I have been away for the past 10 days or so in Austria amongst the mountains
where the weather was almost too good. By this I mean every day was sunny
with very little cloud and all way above summits. Winds were light and the
max ranged from 23C-27C in the area where I was staying some 80 miles or so
south west of Vienna at a height of 700 metres. But even at 2,000 metres it
was very warm in the sun. At night it was gin clear and you felt you could
reach out and touch Mars. It did fall to 5C on one night so a chill in the
air by dawn. However as I hinted it was perhaps too good- excellent for
mountain walks but very unusually not a flicker of lightning anywhere during
the evening and night, a sight that can be quite spectacular amongst the
peaks. And, as indicated stable conditions prevailed by day.
After hot and sunny weather persisting for much of the summer river levels
were becoming very low and in some areas pastures looked very much worse for
wear. However around where I was staying in spite of the persistent dry
weather it is amazing how lush some of the pastures still looked with a
myriad of flowers in bloom as water was channelled from mountain springs.
The night time dew also helped to keep things fresh.
At least my garden received some welcome rain in Coulsdon as I returned
home - 19.7mm in 30 hours and I marvelled at the text book landing of my
plane at Heathrow on Thursday in very heavy rain and cloud almost at ground
level.

Ian Currie- Coulsdon,Surrey
www.Frostedearth.com