We've had quite a nice summer so far here in South West England but it looks as though that is about to change, temporarily at least. Bertha began life as a tropical storm east of the Antilles on August 1st 2014, over the following 2 days she passed over several Caribbean islands before briefly reaching the status of a category 1 hurricane on August 4th. The following day Bertha was downgraded to a tropical storm again, but now her remnants  are bearing down on SW England. According to the Met Office at the moment:

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It's been raining hard all day here in the Haldon Hills. If you're wondering why that's happening yet again please peruse my recent articles on how climate change causes Arctic sea-ice to disappear, which causes frequent floods here in South West England,  which causes unpleasant bugs to go swimming around our beaches. Putting all that together at the present moment, here's how the information available online looks as we speak.

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In the good old days I used to pore over atmospheric pressure charts kindly provided online by the likes of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF for short) before making a decision on exactly where and when to go surfing.  Here's what they are revealing to me today:

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The solar park proposals here in South West England get ever more extravagant.  The Western Morning News reports today that:

Worried homeowners have vowed to fight proposals for the country's biggest solar farm which would cover 224 acres of Cornish farmland.

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