Autumn dawn

Reddish sky in the morning

Shepherds take warning….

And they should! A few days ago we had a red dawn, this photo was taken as it faded.

The sky soon clouded over and later we had a deluge! Water flowed down the hill so fast and deep that it overwhelmed the drains and poured out of gutters onto the pavements. At the back of my house it came down the window in a sheet of rain and the water snuck into the wall and plaster around the window frame. I’ve never seen anything like it.

There was a flash flood in the centre of town with rain water up to people’s car headlights. Shops that were safe at the front had brown water knee high in their store rooms….

It might have been a microburst but it was very stormy. The winds were blowing trees about. It was more than the usual thunderstorm. Thankfully it blew over after about twenty minutes.

Climate change is here. I don’t know how places like Jamaica and Cuba and Haiti coped with last week’s hurricane. I feel so worried for them.

Red sunsets due

I was watching the weather forecast and the smoke from the forest fires in Canada has risen in the atmosphere and had been carried by the jet stream up across the Atlantic and towards the UK. The smoke particles are not low enough to cause breathing problems, but they are in the right place to scatter the light more at sunrise and sunset. This should result in brighter red and orange skies in the morning and evenings.

A similar phenomenon happened when Krakatoa erupted in the 19th Century. Then the volcanic dust that was swept into the sky caused changes in the evening light and blue moons being reported. We have to realise how interconnected the world is.

Red sky this morning

This photo doesn’t do it justice. I don’t have a great view of the horizon because its obscured by trees and buildings, and the window needs clearing of ivy that is growing around it. There was a yellowish gap in the clouds where the sky was visible, then bars of orange/red clouds lay across it, like sand bars in a shallow sea. Have you ever looked up at the sky and thought it was mimicking an ocean view? It was like that. The best time I ever saw that illusion was when we were driving down to Dorset. We were climbing a big hill and the sunset appeared over the peak of the hill. It looked like the sea with land protruding into it. As we reached the summit the real sea became visible and the sky looked as if the sea was reflected in it. All pinks and golds and bars of lavender grey. We had a lovely week away.

Autumn sky

The nights are ‘drawing in’, Autumn (fall) starts officially on Wednesday this week. The weather is set to get colder. There will be a change to it, mist and fogs are due, rain and wind, even some storms.

This photo was taken a few nights ago, high pressure over the UK and a red sky in the evening indicating settled warm weather.

Even if we had long term weather forecasts they are never that accurate here in the UK. The air over us is unstable, affected by the ocean, the Arctic, weather over Europe and coming in from the East over Russia. If you want interesting, rapidly changing weather come to the UK.

Storm warning

Storm warning. There is a storm in the bay of biscay heading our way. Expect a red sky in the morning and a swirl of rain edging up the country. Some flooding and fallen trees expected. Nice, just when I was hoping for late summer sun! The wind will blow and we shall have? Storms! I had such plans a seaside trip, gentle tides, a sea view, seagulls wheeling. But maybe next week it will be better….