"John Hall" wrote in message
...
It's remarkable that Luton, in Philip's own backyard as it were, had the
lowest monthly sunshine of anywhere in the UK. It's not the sort of
location that one would have expected to have the lowest figure.
--
Seems to be the way it works in this country. Here in Northampton the
weather never seems to follow the trend of the rest of the country. Probably
because we are slap bang in the middle of the country, and don't tend to be
affected by coastal conditions as other places would be. Luton is about 30
miles south of here.
Three examples:
1. Everyone was enthusing about the amount of snow they had this winter. Us,
we struggled to get 4" on the ground at any one time.
2. Ref Ricardo's post about Marlow higher up the list. He is experiencing
torrential rain (4mm per hour), about 50 miles from here, yet Pitsford, 3
miles up the road, has only recorded 1.5mm for the day, while I've recorded
1.2mm in the last 24 hours.
3. Again Ricardo has recorded a high temperature today of 18.1C. Northampton
15.6C.
In my experience, the centre of England makes it's own rules regarding
weather conditions, not knowing whether it is in the north, south, east or
west of the country, so just gathers the best and worst of everything around
it, and to hell with the consequences.
One other thing about Northampton. 12 years ago Northamptonshire experienced
some very heavy rain for a day, while most of the country didn't notice
anything exceptional. This resulted in severe flooding in the town centre
when the River Nene burst it's banks, with up to six feet of water affecting
several thousand properties and businesses. Unfortunately it didn't make the
national news for very long because it was Good Friday 1998 - the day of the
Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement, which dominated every news bulletin
from midday onwards. Exceptional circumstances over a relatively small area,
which went largely un-noticed by the rest of the country.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northamptonshir...allery.shtml?1
http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/se...ectionID=12996
jim, Northampton