A Song of the Weather

Alan · January 15, 2007, 7:10pm

Hi,

Please share with me some lyrics by a wonderful double act called Flanders and Swan. In true British manner they also sang about the weather:

(Flanders and Swann)

A

Yankee · January 15, 2007, 10:43pm

I like it, Alan.

I guess that must be a pretty accurate portrayal of the weather in England (?) I’ve only been in England a few times, and I remember a lot of wet, windy weather.

Amy

Conchita · January 16, 2007, 12:04pm

Great song, Alan! I already see it performed as a role-play in class (for instance), every first line poetically recited and the pragmatic, down-to-earth retort given with lots of face-pulling, eye-rolling and gesturing.

Alan · January 16, 2007, 12:22pm

Hi,

Funny you should have that picture of England, Amy and also that that’s all people remember. I recall once when I was a young teacher (oh those days!) and I had a class of the most beautiful French girls. It was a boiling hot sunny day in north London not a cloud in the sky and all the doors and windows in the classroom were open to let in some air and these French girls were writing an essay on life in London. When I read their work afterwards, I noticed that each and every one of those delicious young women were writing things like: It always rains in London/ The sun never shines/I hate the English weather and so on and so on.

A

PS I have to confess it is actually raining as I type!

Tamara · January 16, 2007, 2:15pm

Hi

I really like the piece of poetry ([size=84]as well as true British sense of humour. )[/size]

…The picture I can see right now on the weather.com given for the town I live (this January, as well as the last one) is:

And I’d say, this morning it was raining not that light…

But.
Even though I’d definitely prefer to see real English snow this winter - even just for once! - I like English weather. Even durung the July’s heat, when the sun shines mercilessly, there is no even a small cloud day after day, and t = +35° C.

Prezbucky · January 16, 2007, 2:32pm

I’ll take Nashville’s winter… compared to the bitter-cold frozenness of Northern Wisconsin.

I mean I still chuckle when the weather guy comes on and says, “It’s going to be bitter-cold tonight with lows in the upper-20s.”

Upper-20s F is below-zero Celsius (FYI).

…yet in NoWisc, that is warm for this time of year.

weather.com/outlook/health/g … lthCommand

Right now it’s -8 F in my hometown (-22.2 C)

Yankee · January 16, 2007, 3:31pm

Connecticut hasn’t managed to begin winter yet. It’s been downright springlike here – around 50F (10C). But the weather forecasters are now claiming that winter is finally going to arrive this week – the temperature is supposed to drop to the teens. The last few times I was here for a visit at this time of the year we were hit by blizzards that closed all the airports along the coast in the Northeast. Somehow the blizzards always managed to hit the day before I was planning to fly back to Germany.

Prezbucky · January 16, 2007, 5:34pm

did you ever have to sleep in an airport… waiting out such a storm?

Yankee · January 17, 2007, 12:10pm

Hi Tom

No, I’ve had to wait through a few long delays, but fortunately I’ve never had to spend the night in an airport. Thank goodness!

By the way, winter came howling into Connecticut last night and the temperature has now dropped to a more seasonable 15 degrees (-10 C). Brrr…

Amy

Alan · January 17, 2007, 1:23pm

Looking ahead ho ho (to coin a chuckle):

Oh, to be in England

Now that April’s there,

And whoever wakes in England

Sees, some morning, unaware,

That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough

In England - now!

And after April, when May follows,

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows

Hark! where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray’s edge

That’s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew

The buttercups, the little children’s dower, -

Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

Robert Browning (1812-1889)

A

Prezbucky · January 17, 2007, 2:08pm

It got down to maybe 20 last night here in Nashville. People are freaking out.

I’m actually surprised (and impressed) that school wasn’t called off on suspicion of snow. There are almost no snowplows here… so if there’s snow, even rumors of snow, the powers that be generally cancel school.

Torsten · January 17, 2007, 5:25pm

Talking of the weather, something crazy is going on here in Germany: Temperatures have been around 10 degrees Celsius for weeks now. I can’t remember this being the case at this time of year. Anyone experiencing something similar?[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, question-response: Could I see your driver’s license?[YSaerTTEW443543]

Foah · January 17, 2007, 6:53pm

Hi Torsten, I do! Please remember the winter 2002/3. In February 2003, noone expected some lower degrees around here, it began to snow and getting cold and lasted for some times (till middle to end of March). The actual stormy weather might be like autum storms and the winter will come late. I?m not really sure but can the same happen this year? Also think about the cold in California.

Michael

Tamara · January 18, 2007, 4:10pm

Strong gusty wind today… again…
My neighbour’s wooden fence has just been blown down.
All railway service in our direction (from London) is blocked from the lunchtime.

PS …gusty-gutsy … it’s really difficult to remember the difference…

Alan · January 19, 2007, 10:25am

Hi,

In the words of Flanders and Swan :

Freezing wet December, then
Bloody January again!

At least 12 people including a two-year-old boy were killed as winds approaching 100mph battered many parts of Britain yesterday.

Scores of others were injured as the fierce gales brought widespread transport chaos, damaged buildings and left tens of thousands of homes without power.

A woman lorry driver was killed when her vehicle was blown off the A629 bypass into a canal

The gusts caused chaos for road, rail and air travellers and closed ferry ports. Rail companies had to contend with flooding and fallen trees. Train services were cut and speed restrictions were imposed on many lines.

Within one half-hour period yesterday afternoon, drivers faced closures and blockages on nine motorways — the M25, M1, M6, M5, M40, M62, M60, M42 and M20. Scores of flights were cancelled and Scotland saw its first significant snowfalls of the year.

The two-year-old, Saurav Ghai, died when a 6ft garden wall collapsed on him in Belsize Park, north London, at 1.15pm, as he walked with a child minder. The woman was taken to hospital with injuries. Richard Heard, 49, the managing director of Birmingham International Airport, died on his way to work at 5.45am when a tree branch smashed through the windscreen of his four-wheel-drive vehicle.

Ambulance crews were called to the accident on the B4373 near Bridgnorth, Shropshire, but could not save him. Mr Heard, who was married with two children, had worked on extensions and improvements to terminals one and two at the airport and the development of access roads.

The airport paid tribute to “his energy, enthusiasm, capacity for work and technical knowledge”.

A car is crushed and a house badly damaged as a tree comes crashing down in storm-force gales whipping through Eaton Square, London

Another fallen tree killed a male passenger in a Ford Fiesta in Streatley, Berks.

A lorry driver whose vehicle left the road, overturned and landed part-way in a canal also died. High winds blew her lorry off the A629 Skipton bypass in North Yorkshire.

A German was killed when his lorry was blown on to another vehicle on the A55, near the Forte Posthouse hotel in Chester.

Another lorry driver died when his vehicle crashed into a car on the A47 south of Ludlow, Shopshire, and plunged down an embankment. The woman driving the car was seriously injured. A 62-year-old man died after being blown into a metal shutter and hitting his head in the Strangeways area of Manchester. A 60-year-old woman was crushed to death when a wall collapsed as she was trying to shelter from the wind in Marple, near Stockport, Greater Manchester.

advertisementA man in his eighties died of a suspected heart attack outside his home in Prenton, Wirral, as he tried to secure fencing that had blown loose in high winds.

Derek Barley, 61, of Manchester, died after being struck by a tree in Middlewich, Cheshire.

One man was killed and another suffered serious injuries when their car was struck by a fire engine on emergency call-out to Liverpool John Lennon Airport after reports that an aircraft was about to make an emergency landing. Three firemen were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Two schoolboys, including one thought to have suffered spinal injuries, were taken to hospital after a tree fell on to them in Merseyside.

Emergency services were called to St Augustine of Canterbury Catholic High School, St Helens, where a 12-year-old was reported to have serious injuries.

Crew from the freighter Napoli at Culdrose air base after being plucked from 60ft waves in the Channel

Twenty-six crew members were rescued from a damaged British container ship in the English Channel 50 miles off the Lizard in Cornwall. The crew of the Napoli abandoned ship and took to a lifeboat after the vessel got into difficulties in force nine gales.

The 62,000-ton vessel was holed and took in water as it made its way through the Channel.

Two helicopters from RNAS Culdrose, Cornwall, airlifted the crew, including two 20-year-old Britons, Forbes Duthie and Nicholas Colbourn, and Bulgarian, Turkish and Indian nationals. Mr Duthie, from Inverness, said they spent 90 minutes in the raft with waves up to 60ft. It had been like “the end of the world” when the order came to abandon ship. The crew were said to be “desperately sea sick and dehydrated”.

London Bridge main-line station had to close in mid-afternoon after part of the station forecourt roof collapsed, blocking a section of the main concourse. Liverpool Street station closed for similar reasons. A blackout closed King’s Cross Tube station.

Lord’s Cricket Ground was strewn with debris after winds damaged the roof of the Tavern Stand. Firemen were called to free some debris. Kew Gardens was closed, as was most of Brighton Pier.

Gusts of 99mph were recorded at Needles Old Battery on the Isle of Wight.

In the Peak District, two men who became lost in heavy winds, driving rain and fog were rescued in the early hours of yesterday. Officers found them after spotting their torch. Police carried one of them unconscious for nearly a mile over rocky ground in the dark to an ambulance.

On the M6 in Lancashire police ordered lorries to park while the gales persisted. Police acted after a lorry blew over, hitting a saloon car.

The M1 and M18 motorways in South Yorkshire were closed in both directions as police estimated that around 20 lorries were blown over in the county.

In Scotland, the snow caused problems on the roads and led to the closure of several primary schools.

The central belt was worst affected, and at one point the A9, the main road to the north of Scotland, was closed by several inches of snow. Tayside police reported a spate of minor road accidents.

The Met Office said the weather was expected to be calmer today. But the temperature is likely to drop sharply this weekend with snow forecast in northern and eastern England next week.

A