cold object, it instantly turns to rime ice, which freezes so rapidly it traps air in the ice and gives a milky colour. It also can form beautiful feathery ice crystals.

Droplets of supercooled water often exist in stratiform and cumulus clouds. They cling to the wings of passing airplanes and crystallise. Aircraft that are expected to fly in such conditions are equipped with a de-icing system. Freezing rain is also caused by supercooled droplets.

So sensitive is supercooled water that the sound of a starting pistol is sometimes enough to send a pressure wave that triggers the ice to form. A fizzy drink can also be supercooled. Put a bottle of pop in a freezer for a short while, gently take it out and stand it on a table. Carefully open the top and the liquid should suddenly change to ice. As the bottle is opened, bubbles appear that the ice crystals latch on to. Once the crystals start to form, they begin to form on to each other in a chain reaction that turns the liquid to ice. The tricky thing is finding out how long to leave the bottle in the freezer.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5289178.ece

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From The Times December 6, 2008

How do we get hailstones the size of golfballs?

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Violent hailstorms have recently battered Australia, and Liam Barlow wrote to ask why the hailstones were the size of golfballs, while our hail in the UK tends to be the size of mothballs?

It is the power of the thunderstorms that count. The stronger the storm, the more powerful their updraughts. These fierce winds soar upwards, shooting hailstones up into the top of the thundercloud where sub-zero temperatures coat the hail with more ice. As the hailstones grow larger the updraught can no longer keep them airborne, and they plunge out of the cloud as a hailstorm. So, it needs a very powerful updraught to grow golfball-sized hailstones.

In fact, the size of hailstones gives some idea of the speed of an updraught. Pea-sized hailstones come from updraughts of at least 39km/h (24mph), hailstones the size of golfballs need updraughts exceeding 88km/h (55mph) and tennis-ball-sized hail have updraughts over 160km/h (100mph).

A German paragliding champion had a terrifying first-hand experience of an updraught two years ago. Ewa Wisnierska was flying in Australia when she was drawn inside a thunderstorm and catapulted sky high on an updraught. Towards the top of the cloud, she blacked out from lack of oxygen, in temperatures below minus 40C (-40F), and battered by hailstones. But incredibly, after an hour she came round and managed to manoeuvre her paraglider out of the storm.

“You can’t imagine the power, you feel like nothing, like a leaf from a tree going up,” she said. She suffered frostbite, bruises and was covered in ice, but otherwise was in remarkably good shape.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5295021.ece

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From The Times December 8, 2008

High-flying aviation in the jet stream

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Yesterday marked the anniversary in 1934 of a remarkable flight.

Wiley Post was a pioneering aviator who believed that the key to fast, long-distance air travel was flying at great altitudes, between 30,000 and 40,000ft. There the atmosphere is so thin that an aircraft can travel much faster, but there were huge dangers because of the lack of oxygen and the fact that his aircraft, Winnie Mae, was made of plywood and could not be pressurised. Instead, Post had a pressurised suit built, the forerunner of an astronaut’s suit, made largely of rubber with an aluminium helmet.

On December 7, 1934, Post reached around 50,000ft over Oklahoma, but faced some fierce winds estimated at 200mph. He had stumbled on the jet stream, a fast river of wind that snakes eastwards around the globe at great heights. He did not know it, but the jet stream is the driving force behind much of our weather, helping to intensify and guide storms. Post had proved that high-altitude flight was the key to faster air travel. “I am convinced that airplanes can travel at terrific speeds above 30,000 feet by getting to the prevailing wind channel,” he exclaimed, and forecast a 12-hour journey between London and New York. The following year he broke a new air speed record when Winnae Mae reached 340mph.

Wiley Post became a national hero. But his pioneering lessons of high-flying aviation in the jet stream were lost. A decade later, in the Second World War, Allied bomber pilots were astonished to be hit by high-altitude winds that buffeted their aircraft and scattered their bomb loads.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5303400.ece

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From The Times December 9, 2008

The worst lifeboat disaster in British history

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Today is the anniversary of the worst lifeboat disaster in British history. On the night of December 9, 1886, a gale raged off the northwest coast of England as the three-masted sailing ship Mexico left Liverpool, bound for South America. Soon afterwards the ship ran aground off Southport and the captain ordered distress rockets to be fired. A lifeboat was launched from Southport. The Times described the conditions: “The sea ran mountains high, and the broken water was something frightful . . . several times the lifeboat was beaten back by the tempestuous seas, and shipped an immense quantity of water.” But the lifeboat managed to battle through, until, 20 yards from the stricken ship she was caught by a gigantic wave and capsized, drowning most of the crew. The survivors managed to cling on to the overturned hull and drift back to shore, but only two survived the bitter cold. In all, 12 of the 14 crewmen died.

The lifeboat crew at Lytham St Anne’s also responded to the Mexico’s distress rockets. But after rowing far out to sea, the Lytham St Anne’s lifeboat was later discovered turned upside with the loss of her entire crew. With no survivors, the circumstances in which she was wrecked remain unknown. Eventually a third lifeboat reached the Mexico and rescued all 12 of her crew, in an operation lasting five hours.

Of the 44 lifeboatmen sent out that night to the rescue of the Mexico, 27 died, almost all of whom were fishermen in their normal working lives. The tragedy shook the nation and an appeal launched for the bereaved families raised £30,000, roughly £2 million in today’s money.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5309837.ece

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From The Times December 10, 2008

Temperature inversions cause surreal sights

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Recent days have been cold, frosty and foggy, creating some stunning views. Valleys looked like they were full of shaving foam as they filled with fog. Over flatter terrain the mist seemed to hang in the air like veils of muslin. Also a strange sight was smoke rising up from chimneys, climbing a short way before spreading out into a thin sheet.

These surreal sights were thanks to temperature inversions. Usually the air grows colder as you move up through the atmosphere. But on a cold, clear winter’s night, the ground quickly grows so cold it cools off the air just above it, rather like a refrigerator. A little higher up, though, the air stays slightly warmer and this temperature inversion behaves like an invisible ceiling, stopping fog and smoke from rising any higher. The temperature inversion remains in place so long as conditions remain calm, with little air movement to break up the layers of cold and warm air.

In Britain during the Second World War clear moonlit nights were feared as enemy air raids could pinpoint their targets easily. So smoke screens were laid as cover for strategic factories and other targets using drums of burning oil with tall chimneys, which looked rather like oversized garden incinerators. These produced a thick acrid smoke, and with an accurate forecast of wind speed and direction, the oil drums could be positioned to give maximum cover.

But during temperature inversions, the smoke would also get trapped far longer than needed, leaving a dense smog the next day that left people choking in foul air.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5315158.ece

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From The Times December 11, 2008

When is the earliest sunset of the year?

Paul Simons Weather Eye

When is the earliest sunset of the year? On the face of it this seems obvious – the shortest hours of daylight of the year is on the winter solstice, which falls on December 21. But the confusing thing is that the earliest sunset happens later this week. And the latest sunrise comes at the end of the month.

Thanks to a slight elliptical shape in the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, and the tilt of the Earth’s axis, not all days of the year are exactly 24 hours long. Daylight hours can vary by up to 16 minutes, as measured with a sundial. Only over an entire year is there an average of 24 hours a day, which is how we get Greenwich Mean Time to standardise timekeeping.

This discrepancy between sundials and clocks changes fastest around the winter solstice. It is when the Earth is nearing its closest distance to the Sun around 146 million km (91 million miles), and moving fastest in its orbit, slightly more than our average speed of 30km/sec (18 miles a second).

So if you measure time using a sundial this week, noon will come earlier than noon on our clocks, hence the earliest sunset is this week.

By the new year, however, the sundial noontime will be several minutes later, and so the latest sunrise happens around then.

The daily change in sunrise and sunset times is extremely small at this time of year, changing by only a few seconds. And the precise date of the earliest sunset and latest sunrise depends on your latitude.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5321081.ece

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From The Times December 12, 2008

Who was Jack Frost?

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Jack Frost has been hard at work this month, more than usual compared with recent Decembers past. But who was Jack Frost and how did he get his icy powers?

He probably originated in Viking mythology as Jokul Frosti, meaning “icicle frost”. His father, Kari, god of the winds. was known to be a philistine, but young Jokul Frosti was an elf-like creature with an artistic streak. His handiwork could be seen earlier in the year when he changed the colour of autumn leaves on trees. But come wintertime his true talents came to light in the exquisite jewel-like engravings he etched on exceedingly cold nights.

When the myth of Jokul Frosti became ingrained in British folklore he became known as Jack Frost.

However, in Russia, frost and snow is created by an old man called Father Frost, a blacksmith who could bind water and earth together with silver chains. And in Germany the culprit is Mother Frost, a cold, rather austere woman who could send snow showers by shaking out the white feathers from her bed.

These days, double glazing has killed off the work of Jack Frost on windows. But for single panes of glass, all that is needed is exceedingly cold air on the outside and damp air on the inside. As the nights grow colder, the inside of the window pane gets cold enough for water vapour in the air to form ice crystals on the glass. As the ice crystals creep across the frozen glass surface they develop stunning feathery patterns guided by tiny scratches, dust, bits of dirt or other imperfections on the window.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5327166.ece

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From The Times December 13, 2008

Great skiing conditions this winter in Europe

Paul Simons Weather Eye

The skiing conditions just get better and better this winter. After one of the best starts to a ski season for many years, the snows keep on falling across Europe. Stormy weather across

Italy this week produced big snowfalls in the north and floods farther south. And all over the Alps, fresh snows have been preserved in cold temperatures, with the promise of more to come. This weekend a big Atlantic depression rolls across the UK with a heavy belt of rain that will then work its way through Western Europe, turning to heavy snow over the mountains.

“There is a real buzz about the conditions,” described Al Morgan, information manager at the Ski Club of Great Britain. “Many resorts have had an absolutely superb start, superior to last year’s early season.”

Often an early snowfall quickly melts away because the ground is too warm. But this winter the cold temperatures have frozen the ground, helping the snow to settle and built up a thick base, offering some protection against any milder spells later in the season.

Scotland’s resorts have also enjoyed the early snow, with more expected this weekend. This is giving them a huge shot in the arm as visitor numbers had dropped off alarmingly in recent years as the winters have grown milder and shorter. But the resorts are reporting an increase in ticket sales and hope to beat last year’s total.

And it is not just Europe enjoying the snowfalls. In North America many ski resorts also opened early. Severe storms this week also dropped huge snowfalls on the eastern US. Even New Orleans and many southern states had a rare snowfall on Thursday, with several inches falling.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5333108.ece

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From The Times December 15, 2008

Cold? The winter of 1708 was much worse

Paul Simons Weather Eye

It may be feeling bitterly cold now, but in 1708 the winter was much worse. It was during the War of the Spanish Succession, when several European powers joined in a coalition to prevent the French from succeeding to Spain’s throne.

The English Army under the Duke of Marlborough was fighting with an Austrian force against the French and scored some crushing victories. By December, Marlborough was in Flanders and had his sights on the town of Ghent, but the weather conditions deteriorated.

Marlborough wrote to the Lord Treasurer, Sidney Godolphin, on December 13: “Till this frost breaks, we can neither break ground for our batteries, nor open our trenches; and which is yet worse, if this weather continues, all the canals will be frozen, so that we shall not be able to get forage from Holland,” he said.

After labouring in the frozen ground, the trenches finally were dug and the guns ready to fire on December 29. Just five days later the French fled the town, and Marlborough quickly followed up his victory by taking Bruges. The road to France was now open for the Allies.

The king of France, Louis XIV, was facing ruin. An invasion of Paris was only a mater of time, whilst the winter was devastating France. Rivers froze, livestock died and thousands of people perished from the cold, famine or disease.

The weather prompted the French monarch to begin negotiations for a peace settlement, but the Allies demanded such humiliating conditions that he vowed to fight on. The war dragged on for another five years.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5341981.ece

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From The Times December 16, 2008

Earth is not the perfect sphere we might imagine

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Getting slightly tubby around the middle is not just a problem at Christmas. The Earth is not the perfect sphere we might imagine — it is a little bit wider around the Equator and flatter at the poles.

This shape occurs because the Earth is spinning fast. Made largely of molten rock, the planet bulges out slightly around the Equator.

However, the difference is tiny — the Earth’s girth is only about 0.3 per cent greater than its height from pole to pole.

The Earth’s shape was calculated by Alexander Ross Clarke, who was born on this day in 1828. Clarke served with the Ordnance Survey mapping Britain. Using measurements taken by others in Western Europe, Russia, India, South Africa and Peru, he made precise calculations of the Earth’s shape. A century later, satellites confirmed the shape of the Earth with improved accuracy.

Ignoring all the hills and valleys of the world, measurements available today show that the Earth’s diameter is 44km (27 miles) greater at the Equator than at the polar axis. This is enough to make a significant difference to navigation, communication systems and mapping.

The shape of the Earth varies under different climatic conditions. During the Ice Ages, the Earth was tubbier around the Equator as the poles became squashed under the weight of giant ice sheets. When the ice started to retreat 18,000 years ago, the Earth began to round out. Measured over decades, the Equator also bulges out slightly with sporadic shifts in the amount of water moving in the oceans.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5348625.ece

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From The Times December 17, 2008

The enormous impact of carbon dating

Paul Simons Weather Eye

The technique of using measurement of carbon to estimate age was originally pioneered by the chemist WIllard Libby

When the body of a Stone Age man was discovered preserved in an Alpine glacier in 1991, it caused a sensation. His age was calculated at about 5,300 years old, the oldest frozen corpse ever found, and gave a fascinating glimpse into prehistoric life.

But how was his age worked out? The key was measuring the amount of carbon14 in his bones, a technique originally pioneered by the chemist Willard Libby, who was born on this day in 1908.

Carbon14 is a mildly radioactive type of carbon produced in tiny amounts when cosmic rays bombard the Earth’s atmosphere.

In the 1940s Libby discovered that plants absorb carbon14 into their tissues, and once the plant dies, its carbon14 decays at a fairly regular rate, like a clockwork motor slowly winding down. Measuring carbon14 enables scientists to estimate the age of plant and animal remains. In a landmark study, Libby calculated that a piece of charcoal dug up at Stonehenge was 3,800 years old.

Carbon14 dating has allowed scientists to estimate the age of Egyptian mummies, the Shroud of Turin, the Dead Sea Scrolls and many other historical relics. The technique is used in many other sciences. For climatologists, estimating the age of long-dead plants and animals gives a crucial insight into what climates were like thousands of years ago.

Rarely has a discovery had such enormous impact across many different sciences, and in 1960 Libby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5354922.ece

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From The Times December 18, 2008

Cold weather makes cars work harder

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Just as well the price of petrol has come down recently because vehicles use more fuel in cold weather. A short trip around town in cold, snowy road conditions can increase a car’s fuel consumption by 50 per cent compared to warm, dry weather.

Snow, ice, rain, grit and other muck on the roads make a car work harder to keep moving.

And cold weather reduces the air pressure in tyres, leading to more wasted fuel, so it is worth checking tyre pressure more often in winter.

Cold air is denser than warm air, which is why cold draughts spill down from a draughty window. That puts more aerodynamic drag on a vehicle, which means it has to push harder to get through the air, especially at high speed, and eats up fuel.

Starting a car in cold weather is another big drain on fuel.

Engine and transmission oil is thicker in low temperatures, so it needs more fuel to get the car moving. A cold engine burns more fuel and less efficiently.

It may be tempting to warm up a car by leaving the engine running for a few minutes before driving off, but that gives exactly 0 miles per gallon and wears out the engine. And a short journey does not give the engine enough time to reach its peak operating temperature, leading to even more fuel consumption.

Exhaust pollution increases sharply on a winter’s day. The catalytic converter’s biggest flaw is that it only works at a high temperature. When you start your car cold, the catalytic converter does almost nothing to reduce the pollution in your exhaust.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5360935.ece

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From The Times December 19, 2008

Tis the season to be merry – and to fall ill

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Tis the season to be merry – and to fall ill. Christmas is the time when colds and flu are at their most virulent, and this year’s season already has begun a month early. But is this to do with the weather?

The viruses may spread more quickly when people are crowded together during cold weather, or when our immune systems are weaker in the winter.

But the weather could play a more direct role in flu outbreaks, because cold, dry air helps to protect and spread the virus.

And there are plenty of other bugs waiting to pounce in the depths of winter, such as gastric flu. Bronchitis is particularly aggravated by cold, damp conditions, and arrives like clockwork in two waves – the first peak usually hits the under-4s before Christmas. The second, larger peak hits the over-65 age group, usually one to two weeks into the new year. This two-pronged attack may happen when children pass the infection on to their elderly relatives over the Christmas holiday period, but this is only guesswork. In fact, science is mostly in the dark about what makes winter diseases so seasonal.

However, centuries ago, a mild winter was feared far more than a cold one. “A green Christmas makes a fat churchyard,” goes one grim piece of folklore, thanks to diseases such as the plague. Cold weather gave some respite by getting rid of the fleas that spread the plague. As Samuel Pepys noted on November 22, 1665: “The plague is come very low . . . great hopes of a further decrease, because of this day’s being a very exceeding hard frost.”

From The TimesDecember 19, 2008

Weather Eye: tis the season to be merry – and to fall illPaul Simons

Tis the season to be merry – and to fall ill. Christmas is the time when colds and flu are at their most virulent, and this year’s season already has begun a month early. But is this to do with the weather?

The viruses may spread more quickly when people are crowded together during cold weather, or when our immune systems are weaker in the winter.

But the weather could play a more direct role in flu outbreaks, because cold, dry air helps to protect and spread the virus.

And there are plenty of other bugs waiting to pounce in the depths of winter, such as gastric flu. Bronchitis is particularly aggravated by cold, damp conditions, and arrives like clockwork in two waves – the first peak usually hits the under-4s before Christmas. The second, larger peak hits the over-65 age group, usually one to two weeks into the new year. This two-pronged attack may happen when children pass the infection on to their elderly relatives over the Christmas holiday period, but this is only guesswork. In fact, science is mostly in the dark about what makes winter diseases so seasonal.

However, centuries ago, a mild winter was feared far more than a cold one. “A green Christmas makes a fat churchyard,” goes one grim piece of folklore, thanks to diseases such as the plague. Cold weather gave some respite by getting rid of the fleas that spread the plague. As Samuel Pepys noted on November 22, 1665: “The plague is come very low . . . great hopes of a further decrease, because of this day’s being a very exceeding hard frost.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5367334.ece

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From The Times December 20, 2008

Violent snowstorms surprise some US states

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Violent snowstorms have battered the US, and in some surprising locations. A week ago, New Orleans and much of the Deep South had heavy snowfalls up to several inches deep. The storm was caused by Arctic air coming far south and colliding with very warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico. Cold weather also affected southern California this week, where it threatened the important orange crop, although snowfall and rain are desperately needed there to stave off a long drought. Las Vegas had its heaviest snowfall for almost 30 years on Wednesday.

And last weekend a severe ice storm hit the northeast US, with thick ice coating everything, leaving millions of people without electricity as power lines collapsed.

Intense storms have also battered Italy and caused flooding across much of the country. Earlier in the month Venice was knee-deep in water and last Thursday Rome suffered a similar fate.

However, Italian ski resorts reported huge snowfalls of up to 1m (3.3ft) last weekend and more heavy snow is forecast. And ski resorts across Europe and North America are also enjoying good snowfalls in a sensational start to their winter seasons.

In contrast, Russia has basked in unseasonably mild weather, including the warmest December, with 9.4C (48.9F) in Moscow on Saturday. The warmth came from mild winds swept up from southern Europe.

Baghdad experienced strange weather just over a fortnight ago, when a severe hailstorm left roads in a deluge of water and ice as the city’s drainage struggled to cope. But last January was stranger still when, for the first time in living memory, it snowed in the Iraqi capital.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5373265.ece

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From The Times December 22, 2008

Spectacular white Christmas of 1938

Paul Simons Weather Eye

A white Christmas is quite rare, especially in England, but a spectacular one happened in 1938. That November was so mild it had felt like summer. But on December 17 a biting easterly wind swept in and snow fell for the next 8 days. Postal workers faced horrendous conditions battling through snowdrifts to deliver the Christmas mail. The Times reported: “The Post Office used motor vehicles in places but could make no headway on iced-up roads or through snowdrifts, and the horse, pony-trap and the bicycle took their place. One postwoman took out her mailbags on a sleigh.” Another postman had to be dug out from 6ft of snow near Newbury, Berkshire.

By Christmas Day the country was frozen. “Twenty-three men and women broke the ice on the Serpentine in Hyde Park with broom-sticks on Christmas morning — and dived in,” exclaimed The Times. There was plenty of skiing and tobogganing down hillsides, and iceskating on frozen lakes. Hundreds of people turned out in the cold to see George VI and the Royal Family arrive at Sandringham parish church for the Christmas Day service, and the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret enjoyed a walk back through the snow.

Deep drifts cut off towns in Kent. In Deal, cars were buried up to their roofs, and a snowdrift 30ft high reached up to telegraph wires at St Margaret’s Bay.

Conditions were even worse elsewhere in Europe for the flocks of birds that tried to flee the cold by flying over the English Channel, only to find conditions in England almost as bad.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5379360.ece

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From The Times December 23, 2008

Jet stream creates wet weather for 2008

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Wet is the word that sums up the weather of 2008. Most of the months have been generally well above the average rainfall for the UK. And the prize for the wettest month must go to August, which not only rained cats-and-dogs but also broke a new record for lack of sunshine because it was cloudy.

Much of the blame for this appalling run of weather can be pinned on the jet stream. This river of very fast wind snakes around the globe a few miles high in the atmosphere, and has such a huge impact on our weather that it is baffling why our weather forecasts rarely mention it.

The jet stream marks the battle front between cold air from the Arctic and warm air from the tropics — so wherever the track of the jet stream lies it gives a clue to temperatures on the ground. The jet stream is also responsible for many of our storms, as it drags wet and windy depressions off the Atlantic and sweeps them over Western Europe.

So by looking at a weather map with the jet stream position drawn on it, you can read some of the weather to expect. If the jet stream is running north it should allow warm air to invade, but if it is heading southwards, then cold air can push in. And, if the jet stream is flowing overhead, look for stormy weather to dominate.

This year the jet stream tended to aim straight for the UK, or farther south of us, leaving the country in the cold, or soaking wet, or both.

Hence the white Easter in March and snow in October.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5385257.ece

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From The Times December 24, 2008

Dreaming of a stormy Christmas?

Paul Simons Weather Eye

A white Christmas has become increasingly rare in recent times, but this can be a very stormy time of year. In 1997 a severe storm struck on Christmas Eve – Ireland, North Wales and northwest England were hit particularly hard. On the Lleyn Peninsula, northwest Wales, winds reached 178km/h (111mph) and rain came down in torrents.

Christmas felt like a war zone as high winds toppled trees and power cables, ripped off roofs and blew down chimney pots, and power blackouts left thousands of homes cold and dark. Six people died in the storm.

The storm developed from the Atlantic so explosively that in meteorological terms it was classified a bomb – a storm that intensifies at an extraordinary rate. Altogether there were four storms over this windy Christmas period.

Despite the devastation, though, the storm was loaded with mild air, so an astonishing 15C (59F) was recorded in Devon on Christmas Eve. The balmy conditions were almost repeated on Christmas Day, with 14.5C (58.1F) recorded in Exmouth, Devon.

The following year, a storm on Boxing Day battered Scotland and northern England, hitting more than 160 km/h.

And in 1999, Scotland was hit by another Christmas Eve storm, while southern England suffered gales and floods. But Europe suffered far worse. Two extraordinary storms struck over December 26-27, from northern France to Italy. Winds gusted to over 210km/h, equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane. Forests were flattened, millions of households were left without power and 140 people were killed.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5391368.ece

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From The Times December 26, 2008

Hot spots on the North Wales coast

Paul Simons Weather Eye

The pound may be hitting rock bottom, and foreign holidays looking increasingly expensive, but a cheaper alternative to a warm winter holiday may be to head for North Wales.

Abergwyngregyn, usually shortened to Aber, on the North Wales coast, is a historic village with views over the Irish Sea and even the Isle of Man visible on a clear day. Towering above the village, to the east, stands a rocky outcrop Maes Y Gaer, believed to be the site of an Iron Age hill fort, and farther south is Snowdonia.

Aber also has a remarkable history of balmy, spring-like temperatures in the depths of winter. The temperature soared to 18.3C (65F) on January 27, 1958, the highest January temperature recorded in the UK.

This was no accident, because exactly the same temperature was repeated on January 10, 1971 and it has come close to this temperatures on other occasions.

The secret of this, and other similar hotspots on the North Wales coast, is a lesson in geography. The mountains to the west and south of Aber are generally bitterly cold in winter and one of the wettest regions of Britain, and would seem the unlikeliest place to record any warmth. As depressions roll off the Atlantic, they crash into the mountains and pour with rain. But once the winds have passed over the mountains they sweep down the other side and warm up, an effect called the föhn wind. This works rather like a bicycle pump: as the air gets squeezed it warms up. It is not quite the Canary Islands, but North Wales definitely has its winter attractions.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5397925.ece

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From The Times December 27, 2008

2008: the tenth hottest year on record

Paul Simons Weather Eye

This year is set to become the tenth hottest on record across the globe. But temperatures would have been even higher had the Pacific not cooled, a phenomenon known as La Niña.

The Middle East was exceptionally cold in January, with rare snowfalls in Baghdad and Saudi Arabia, as cold air swept down from Siberia. And snowstorms paralysed central China in one of its harshest winters on record. Southern Australia suffered continued intense heat and drought, hitting its important agricultural regions particularly hard. Scandinavia had a remarkably mild winter, with record high average temperatures in Sweden, and the Baltic region had its lowest levels of ice since records began more than a century ago.

The worst natural disaster of the year struck Burma on May 2, when Cyclone Nargis drove a 3.6m (12ft) storm surge 40km (25 miles) deep inland. The floods caused colossal death and destruction — the death toll was estimated at 130,000 but the true figure may never be known. During the last week of July, Iceland sweltered in a rare heatwave, breaking Reykjavik’s highest temperature record with 25.7C (78.3F). The Indian monsoon set off floods that claimed 2,400 lives. In the north, heavy rains caused the Koshi river to break out, flooding a vast swath of Bihar state.

Hurricane Ike was the worst hurricane of 2008 when it struck in September. It was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, caused 164 deaths and did immense damage in Haiti and Cuba before hitting Texas. The total cost was estimated at more than $30 billion.

The annual Arctic ice melt reached its second highest extent, as the region experiences a faster rate of warming than the rest of the world.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5400414.ece

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From The Times December 29, 2008

The Winter of Discontent 1978

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Rubbish was piled up in the streets, schools were closed, candles were used during powercuts and people stocked up on tinned foods. Most gruesome of all, in parts of the country the dead were left unburied. This was the Winter of Discontent, 30 years ago, when strikes left the country paralysed. But what made it even more wretched was freezing cold, wind and snow, and with roads and pavements left ungritted, conditions were treacherous.

December 1978 was fairly stormy, although temperatures held up fairly well and Christmas Day itself was mild. But appearances proved deceptive and on December 28 a bone-chilling invasion of cold air turned floodwaters from heavy rains into sheets of ice in the North. Soon afterwards a severe blizzard struck southern England with deep drifting snow and New Year’s Eve was the coldest for 40 years.

January was grim. The new year swept in with substantial snowfalls and severe frosts over most of the UK. Throughout the month, heavy snowfalls repeatedly struck the entire country, from the Channel Islands to Shetland. There has not been as cold a January since.

Through February, blizzards, black ice and snowdrifts carried on. Norwich and Great Yarmouth were cut off for two days by deep snow, and roads were strewn with abandoned cars. The winter of 1978-79 was the coldest over the UK since the infamous freeze of 1962-63. And the springtime carried on being thoroughly wet and cold.

At the next election, in May 1979, Labour lost to Margaret Thatcher.

How much that dreadful weather counted in public opinion is hard to say, but its misery was legendary.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5408160.ece

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From The Times Dec 30, 2008

2008 was wet but surprisingly normal

Paul Simons Weather Eye

This year in Britain began on such a promising note with a mild January, when the Sahara paid us a visit in a shower of desert dust dumped from high in the sky, leaving cars caked in grime.

Orangey-yellow, psychedelic skies were seen on several evenings in February when rare clouds appeared in the stratosphere, far higher than our normal clouds. The same week, tiny diamonds appeared to tumble out of the morning sky in some regions, as ice crystals fell in bitterly cold air. And Lincolnshire was struck by the biggest earthquake in Britain since 1984.

We were treated to a white Easter, when heaps of snow made it feel more like Christmas than late March. In mid-April an unearthly pong wafted over from Europe on easterly winds.

The summer began wet and grew wetter. The sky was so blotted out by such thick rainclouds that it was the dullest August on record in the UK. But there was one place where the sun shone bright — Shetland.

October brought us a ridiculously early snowfall that smothered much of the UK, with London experiencing its first October snow for 74 years.

Ball lightning exploded in Surrey in September. A tremendous hailstorm in Ottery St Mary, Devon, in October left the town flooded in ice and rain, and families had to be winched from their homes by helicopter. Ex-hurricane Laurathen battered the whole UK in a deluge at the end of the month.

And December was a reminder of what cold winters used to be like.

And the verdict on the whole year? Very wet, but temperatures overall were surprisingly close to normal.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5415300.ece

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From The Times December 31, 2008

Did you know it's a 'leap second' year?

Paul Simons Weather Eye

New Year’s Eve will be a bit longer than expected. An extra second will be added to keep our timekeeping accurate. This “leap second” is needed to bring our standard time measurements, based on atomic clocks, in line with the rotation of the Earth.

Atomic clocks are based on the highly consistent oscillations of a caesium133 atom, and are so precise that they are accurate to one second in 1.4 million years. The problem is that the rotation of the Earth is far less accurate. If we did not add on extra seconds every now and again, eventually in thousands of years’ time our clocks would read midnight when the sun was high in the sky at what should be midday.

One reason for this discrepancy is that over the long term the Earth is slowing down. Each day, the pull of the oceans’ tides slows the Earth’s rotation, like applying a brake on a moving wheel. This is why more than 200 million years ago the dinosaurs may have witnessed 375 days in a year.

The rotation is also changed by earthquakes. The Indonesian earthquake that set off the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 decreased the length of day by 2.68 microseconds. A large earthquake changes the distribution of the Earth’s mass and so changes the speed of its rotation.

But the largest variation is seasonal, when the Earth slows down a fraction in January and February in the northern hemisphere. This is when westerly winds are at their strongest and the days get longer by a few thousandths of a second.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5420420.ece

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From The Times January 1, 2009

The savage winter that ended the Swedish empire

Paul Simons Weather Eye

The Battle of Poltava in 1709 marked the end of Sweden as a leading power in EuropePaul Simons

The winter of 1708-09 was a savage one, and it also marked the decline of the Swedish empire, which had dominated the Baltic region.

When the young Swedish king, Charles XII, came to the throne in 1697, the surrounding countries seized their chance to launch an attack on Sweden. The Swedish forces counter-attacked and scored a series of victories and in 1708 Charles invaded deep into Russia. All seemed to go well with the offensive until the winter of 1708-09. It was a harsh winter, and, to add to the invading army’s problems, the Russian leader, Peter the Great, adopted a scorched earth policy of burning crops and food, leaving the Swedes desperately short of supplies.

Charles was left stranded in Russia, harassed by the Russians all winter, and when a vital convoy was brought in from Sweden, the Russians intercepted it. By the spring Charles had lost more than half his original invasion force.

When campaigning began again in 1709, Charles laid siege to the town of Poltava, but by this time Peter the Great had gathered a far superior army, four times larger than the Swedes, and was victorious at the Battle of Poltava in June 1709.

Having lost almost his entire army, Charles managed to escape but with his army in tatters the Swedish empire was shattered.

The Battle of Poltava marked the end of Sweden as a leading power in Europe. Instead, Russia emerged as the rising power. But the lessons of that terrible winter were forgotten, when Napoleon invaded Russia, and again in the Second World War when the Germans invaded.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5425825.ece

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From The Times January 2, 2009

Blinding sight in Budleigh Salterton, May 1903

Paul Simons Weather Eye

Great balls of fire are one of the most terrifying, yet mysterious, dangers of weather. The genteel seaside resort of Budleigh Salterton usually enjoys a sheltered climate, nestled among the hills on the South Devon coast. But in May 1903 a fierce thunderstorm erupted with a deluge of rain. What seemed at first to be a bolt of lightning struck a small thatched cottage and a house next to it. But an eyewitness sheltering opposite saw “something like a ball of fire” pass over his head and hit the cottage.

The building exploded in a shower of bricks, wood and plaster, and the adjoining house was also badly damaged.

A woman in the kitchen also described a ball of fire that shot through the room, “ripped up the ceiling, swept all the crockery off a dresser, and disappeared leaving a smell like burning brimstone behind”, according to a report in the Devonshire Association Report and Transactions on Scientific Memoranda. In the adjoining parlour, the owner of the house described seeing the light sweep across the room and hurl a large quantity of china to the floor. A chimney stack collapsed through the roof, leaving a gaping hole, and almost all the windows in the house were smashed.

There have been many other reports of such balls of fire during exceptionally violent thunderstorms. In nearby Sidmouth, several people reported seeing a “red ball of fire” fall from an intense thunderstorm in August 1969. It exploded with a deafening bang and jagged flashes of light.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5429449.ece

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From The Times January 3, 2009

Bitterly cold New Year’s Eve celebrations

Paul Simons Weather Eye

There were bitterly cold New Year’s Eve celebrations in many parts of the world. Although the UK was shivering on a cold night, the temperature in Fairbanks, Alaska plunged to minus 42C (-43F), which even for central Alaska was unusually cold.

In the Northeast US, a snowstorm on Wednesday dropped heaps of snow, with raw winds making it feel exceptionally bitter at night.

Deep snows plagued North Dakota and Wisconsin in a very snowy month in this region — several towns and cities broke December snowfall records. Big snows also fell on the western mountains of North America, where the skiing season got off to a promising start. But continuing heavy snows from Pacific storms in December set off avalanches that have killed 17 people in Canada and the US in the past fortnight.

High pressure has been in control over much of Europe, which created great skiing under sunny skies and thick snow cover over the holiday in many resorts. Freezing conditions are keeping the snow base in good condition.

In contrast, the year ended extremely hot across much of Australia. In Perth, temperatures hit 40C (104F) during the week as hot, dry winds swept in from the desert interior.

This is the foggy season in northern India. Dehli ground to a halt last week under a thick shroud of fog.

Another notable feature of the global climate at this time of year is the rainy season in many parts of the southern hemisphere. The onset of the rains set off floods across a large part of Bolivia. But the week’s worst rainfalls struck southern parts of Mozambique, where torrential thunderstorms and showers unleashed up to 56.6cm (22.3in) rain.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5434925.ece

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From The Times January 5, 2009

Bitter winter in northern Spain

Paul Simons Weather Eye

The British Army was in retreat from Napoleon’s forces 200 years ago, during a bitter winter in northern Spain. In November 1808 an expeditionary force of 20,000 men under General John Moore marched into Spain to help to drive out the French invaders. But the British were badly equipped and rapidly became outnumbered as Napoleon poured in reinforcements to deliver a crushing defeat.

By late December 1808 Moore realised his dire situation and began a gruelling retreat over 250 miles through the northwestern mountains of Spain to the port of Corunna, near the Bay of Biscay, to escape by sea. Snow, hail and rain storms turned the roads to quagmires, many of the troops died in the perishing cold and stragglers left behind were shown no mercy by the pursuing French. Hungry and demoralised, the Army was on the verge of collapse. However, the French had to battle through the appalling conditions as well, and Napoleon himself led a desperate advance through a mountain pass in a blizzard to pursue the British.

Moore just managed to stay one step ahead and by January 11, 1809, the exhausted remains of his Army arrived in Corunna where they waited for the British fleet.

However, the French soon caught up and even though the British were starved, diseased and frostbitten, they fought a valiant rearguard action. Moore was killed, but the remains of the Army beat off the enemy and boarded the ships home. Several thousand men had been lost, but the Army had been saved from annihilation and would return to Spain to fight again.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weat...icle5446010.ece