Well after being promised a sunny weekend by the BBC forecasters on Radio 4 both
yesterday and this morning, the gloom has once again descended here in High
Wycombe - just as it did yesterday!

Oh yes, as yesterday, the day dawned bright & clear; but within an hour of the
sun rising, just as it did yesterday, the high cloud formed in situ & now we
have YET ANOTHER gloomy day with 100% cloud cover.

To give an idea of how miserable it's been this last two months, last week
(which wasn't PARTICULARLY sunny) we saw more sunshine than we've seen in the
previous two months put together!

Although this year hasn't seen any record-breaking cold or precipitation, it has
been by far and away the most depressing year weatherwise I can ever remember.
We had a cold grey winter, followed by a cold, grey Spring; followed by the
second coolest, wettest summer I have experienced in over 40 years (Summer 1978
was colder, but sunnier and drier) followed by one of the gloomiest autumns
ever! Last Thursday the roads & pavements were actually dry for the first time
for over a month! If we get no precipitation today, it will be only the second
dry Sunday here since the end of August - the last one was back in mid October!

In fact there have been only 5 or so weeks of good weather here the whole of
this year: a week in April, two weeks in the second half of July and two weeks
in early September! The rest of the time we've had day after day of cold,
gloomy, damp weather. The one compensation was that on August 3rd we had the
best thunderstorm here for 15 years!

Let's hope 2005 will be brighter!

Nigel

Aagh! Every time I learn something new... it pushes something old out of my brain!