Every cloud......

[david_e]

On Monday took a customer out for a game of golf in glorious sunshine, since then it has rained non-stop, mainly torrential,evry day & night till about this lunchtime when the first bit of clear sky arrived, what a relief!. The weather men said on Tuesday that we had 2 months rain in one day, and a months rain every day since, so hopefully we have drained the sky dry for 5 months!

Still at least the reservoirs are full, so every cloud........

 

[tcm]

Re: name the customer!

I think you should bill him for causing all the rain. I would take customers out myself, but unfortunately I am short of a gun or other suitable weapon.

 

[snooks]

Re: name the customer!

Surely it's the weather mans fault???

I could take out Michael Fish, he lives just down my road

 

[ccscott49]

Re: name the customer!

I've got a belt fed shotgun you could borrow, last used in the great seagull cull in Dartmouth!

 

[tome]

Re: name the customer!

Don't take him out, just mention the Hurricane which he famously dismissed - it obviously still causes him grief to this day (as indeed it should).

 

[snooks]

A lady rang in earlier today....

Wotta mistaka to make a!

 

[david_e]

Re: no names, no pack drill

I hope you aren't intimating that it wasn't a customer!! Can't bill him for the weather 'cause bill him more than enough now, so definately wouldn't shoot him either.

If I was to shoot anyone right now it would be a) one of the toads who mess around trying to buy my boat b) one of the many brokers who are trying to sell me one of theirs but there's another story in there.

 

[peterb]

Re: A lady rang in earlier today....

He was right! By definition a hurricane is a tropical rotating storm. What we had were hurricane strength winds, but not a hurricane.

 

[tome]

Re: A lady rang in earlier today....

Peter

I've heard some SH1T over the years but yours beats the biscuit.

If you've ever experienced this sort of wind you wouln't really want to expound the definition. A hurricane is a hurricane in any sense of the word, revolving or otherwise. Admiral Beaufort defined it well enough for my simple mind.

Suspect you were tucked up in bed when it happened. I wasn't and Michael Fish IMHO let the side down with his early dismissal.

Regards
Tom

 

[peterb]

Shit?

Thanks for your comment.

My comment was based on the Met Office publication, "Meteorology for Mariners", and in particular Chapter 11, "Tropical Revolving Storms".

I quote:

"Tropical revolving storms which when fully developed are known as hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones, depending on their area of occurence, constitute one of the most destructive of atmospheric phenomena."

"A tropical revolving storm may be defined as a roughly circular atmospheric vortex, originating in the tropics or subtropics, wherein the winds which blow in converging spiral tracks (anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere) reach or exceed gale force (Beaufort force 8)."

"The term 'tropical depression' can be used in a general sense to cover any depression in the
tropics whatever its intensity."

"Since it is obviously of great importance to be precise in the definition of the various degrees
of intensity of tropical depressions the following nomenclature has been laid down by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO):

1. 'Tropical Depression'--when the associated winds do not exceed Beaufort force 7.
2. 'Moderate Tropical Storm'--when the associated winds are of forces 8 and 9.
3. 'Severe Tropical Storm'--when the associated winds are of forces 10 and 11.
4. 'Hurricane' (or local synonym)--when the associated winds reach force 12."


The 1987 storm was not a tropical depression as defined here. Yes, it reached hurricane strength as defined in the Beaufort scale, but that is not enough to turn it into a hurricane.

If you want to argue, then don't argue with me. Try the World Meteorological Organisation, because I'm only using their definition. Or perhaps you could give chapter and verse to support your comment.

Incidentally, of course, Beaufort could not measure wind speeds. His definition of hurricane strength was "That which no canvas could withstand".

 

[david_e]

.......it's Sunday, 21:15, have just got back from a glorious, fun filled, week-end in Peely Weely and it's raining. Stopped to get some sorrow drowning fluid and the girlie in the Co-op says it's been raining all day! aaaaarrrrrgggghhhh!

 

[Cornishman]

Apart from a couple of hefty showers the day before yesterday the weather in the South West, Cornwall and Devon anyway, has been fine all week. Quite a few emmets looking like lobsters about, so I guess the beaches have been full and there seems to have been a sea breeze most days.

 

[tome]

Re: Shit?

Peter

My point was simple: a lady phoned in to say she was worried by French reports of winds up to Huricane strength, and Michael Fish dismissed her in a condescending manner.

What followed was a vindication of her concerns whether or not you want to classify it as a hurricane. Anyone who experienced the worst of the weather would not want to engage in metereological symantics - it blew a frightening hooly which put my 58 ton vessel (moored to 6 anchors and 2 shore piles) ashore together with a number of boats which had seeked refuge alongside. I took to the air the following day and have never seen such devestation in this country.

I apologise if I caused you offence, but perhaps you've missed my point. Nitpicking about tropical revolving storm definitions seems a bit off-context to my simple mind.

 

[Gunfleet]

defernition of a huricane

huricane? symantics? seeked? devestation? Are you from the English liberation front?

 

[BrianJ]

Urgent...instead of gold medals we will settle for RAIN...needed desperately in OZ...please send as soon a possible.
BrianJ

 

[ccscott49]

Re: defernition of a huricane

Basically who gives a shit whether it was a revolving tropical storm or not, It blew bloody hooligans for a while and wrecked evrything!!

 

[Cornishman]

Re: defernition of a huricane

Did yer mis a poynt thair, Colin?

 

[Gunfleet]

Re: defernition of a huricane

Ithengso

 

[peterb]

Hurricane?

Actually the lady said that she had heard French reports that we would have a hurricane (not just hurricane strength winds). Michael Fish said that he could assure the lady that we would not. Now Michael Fish is a meteorologist, and knows that hurricanes (as defined by the WMO) don't happen in our latitude; that's why he could give the assurance, and technically he was right. But that didn't stop him being wrong in his estimation of the likely wind speed.

The difficulty is that most people assume that "hurricane" refers only to wind speed. In fact, it covers several other factors as well. So to the meteorologist Michael Fish was right; to the general public he was laughably wrong (if I can use that word in association with the 1987 storm)!

As a matter of interest, where was your boat? I sail on a club boat (at that time a Westerly Konsort); during the storm the boat was secured in Suffolk Yacht Harbour (River Orwell), at the end remote from the entrance, and the crew said that they slept through the storm. I've never been sure whether to believe them, though.

Completely off this point, a few weeks after my son went from infant to junior school his teacher asked us if we had spent time in or near the Caribbean. We said no, but asked why the query? Apparently she had asked the class for names for a big wind, and after the "gale" and "storm" the only child coming up with words was my son: hurricane, typhoon, tempest, cyclone and whirlwind. We had to tell her that we had just moved from Farnborough, and that he was an aircraft enthusiast!

 

[tome]

Re: Hurricane?

We were South Coast (Chichester Harbour) and endured the worst of it. There were countless trees down and all roads blocked. From the air the most bizarre sight- trees down everywhere around houses but not one house actually hit that I could see.

Still reckon that if Fish hadn't been so arrogant he might have checked out the depression and issued appropriate warnings rather than simply ridiculing her.