Here in the UK over the last few weeks we have been experiencing some amazing summer weather. Over the last few years we have become accustomed to the cool, wet summer holidays but so far this year we have had weeks and weeks of bright sunny and sometimes sweltering temperatures.
Whilst we are busy enjoying the sun our thoughts are far away from our heating systems. But now is actually a great time to get your Gloucester boiler servicing company like http://www.hprservicesltd.com/gloucester-boilers/boiler-servicing-gloucester/ to come in and give your system the once over ready for October/November when you will want to flick the switch and flood the house with nice cosy warm temperatures.
Back to our heatwave. As we all know, long sustained periods of these types of temperatures in the United Kingdom are far from a certainty. It’s hard to believe that just a few short months ago we were knee deep in snow from the wild Siberian weather called the “beast from the East” and in our early spring as well. Here is a little look at the times we have experienced unexpected weather outcomes:
The winter of 1963. Its appropriate to start with a terrible, terrible winter that occurred in the early sixties where it basically started snowing in the middle of December and didn’t stop until the end of February 1964. The best way to describe it is it’s as if the beast from the east arrived in the December and then didn’t leave for 3 months imagine that! The cold and snow was caused by a similar freak weather occurrence like the beast. It was a strong Eastly wind from Siberia but this time it coincided with a northern artic blast and some wet storms from the west. This maelstrom created a winter that anyone over the age of 65 still talks about in hushed tones or refers to whenever we get a bit of bad weather.
The drought of 1976. Lots of examples have been drawn with our current situation and that of 1976. This was the longest sustained period of hot weather that the country had seen in the twentieth century and temperatures stayed at 30 degrees for sixteen consecutive days. Hosepipe bans were mandatory, and reservoirs became very low indeed. We were saved from this issue by the beast from the East strangely enough as the excessive snow melted meaning that the reservoirs and rivers so returned to their previous water levels.
The storm of 1987. This was a “weather bomb” in that it developed so quickly no one had a chance to predict its full potential for damage. The BBC weather man Michael Fish is also blamed for it as his quote that there wasn’t a hurricane coming is often played followed by scenes of devastation. Fish is cut of and before his sentence is played where he does actually warn of extremely high winds that may cause damage. At least we haven’t had that to deal with.
