Comment – an international language

I’m sure you can all agree, it’s been an interesting week.

With that in mind, I thought it would be useful to explain a surefire way to make friends, worldwide. On my travels, and usually at the request of my 86 year old Dad, I ask about the weather. It really is the international language for all occasions. We all have an opinion, no one gets upset when our views differ, and every viewpoint and factual comment (ie ‘its 15 degrees today, and there was 10mm in the rain gauge/bucket last night’) is worthy of consideration.

Its also great to sit down with Dad at the end of a busy week and either say ‘Ive been to XXX and it was chucking it down’, or discuss the drought in Greece with some authority, as I have been on a Teams call with someone near Athens. In turn he will recall either of the great winters of ’65 or ’47, and the wolves crossing the river Eden just by Kirkby Thore.. Or something like that.

Your humble correspondent has been rather too carried away with wider world events to catch up with more important matters till now, so (drum roll…) the 2024 annual rainfall total was 2049mm (vs 1918mm in ’23 and 1790 in ’22). So boy it’s been a wet year.

By way of contrast, February ’25 managed a miserly 75mm, against last year’s almost record 206mm, beaten only 272mm in ’22. This last month has been the driest February in the upland arable paradise since records began (’21!).

I’m not going to get shouty about the real impacts of climate change, but in line with my neighbours, all I’m going to say is that sometimes it’s ‘catchy’. If you know what I mean.

Let’s be kind this week, apparently it’s in short supply.

Have a good one.

Andy