Rant 103 12/4/12 Subject: weather forecasts

As previously mentioned more than once, I like to start the day with a little ceremony, culminating in sitting down to watch around 25 minutes of BBC breakfast.

Today, there was a 15 minute long stint about sheds. They even interviewed a shed owner! I could easily rant about the inane stupidity of such a piece. It's innate stupidity alone is worth a thousand words! Maybe one day I will too... Just not today.

What annoyed me actually today and pretty much every day was the weather forecast.

Weather forecasts are almost universally a practice in futility. Let's face it, you can rarely change your plans based on the weather - so knowing if it's going to be miserable or wonderful really doesn't assist you.

Then there is the fact that they rarely come true. I don't remember being told it was going to hammer it down with hailstones at around five o'clock - but it did. As it is it didn't effect me. If I was out and about though, I would want to bring a brolly and/or a hard hat to be safe!

Finally there is the irritating pomp and vernacular that is being recited by the weather girl - whilst she points at her big stupid map.
The combination of vagaries and specific terms can be really quite confusing as a lay man. An example of this would be "around 2 o'clock an area of high pressure may cause a warm front to move upwards - resulting in a drop of temperature and some light drizzle" it's like the ranting of a mad man.

In summary, don't trust Michael Fish. The man is pure evil

Rant over.

Rant 27 - 27/1/12 Subject: Weather chaos

Rant number 27


I know, I know.


I'm sorry


but


An Englishman is about to talk about the weather


At least its taken 27 rants to get here hey?

Actually, its not a rant about the weather - so nah... The rant is about the chaos that it causes.

The reason that people across the world say that us British talk about the weather so much, is because they don't have any to talk about. It's just jealousy really.

Because we have lots and lots of weather! Mostly rain I grant thee, but we do get some other stuff too.

Today was a day with a lot of weather. I left the house in the morning to clear sky's, arrived at work to heavy rain and drove home in heavy snow - which is where the chaos comes in.

Because - for a country where it consistently snows every winter (albeit very lightly) we just can't deal with it.
At non rush hour times, my journey home takes around 20 minutes. Double this in rush hour to 40 minutes (pain in the ass already.)

Today it took nearly an hour and a half, just because there was a small shower of snow on a well gritted, well lit road. That I could not see:
A: the reason for obstruction at any point
B: any snow after the first 5 minutes

is what annoyed me.

Even as I left the motorway, the queue extended off into the distance - to god knows where.

What I want to know is - as a country, why can't we just well, deal with it?

We know that every winter it will be cold, that there will be ice & snow, fog & rain, hail & wind.
But all of these things seem to come to a massive surprise to everyone.

Are some people just unable or unwilling to drive with any intelligence as soon as there is a little precipitation? All around the world, people get it worse than us - and they seem to carry on so much better than us!

In Russia for instance, it snows heavily for half a year and goes into minus temperatures. The country does not stop dead because a couple of snow flakes have fallen onto someone's bonnet or onto the train-tracks.

We need to realise that the weather isn't going anywhere, and come up with a way to deal with it!

Rant over.