Is the weather this Eater a first sign of Global COOLING?

Or, are we kidding ourselves that we can sail in mid-March!

I have arranged launching for April 2nd and am seriously thinking of deferring. With these winds my boat would end up off it's swinging  mooring and halfway across a field

Have you forgotten, 'March Winds and April Showers'? 

A gift we British have (and those who reside here for a number of years ), is that we readilly discuss the weather and the changes thereof.  My relatives in the U.S. and friends in S.A. thought me most peculiar when I was heard to say,"what a beautiful day it is today" when I was holidaying at 'theirs'. Upon a replay of the event in my 'backyard',  they soon got the hang of 'our littlle game' and entered into the spirit of "oh what a miserable day today" and "Gosh what a beautiful sky this evening" something they have continued to remind us of in their mailing.   

How many boat races have you seen( in March ), where there is a gale and do you recall that sinking feeling the Cambrige crew had that year in a wind over tide situation?  Then do you also remember that Boatrace where there were perfect conditions and the two crews finished inches apart in a record time? .....again in March

How many Grand Nationals can you recall when the cameras had difficulty in making out the entries due to the foul conditions? And how many occassions can you recall Aintree being in sunshine for the same event? 

Global warming there may be, but the weather in the U.K. is no more fickle than it was in yesteryear. The floods in recent years are probably less exteme than they were in the south of England in 1947. The fact that a huge amount of the flood plain has now been built on has merely exacerbated the problem.

The very best wishes if you'r going afloat this week.... I'm off to Venice to 'dip my toe' in their climes, Scotty

This is a strange one-remember early March 1979-St.Patricks night-I was playing music at an Irish pub-when we left there was several feet of level snow-recall several days later driving to Bradford where my parents lived and crossing Low Moor(yes that where the wrought Iron Ships plates came from)we were traveling thru a cut thru snow drifts about 15 ft. deep.

As for now well here close by Loch Ness we have had full snow cover above about 2000ft. for last couple of weeks and snow down here at about 200 feet over past several days BUT thats not unusual.

Funny though to see roads full of visitors in tee shirts;canoeists ;back packing campers etc

Almost like because its the earliest easter for a very long time people just thing spring-warm-NOT!

Oh yes my brother in law in Orillia,Ontario Canada couldnt get into his garage because snow had frozen hard in front of it-they still have several feet lying over there.

Phil

Today is my 41st wedding anniversary. We took a very short honeymoon, also coinciding with the Easter holiday, although the actual day was Saturday in 1967. Returning from Cardiff to North Wales, it snowed quite heavily. So not a lot of change over the years.

When we first began cruising we rushed to get the boat into the water for Easter. Over many years we found that this was largely a waste of good preparation time, as the weather was invariably too bad to go anywhere. This applied whether Easter was early or late. So our rule has been to launch towards the end of April in UK and in general this worked OK. Although we have not launched in UK for more than 11 years now, things don't seem all that different.

Just our unpredictable British weather Gents! Nothing else!

Global warming is just en excuse for the Government to contol us and tax us and poeple to try and sell us things like solar panels that will never pay for themselves. Also, think of all the so called research bodies who make big money out of it; if they told the truth their funding would dry up!

I remember one day last February working outside my boat in a tee shirt then what a diabolical summer! And don't forget, 6th June 1944; how long had the D Day crossing been delayed due to very bad weather?  

Chas

Winter of 1962/3. My first motorbike, a F/B 125. Drove it on 'L' plates from Abingdon to Weymouth in early January after Weymouth had been cut off for around two weeks by snow drifts. The biggest drift I rode through was as high as a double decker bus.

Summer of 1976. The fields, parks and lawns were parched brown by the prolonged drought.           I took a brief trip to Scotland that summer and the dramatic difference where the Scottish countryside was green and lush made a huge impact on me at the time. 

p.s. Venice (as mentioned in my blog above), although interesting was overall not my cup of tea. The fact that this city is built on wooden stakes in the ground for the great part, is a wonder of the builders and architects of the day. The fact that it is a major tourist trap ('trap' being emphasised) even at the end of March,  made me realise that a relaxed week getting Betty ready for the season would have left me far more relaxed and content. However, I tried not to let the side down and made every effort to say all the right things about the sights and scenes in my 5 day break and to enjoy the trip as far as i was able. A pity about the food poisoning and the effects that it brings!