Its Raining ……………………….

Again ! Buckets, cats and dogs, sheets, men ! whatever we want to call it, the rain has not stopped all summer this year.

I seem to remember, back in March, we had a couple of weeks of lovely weather when we all thought great, this is the start of a wonderful summer. How wrong we all were.

As a nation we are preoccupied by the weather. We talk about it, we watch long range forecasts and we hope and hope that we are going to get a ” proper ” summer. Days when we can sit in the garden until late in the evening, have barbecues with friends and generally just enjoy the warmth.

In moderation rain can be quite nice, stops you having to water the garden, and to curl up in front of a fire on a rainy winters day can be lovely, but when it rains so much that the dogs take one look out of the back door and turn round you know things are bad.

This year has been a disaster. June was the wettest month on record and July was not much better. Things did perk up a bit for the Olympics in August but September was another disaster. Not only was it very, very wet it was also very cold for the time of year. We all hoped for an ” Indian Summer ” but this is sadly not to be as we reach for winter coats and the central heating button.

This time last year I was  in Norfolk for the weekend and the temperatures soared to aroung 28 degrees. This year it is now all downhill into winter, but at keast if it snows it does look pretty and the dogs love to go out and play in it.

If you want something to blame for the appalling weather, look up as you raise your umbrella and imagine that high above the rain clouds a great river of wind is flowing through the upper atmosphere.

This is the jet stream and its path is the cause of the repeated flooding being suffered during a British summer that has so far been one of the most miserable on record.