Stay Warm, Stay Alive

I  am just about to set off on my weekly work 300 mile journey from the South Coast of England and head towards somewhere the MET Office are telling me i really shouldn't be heading towards as temperatures plunge to below zero.
The MET Office have been making cold weather warnings for the last few days with yellow warnings (likely that the weather will cause some low level impacts,
including some disruption to travel) for snow, sleet and ice pretty much covering the British Isles but now they have upgraded it to amber which warns of increased likelihood of severe weather, which could potentially disrupt travel, cause road and rail closures, power cuts and the potential risk to life and property.
Now Public Health Officials for the week ahead have joined in with their own amber cold-weather alert for the north-west of England, the West Midlands, East Midlands and south-west of England and a yellow alert for the north-east of England, Yorkshire and The Humber, East of England, south-east of England and London from tonight until Friday with a warning that ‘cold weather impacts are likely to be felt across the whole health service with potential for the whole population to be at risk'.
Worryingly, the warning to health and social care workers comes with a warning that there will probably be an 'observed increase in mortality across the population'.
Maybe crank up the heating or put on a jumper if you can this week and Health Officials advise not letting your indoor temperatures drop below 18°C which may concern some people in a cost of living crisis but the vast majority of the 13,400 people who died from the cold last winter only know one thing, they wish they had put an extra bar on the fire and then been alive to make an agreement with the utility company when the weather warmed up. 

Storm Ciaran Is Coming Thursday

Hang on tight to your hats because Storm Ciaran is heading our way Wednesday night into Thursday and it is going to be a whopper.
Meteorologists are predicting that the massive storm barrelling towards the UK will have the lowest air pressure on record of 948.4mb and the lower the air pressure the stronger the winds, with the highest speeds expected on the south coast.
The extreme of temperatures over North America has sped up the Jet Stream which is carrying Ciaran across the Atlantic and it is due to spit it out over the UK and the Met Office has issued an amber rain and wind weather warning from Cornwall right across the south coast to Kent between 6am and 8pm Thursday.
To rub salt in the wounds, due to the curl of the jet stream, the storm will grind almost to a halt over the UK, dumping up to 60mm of rain on an already soggy Britain causing widespread flooding but there is a chance that Ciaran may yet only clip the British Isles rather than slam into us.
'A slight shift of the storm could significantly increase or decrease the impact to the UK' said a Met Spokesman before mumbling that another storm is following Ciaran and should turn up just in time for the weekend.
I think this could be a good weekend to stay in watch Christmas Films on Great TV this weekend, if i can get home Thursday that is.

Enough Already Mother Nature

Dear Mother Nature

Thank you for the decent weather for the last two weeks while i have been off work on holiday but i am just dropping you this message to let you know that i am back at work as of today and have no further need for scorching sunshine and 28C heat.

If you could dial it back now then that would be very much appreciated because being stonkingly hot while out and about in t-shirts and shorts and the wine is flowing is fine but stonkingly hot while dressed in work attire and trying to concentrate on the intricacies of current affairs is not quite so comfortable, especially as the water fountain is very close to my desk while the nearest toilets are right at the other end of my floor.    

If ending the heatwave at such short notice is not possible, then could you arrange for a whacking great thunderstorm, preferably in the late evening when it is dark because a thunderstorm with plenty of lightning is fun but during the daylight is does seem a bit of a waste of a good light show.

As it is officially Autumn now and had been for 4 days, i believe that whilst it is dry, the stifling heat and days of burning yourself on leather car seats and having to take turns with each hand holding the steering wheel should be long gone so thank you for the thought but as i said previously, i am back at work now so kindly ask you to make things a bit more Autumnal.

Thank you

Lucy

BBC Weather Dept Explains To The Hard Of Thinking

Unbelievably there are still some people unconvinced that Climate Change is happening and the numpties are out in force as records tumble across the globe, mostly on Social Media accusing the BBC Weather Department of misreporting and driving fear with 'supposed' terrifying temperatures during the  heatwave sweeping through parts of Europe, North America and Africa.
Luckily the BBC Weather Department is full of numpties and have been answering the strangely disturbed people each time they rear their funny little heads so first up the claim was that 40C plus figures are the ground temperature to which the BBC replied by posting pictures of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Stevenson Screens used Worldwide sitting 1.25 meters above ground to prevent the reading being effected by direct heat from the ground and other hard surfaces.
The peculiar non-believers then went onto claiming there was no evidence that the high temperatures reported by the BBC were not backed by evidence for which the BBC replied by publishing the data from the published by the countries own Meteorological Services confirms the high temperatures reported, confirmed by the WMO.
They then claimed that the BBC Weather App for some cities was lower than the temperature they later reported to which the BBC politely explained that while forecasting includes many complex models and they aim to get as close as possible to the actual expected temperatures, it is only a forecast and they are updated once the confirmed maximum temperatures have been reached.
Finally they say the BBC is scaremongering by using a new dark red on the weather maps and they said yep, red is used when it is hot weather and blue is used when it is cold weather which are the standard colours to represent hot and cold on weather maps and the red is a deeper red simply because it needs to be darker than the red used for other high temperatures for temperatures we've never experienced before.
I would suggest to the hard of thinking to dip their feet in the kids paddling pool, pop another few ice cubes in their glass and stop embarrassing themselves by ignoring what is staring them in their red, flushed, sweaty face.

This Summer 's Heatwave

Despite all the sophisticated equipment, weather can only be forecast accurately for the the next 48 hours and after that it is a best guess based on probability on conditions that could change so to ask a weatherman if the below average temperatures for May is a sign that summer isn't going to be
as oppressively hot as last year when the record 40.3C was hit in July, is met with a shrug and a 'dunno'.
What we do know is that Summer is on it's way and the temperatures will rise so the MET Office modelling system takes all the information from recent historical data, global weather, La Niña, the effects of climate change and the typical conditions we'd normally expect to create a seasonal outlook and present the probability of weather conditions for May to July.
The temperature outlook for May to July 2023 is that there is a 5% chance this period will be cool, a 60% chance it will be near average and a 35% that it will be hot so based on that, the best chance is we can expect average temperatures in this period with a much greater chance of it turning out warmer (35%) as opposed to cooler (5%) than normal.  
As for if we are due to get a heatwave, that depends on where you live in the country as a heatwave is three consecutive days above 25°C in Scotland and Northern Ireland and between 26°C and 28°C in the rest of the UK.   
What this all means is we can expect a average or above average temperatures this summer and you will need to check your weather app to see which days are going to be average or above average but it is unlikely we will break any heat records this year.
The MET Office state that the 40.3°C of last year was a once every 1000 years event but as the climate continues to warm and weather records tumble, we are finding that these weather events are happening alarmingly less than once a millennium now.

Weather Explained To A 5 Year Old

As we watched the weather forecast which was talking about thunderstorms to hit our part of the South Coast tonight, my young niece turned to me and asked me what was a thunderstorm.
I smiled at her, and looking down at her face full of wonderment and then in dread at her hands full of chocolate and fearing for my cream coloured sofa, i decided it was time to explain to her the meteorologically correct reasons why we get different types of weather.
I began with Thunderstorms seeing as that was what she asked about and explained that Thunder was the clouds banging together and lightening was God or sometimes Jesus using a torch to check that the clouds were not damaged.
I then went on to rain which is God, being a man and having the inherited man disease of being unable to aim his wee the 2ft from his midriff to the toilet bowl accurately most of the time.
Snow is God going a bit mad with the Holy Talcum powder after his bath and you know that song about Beans being the musical fruit and the more you eat the more you toot, well God does like his beans on toast and i mean he really likes his beans on toast.
Fog is God having his early morning cigarette which he does on the sly sometimes before Jesus gets up which is why you mostly see it in the morning and finally, sunshine is when God is just chilling watching TV or something, so the big galoot isn't doing anything to effect us down here.
She seemed happy with that and returned to her chocolate bar and then turned back to me and asked why did God make wasps?  
Ah, your uncle is the animal expert and he's in the kitchen so go ask him i said, and don't touch anything on your way out.

Why Is It So Windy in UK?

As the Jet Stream acts as a division between the cold, Polar air and the hot air from the Equator, the general rule is everything above it is wet and cold while everything below it is warm and dry but if you are stuck directly under it, you get the storms which get trapped in the Jet Stream delivered to your door.
The Jet Stream generally snakes up and down but for the past week it has been stuck directly over the UK flinging Dudley, Eunice and now Franklin our way over the past week and meteorologists are keeping an eye out for a potential Storm Gladys which could be coming on Thursday to render pointless any hairdresser appointments we may have.  
Not that this stormy weather isn't expected, our weather isn't random and there is something called a Weather Singularity which is the probabilities of certain weather types happening at the same dates based on geography, atmospheric conditions, the earth's rotation, sea conditions and other sciency stuff which happens at the same time each year and there is an 88% chance that from towards the end of February to 9 March, it will be, stormy and wet and windy.
There are many websites which will show you the Jet stream and forecast where it will be for the next few weeks so you can dress accordingly and the one above from netweather.tv shows where it is sat today (left pic above) and when we roll forward where it will be sat until 9 March (right pic above) and in my best meteorologist speak, that bad boy ain't going nowhere.
As we have another couple of weeks of watching our neighbours fences swing precariously, we had better get acquainted with the names of the storms as provided by the MET Office that the jet stream will deliver to us like a demented Deliveroo driver, so we have a good chance of greeting Herman, Imani, Jack, Kim and Logan and then they seemed to to take on a more exotic flavour with Méabh, Nasim, Olwen, Pól, Ruby, Seán, Tineke, Vergil and Willemien.
As the highest we have got to it in the names was K in 2015/16 (Storm Katie), if we get to Logan then we are in record breaking territory but the good news is that the windy and stormy singularities ends around 9th March and then we can expect some more settled weather...until March 22nd to March 31st when the next one arrives with a 67% chance of it being stormy so we better learn how to pronounce Willemien.

What About The T-Storms Mother Nature?

Wikipedia states the total volume of water on Earth is estimated at 333 million cubic miles and i think most of that has fallen on England over the past week because the rain started Wednesday and hasn't stopped ever since.
The MET Office figures show that my part of England has been the recipient of a months worth of rain in just one day which explains why the Environment Agency has been handing out flood alerts like sweeties in the South East, 39 at the last count The rain has not been of the drizzle or light rain type, it has been hammering down consistently like in a Japanese Horror Film although annoyingly it hasn't been accompanied with the thunder storms as promised, just the drumming sound of heavy drops drumming out a tattoo on the car roof and window panes which to be fair i quite like, especially as a background white noise at night.
As usual the Jet Stream is to blame with the core of strong winds around five to seven miles above the Earth’s surface stubbornly refusing to shift above the UK and keeping us on the low pressure and wet Northern side rather than the high pressure dry and sunny Southern side.
The Jetstream Forecast map shows the jet stream fairly well over us or just to the south up until Tuesday so its wellies and umbrellas for the next few days at least while the Atlantic continues to fling more rain at us but as a very paled skinned English woman, i am in no rush for Summer
to start again as i have already been applying the after-sun and flailing my arms around at stingy flying insects after the brief sunny spell last week although if Mother Nature can throw in a couple of decent Thunderstorms to go with the rain, it would be appreciated.

Brits Freeze As Aussies Bake

Winter has well and truly arrived in Britain as blizzards blow in and temperatures plunge below -9°C in parts of the UK.
The MET Office has said that the current cold spell will continue into February with most places seeing sleet and snow and the reliable weather singularity has February 8 through to February 16 as the coldest period in the UK so it looks like scarfs and bobble hats will be the fashion item for a few weeks yet.
Somewhere that doesn't need gloves or thermal underwear is Australia which has just started a forecasted 10 days of above 40°C temperatures and already a daytime 48.9°C has been recorded in South Australia with night-time high of 35.9°C.
As someone who swoons like a Victorian lady when the mercury nudges the mid twenties, i can't imagine what 48.9°C feels like but i know i wouldn't like it much.
One Aussie said: 'You’d be crazy to sit outside on a day like today' although she was being interviewed while sat on the beach which undermined her statement slightly .
New heat records are being broken almost daily and the Australian MET Office recently had to add an additional colour to their heat index for temperatures above 50°C which they expect to hit in the coming days.
Seems strange that as the Australians bake we are shivering in -9°C and buying snow shovels but i know what i prefer and it doesn't include the lingering smell of sun screen.

How To Tell The Weather For Year Ahead

My grandad had an Almanac and it would tell you the weather for the coming year which i thought was pretty cool although it never occurred to me until years later that the Almanac could give a years weather but the weather forecaster on the TV was very hit and miss about tomorrow.
After discussing this with a Meteorologist, she explained that the weather isn't 'random and the Almanacs use something called Weather Singularities which are high probabilities of certain weather types happening at the same dates based on geography, atmospheric conditions, the earths rotation, sea conditions and other sciency stuff which happens at the same time each year.
Noting only the periods with the highest probabilities, the year ahead for the UK looks like this.

5-17 Jan    Wet and windy period as the Atlantic becomes more active 87%     
18-24 Jan  Frosty as high pressure begins to affect the UK. 87%    

24 Feb -3 Mar  High winds with snowfall a high risk to many areas 85%   
8-16 Feb           Coldest period of the year 56%   
26 Feb -9 Mar  Stormy and wet and windy weather as storms move in from the Atlantic 88%   

23-31 Mar  Stormy with showers 67%   

10-19 Apr   The famous April Showers 71%   

17- 31 May  Dry and warm with high pressure over the UK and continent. 88%   

1-4 Jun        Low pressure brings cooler weather and heavy, slow moving showers 77%   
10 - 14 Jun  Wet and windy weather 77%   
18 - 27 Jun  Wet and windy weather with heavy showers 77%   

10 -22 Jul        Warm period for the UK as the Azores high extends over the UK 50%   
23 - 27 Jul       Heavy thunderstorms 77%   
31 Jul - 8 Aug  Period where the hottest day of the year is likely to occur 50%   

16 - 30 Aug   The first of the Autumn storms arrive bringing cooler, unsettled weather 67%   

1 - 17 Sep    High pressure crosses the UK bringing fine days followed by showers 87%   
18 - 24 Sep  Autumn storms during this period 60%   

5 - 12 Oct           Wet and windy period bringing gales to the UK 67%   
24 Oct - 13 Nov  Wet and windy 100%   

14 - 24 Nov    Foggy weather  65%   
25 - 29 Nov   Wet and Windy 98%   

6 - 12 Dec     Wet and windy 98%   
25 - 31 Dec   The Atlantic brings gales and heavy rain/sleet to the UK 83%

So wrap up warm between 8th and 16th February when it's coldest, get out the sledge for the snow between 24 February and 3 March, buy a new umbrella at the start of wet and windy June, don't hang around under trees during thunderstorms between 23rd and 27th July, slap on the Factor 40 sunscreen between 31 July and 8 August and spend the time between Christmas and New Years Eve inside out of the wind and rain.

Sorry Northerners But I Want A White Christmas

Living on the UK's South Coast we don't really get much snow down here but that doesn't stop us from watching the weather forecasts with fruitless anticipation that we may finally get a White Christmas. 
Of course we won't, i have never seen one, but my more northern relatives have and they don't like it because while i see a winter wonderland, with the snow turning everything at once innocent yet mysterious, rendering even the mundane magical, they see two hours to make the 15-minute journey into work, schools closing and having to channel the spirit of Sherpa Tenzing to get to the shops and then when you get back your water pipes have frozen.
They have a point because the worst i have to put up with is the chuntering of morons about how the snow means global warming must all be a myth.
It's the flip side of summer when the northerners are moaning about the lack of summer while us southerners are setting up a chair in front of the freezer and slapping on the factor 30 so our sunburn doesn't get even more redder.
I say to my fellow countrymen further up the country lag your water pipes and stock up the freezer because us down here are fully on board with let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Internet Advice On Staying Warm

As the thermometer didn't get above 0C today and i spent the day watching people trying not to Torvil and Dean across the snow and ice on the ground, it's fair to say that Britain is cold.
If i has a pound for every time i have heard someone say 'Cold enough for ya'? i could afford to buy a pair of heated gloves but for now i will have to make do with the ones i have but rather than stand around shivering, what are some way to keep warm short of strapping a radiator to yourself?
The Internet as usual has the answers so first thing is to get rid of the gloves and buy a pair of mittens like the guys and girls on the Antarctic Programme as mittens radiate heat to the air packet around the other fingers and the palm while in gloves each finger is mostly warmed by the air pocket surrounding it.
Nutritionist's advise eating something spicy like ginger, chillies and other spices as they get your blood flowing and warm you up but eating anything helps as you use energy and burn calories simply digesting the food.
The NHS suggest wrapping a scarf around your mouth warms the air before you breathe it in and covering your neck and wrists where the skin is thinnest.
Hot drinks should be taken but not alcohol which dilates blood vessels in the skin which produces flushing of the face and other parts of the body which in turn means that more body heat is being lost through the skin, and eventually this leads to a fall in body temperature.
A tip from the psychotherapist department is to try not to focus on the cold but to distract yourself by reading, listening to music or singing to yourself.
Finally, the advice from doctors is to dress in layers, wear wool and wear a hat to keep in the heat from your head.
The cold snap is expected to last until next week with Thursday looking particularly disruptive as Storm Emma moves up from Iberia and into our cold air giving a good old dosing of snow to the South Coast so the best advice could be to phone in sick Thursday, grab your hat and mittens then go outside and build a snowman while chewing on a chilli and singing songs from Frozen.

The Weather Outside Is Frightful

As the 'Beast from the East' cold snap continues there are advertisements on the television and radio reminding us to check on those who are unable to look after themselves very well. I will set aside a few minutes to call Downing Street and make sure that Theresa May is warm enough and had enough milk and teabags in, the poor old dear has been very doddery recently.
As well as thermal underwear, what else a cold snap brings out is the sort of people who say that as it's snowing and temperatures have plummeted, it disproves Global Warming.
To be fair, i have heard the opposite end of the argument also where environmentalists use a few days of scorching hot temperatures in the summer as proof of Global Warming and both sides of the arguments are just as plain wrong as each other.
The Met Office have patiently explained that this particular wintry spell is due to a Siberian weather system making its way across Europe aided by a plunging Jet Stream which all means that the tonnes of snow usually dropped in Russia has shifted West and dropped on us instead.
Whether that is due to climate change one side will say yes and the other side will say no but arguing over a few shiveringly cold or steaming hot days doesn't do anyone any favours.
What we have to look at is the trend over decades and see if there is a steady pattern so things that affect the temperatures or amount of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere like El Niño, oscillations and even volcanic eruptions, get taken into account.
From 1900 to 2002, the Earth warmed, on average, 0.17C every decade. In this 102 year period there were undoubtedly years that were exceptionally cooler and those that were exceptionally warmer than average but even accounting for these anomalies, the trend is that the Globe is currently warming.
Why it is warming and whether it is mans actions causing it is another argument but to dismiss Global Warming just because Western Europe is shivering for a few weeks is ignorant, irresponsible and plain lazy as is not knowing the difference between weather and climate.

Weather Extremes In Hemispheres

Some people believe that the earth is closest to the sun in summer and further away in winter but actually thanks to something very big hitting the Earth at some point early in its history to knock it off kilter, instead of rotating with its axis perpendicular to its orbital plane, it is tilted so here we are, orbiting the Sun with the axis pointed in the same direction so different parts of the Earth get the suns rays as we travel through the year.
At this time of the year the top half of the planet is tilting away from the sun meaning winter and the bottom half is tilted towards it giving summer.
To prove it you only have to see the weather differential in America in the Northern Hemisphere and Australia in the Southern.
Parts of the US are expecting what could be the coldest night in the country's history, with temperatures expected to drop as low as -35°C while in Australia the emergency services are warning people to stay indoors as a dangerous heatwave batters the country, with temperatures exceeding 45°C melting the roads.
The highest ever temperature recorded on Earth is 56.7 °C in Death Valley, California while the lowest is −89.2 °C at the Vostok Station in Antarctica.
As the Globe continues to warm and Mother Nature takes the weather that is there and ramps it up dangerously giving killer heat waves, strengthened hurricanes, heavier rainfalls and massive snow dumps, extreme weather will become the norm so it is something that we will have to get used to.

Bye Harvey, Hello Irma and Jose

Although the MET and all other weather forecasts don't advertise it, they can only accurately forecast the weather for the next two days and after that it is a best guess and the same goes for Hurricane paths so news that Hurricane Irma is going to smash into the same parts of America as Hurricane Harvey are at best misguided, at worst scaremongering.
Texas is currently reeling from the impact of the devastating, a storm that claimed the lives of more than 40 people and left around 450,000 people living in sheltered accommodation and now all eyes are on the development of second storm system, Irma, in the Atlantic.
The European and American model forecasters have the potentially category 4 Hurricane trajectory either making landfall in Florida or making a sharp right turn and staying out at sea and everything in-between but they wont know for sure until mid-week and they have advised reports on the internet of America taking another bashing as fake because if they don't know with all their state of the art technology, then nobody does.
Something they do know though is that another storm is brewing behind Irma which they are monitoring as it moves into a favourable environment for organising and gaining strength as it moves westwards across the Atlantic and are ready to slap the name 'Jose' on it.
While meteorologists are trying to dampen down the threat of Irma, Hurricanes that begin with the letter 'I' do seem to have a reputation of being the most devastating.
Atlantic storm names repeat every six years but when a hurricane is so deadly or damaging that it is written into history, the name is retired and the most retired names begin with the letter I.
As the sea-surface temperatures are at their warmest this time of year, the 'I' storms have a better chance to be a long-lived, intense hurricane and with seas warming and a warmer climate being able to hold more moisture thanks to Climate Change, the hurricanes are going to be bigger, more intense and throw down more rain.
Irma is going to be another biggie but nobody knows yet where it will end up and Jose could be following close behind so the Caribbean Islands are in for a bad time and America could also yet face another lashing or two and if that doesn't focus the mind of the few dinosaurs who refuse to accept the planet is warming, unfortunately this includes the American President who has pulled out of the Paris Agreement, then the mind bogglingly ignorance will ensure the sight of Americans and citizens of plenty of other nations dying in floods becoming a regular occurrence.

Thanks Canada

Avril Lavinge, Michael Buble, Bryan Adams, Nelly Furtado, Alanis Morisette, Shania Twain, Ryan Reynolds, William Shatner, Michael J Fox, John Candy and Leslie Nielsen, just some of the things Canada has sent our way and now we can add another to the list as it hurls an Arctic Blast our way.
Thundersnow and blizzards are set to hit the UK this week sending the MET Office diving for the yellow warning alert button as temperatures are set to plunge to -10C.
Temperatures in mainland Europe have already plunged with Polish thermometers diving to a chilly -30C and the Serbian ones -28C while beaches in Greece and Cyprus were blanketed in snow.
Eight people have died in Italy from the polar blast and lumps of ice have formed in the Adriatic Sea and planes were grounded in Turkey's largest city, Istanbul, as 65cm (25.6 inches) of snow fell on the city.
The Pope has asked God to 'warm our hearts to help' but i think a blanket and a hot water bottle would be more beneficial or failing that a sled.

Gonna Need More Carrots Rudolph

The Jet Stream is responsible for where the Atlantic storms land and over Christmas it is slap bang over the UK so all the wet weather will give us a direct hit and so say hello to Barbara who is visiting Friday and then Conor who steps into her place on Christmas Day. 
Rather than relatives though they are storm systems bringing heavy rain and severe gales but thew worst news is that as the Jet Stream blows from West to East and Father Christmas travels east to west, it could also slow Santa down as he will always be flying against the energised jet stream.
The MET Office advice is to leave Rudolph a few extra carrots this year as he may expend more energy then usual but they think everything should be fine and they are grown ups with big computers so they should know.

A Letter To Mother Nature

Dear Mother Nature

I appreciate that you are very busy what with trying to keep a balance of things after us humans have stuffed the atmosphere full of chemicals but i have a request.
As a pasty skinned British person who wilts as soon as the thermometer creeps anywhere close to the mid-20C's, i have been hit particularly hard this year as we have had high temperatures since April and now it is September and it still topped 30C today.
I have been sunburnt (twice), been bitten on an almost daily basis, have been stung and harassed by wasps and bees that either like or dislike my deodorant, have woken up with my pillow stuck to my face most mornings, have spent many nights turning around my pillow trying to find a cool spot and with my fan being almost permanently turned on so have almost single handedly doubled Southern Electric's profits so i ask if you can do the right thing and turn down the thermostat a bit and give us more seasonal appropriate Autumn temperatures now.
As we have had a long and hot summer, can you balance things up by providing us with a long and cold winter with lots of snow, especially down on the English South Coast as we tend to miss out on the white stuff.

Thank you
Lucy

PS...If you are unable to fulfill this request can you at least throw in some decent thunderstorms, they have been very lackluster this summer.
      

It's Too Hot

I know summer is meant to be all about long, lazy days and sultry, sexy nights but let’s be honest, it’s actually about wasps, sunburn, and the smell of sweaty armpits in the lift but as we can't stop the Earth orbiting the Sun we are stuck with Summer each year and this one has been a doozy which is great if you are a mosquito but not so good for pasty skinned humans. 
So as Billy Idol noticed, as well as it being scorchio during the day, it gets hot in the city, tonight also so with nighttime temperatures remaining in the low 20s, it hasn't been easy getting a decent nights sleep but luckily there is the internet and a plethora of people in hot countries willing to pass on advice on how they cope with these hot summer nights.
A fan can be used if you can handle the constant drone of the fan motor or you could throw open the windows but expect to wake up with an insect party going on around your head in the morning.
Something i was told a long time ago was to put your pillow in the fridge an hour before you go to bed (or just the pillowcase if the fridge isn't big enough) and other helpful tips is to not strip off but wear loose-fitting cotton or silk nightclothes as natural fibres wick away moisture from your skin.
Leaving blinds down or curtains closed during the day will keep the sun out and not heat up the bedroom and running your wrists and hands or feet under the cold tap for a few minutes will bring down the bodies temperature as will hugging a hot water bottle filled with cold water.
In Japan they put the mattress on the floor as that is where the coolest air is as the warm air is lighter and will rise leaving all the cold stuff lower down.
Another tip is to wring out a flannel with cold water and sleep with it on exposed skin and going to bed with damp socks on.
Finally sleeping on your side exposes more body surface and gives off more heat so there are lot's of good tips which are more helpful then my usual method which is laying there with my hair stuck to the pillow and whining 'IT'S TOO HOT' every couple of minutes.

Thunder All Through The Night

After a few days of temperatures nudging the low 20s, it is all about to come crashing down, literally, as violent thunderstorms are about to light up the skies tonight and tomorrow.
I'm with Eddie Rabbitt who sang that he loved a rainy night, hearing the thunder and watching the lightning because it's on a par with snow as my favourite weather and the more violent the better as far as i'm concerned.
As a child we were told that it was God moving around the furniture and flicking the lights on and off but as i got older and wiser i realised that it is actually the clouds bumping into each other and Jesus checking the cloud damage with his torch.
Electrical storms are very few and far between here in the UK but there is a place in Venezuela that has storms lighting up the skies on average 300 nights each year.
Maybe Eddie Rabbitt's song is not so popular there, they may get a bit fed up with hearing the thunder and watching the lightning most nights but i plan to grab my mug of tea, sit by a window and watch Jesus inspect the clouds as they career into each other.