In Like A Lion, Out Like a Lamb - So What’s All The Fuss About?

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The old saying goes that “March comes in like a lion, and out like a lamb”. So what’s new? Ever since I can remember, that has been the case. There is always a high Spring Tide, and with it the stormy winds and rain come. Why does the media have to make so much fuss about it? In the early hours of this morning, storms hit Britain. The first to suffer these storms was southern Ireland, at 11.00 p.m., last night with gusts of 70 mph winds, followed in the wee small hours, by Pembrokeshire, in South Wales and the Devon coast with gusts of up to 82 mph. The storms spread quickly across Britain, affecting the whole of the south coast, and as far up the east coast as Ipswich, in Suffolk., leaving fallen trees, damaged buildings, pebble-strewn coastal roads, and floods, in their wake. Fierce, high waves crashed over sea walls and sea defences, causing flooding and transport chaos. Power was lost in many homes in Wales and the West Country and a caravan park had to be evacuated in Devon. All of this was the “norm”, for this time of the year. The Spring Tide always comes at the same time, and the storms always come with it. None of this was unexpected and none of the damage was anywhere near as devastating as the 114 mph winds of Hurricane Andrew, in October, 1987. Hurricane Andrew surprised us when a weatherman refuted reports of an approaching Hurricane, but these storms were expected and severe weather warnings put out, enabling people to make preparation, place sandbags and batten down the hatches for the coming onslaught. Portsmouth, Newhaven and Dover Ports were closed, along the south coast. Short-haul and domestic flights were cancelled and other flights delayed, and trains and traffic has been delayed, all over the place. I cast my mind back some years now, to when I lived in Brighton. One Spring Tide left a heavy tanker, the Athena B, washed up on the beach between the Brighton Pier and the Marina. It lay there for months before it could be refloated and removed from the beach. Another, sent a heavy cargo ship crashing into the West Pier, resulting in structural damage which left the pier unsafe. Now, with the constant stormy batterings of Spring and Autumn, and the fierce storms and high tides, plus wilful damage created by a fire, the West Pier stands severed from the promenade, a blackened wreck of a frame on the water. So… what I need to ask is, are you aware of high tides, and approaching storms of this kind? Do you think in this day and age of “Global Warming”, the media is making too much of it, and that they tend to blame damage to the ozone layer on this? Does the media really need to spend so much time on reports of bad weather, sometimes almost to the point of scaremongery? Or, do you tend to take it in your stride as a normal weather cycle? What are your thoughts on this? One quite good thing came out of all this though, when a couple, flying to England from America, arrived one hour ahead of their ETA, because of the strong winds. They had a smile on their faces, if nobody else did! lol.