Ghastly Weather

[Python]

Had to take the car today (again). I've never seen so much rain last for so long. It started about 11pm last night. The lightning was lighting up the sky. The rain has been torrential since then. We've had thunder and lightning off and on all day and there's quite a strong wind too. It's also quite cold. The police have closed off the town centre (never seen that happen before) and several roads in our town are also closed. One of our sales reps is stranded in another town as the main road back has been closed due to flooding.

I'm getting severely frustrated at not being able to cycle as much as I normally would. My poor bike thinks I've abandoned her

This is supposed to be summer

[bikerchick68]

yikes... glad you're not trying to ride in it... sounds nasty and dangerous!

In July 2004 I did a bike tour of Ireland... I was pretty surprised at how cold it was and that it rained the whole time too... when I got to London it was beautiful tho...

hope Mother Nature treats you kinder soon...

[Suzi-Sue]

This has been the most scrazy British summer EVER.

So fustrating for us cyclists suck here in the rain, floods and weather warnings

Maybe some sort of karma might happen and we will have 2months of non-stop sunshine!

[RoadRaven]

So Britain has had its week of summer then?

Seriously though, I knew you guys had had some serious weather just before the prologue - the Thames was incredibly brown - was that from all the rain too?

I hadn't realised you were still getting flooded and heavily rained on!

We're in the middle of winter here (actially, its a month past solstice now, so days are starting to get longer) but I know your frustration with not being able to get out on the bike to ride!

Be safe and I wish you dry patches and days that cooincide exactly at the time you are ready to ride...

[Python]

They reckon it's the worst summer on record so far, definitely the wettest ever. So much for the doom and gloom merchants predicting we were going to get temperatures of over 100 deg F, with people dying from heat exhaustion. They couldn't have got it more wrong if they tried

It stopped raining around 7pm and it's dried up so fast (too fast) that you wouldn't think there'd been much rain at all. Went up to the supermarket and bumped into one of our ex sales reps. He said he's homeless tonight and having to stay with friends as his apartment has been flooded and has 8 inches of water all the way through it

Our weather forecast is predicting more thunderstorms and torrential rain Saturday afternoon. Don't think I'll be going out.

[crazycanuck]

Can you send some more rain to Western Australia? We've had some nice downpours over the winter! However, if we don't receive more rain in the next few months, there will be drastic water restrictions in place over the summer.

The wheatbelt of Western Australia really really needs the rain...

Riding in the rain is ok but I get a bit tired of the webbed feet ya know..

Hope it dries out where you are.

C

[Python]

If I could send you all our rain I would

It's getting very cloudy at the moment and has been spotting with rain (again).

My husband was out this morning (he's working today) and popped home at lunchtime. He says there's cars abandoned everywhere, some in the middle of the road just coned off by the police.

According to the weather forecast we've got more of this for the next few days

[Trekhawk]

I have been reading about your bad weather Python and all the flooding. I hope it clears up soon.

[Starfish]

So Britain has had its week of summer then?

NW Washington State in the US, too. We aren't having the flooding, but I totally sympathize, Python. We did have our week of good weather...2 weeks ago.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to go out and do an 80 mile climbing training ride (the last one before my 2 week taper for my big event ride), but today the conditions were 46 degrees (at the top of the hill), 15 mph winds, 1/2 mile visibility (fog), and steady rain. It is supposed to do this for another few days.

Wish I could send the rain to the places that need it! Hang in there! I keep telling myself the sun does exist!!

[Python]

We still have main roads closed. Large sections of some of the main roads were washed away. We're lucky that we live on the top of a hill so any surface water just runs down the slope but people are still on flood alert who live in the centre of town. There is a river that runs close to a lot of houses in town and it is threatening to burst its banks.

It's stopped raining at the moment but the forecast is more heavy rain over the next couple of days.

The trouble is now because it is so wet, when the sun comes out usually in the morning it sucks up all the moisture and by mid to late afternoon we either get thunder and lightning or torrential rain. My garden is overgrown with weeds, my hedge is threatening to take over the front gate, the lawn will end up needing strimmed instead of cut with the lawnmower because we can't get out to do it.

We've had wet summers before but I've never seen one as wet as this.

But what's bothering me most:

I - CAN'T - GET - OUT- WITH - MY - BIKE!!!

[RoadRaven]

Saw some nasty stuff on the news last night from different parts of England - houses flooded and streeets underwater!

Somewhere they had a months rain in two hours!!!

My thoughts are with you British gals

[uk elephant]

There really has been an incredible amount of rain. I didn't realize how bad it was till I got stuck in Bristol with seemingly no way of getting back to the east coast. All trains were stopped because of flooded lines and tunnels and any roads east and north were closed or at a standstill because of flooding. By the time the main road towards London opened again, the rail company put me in a taxi home as there was no other way. Felt a bit bad for the taxi driver having to drive all that way (3 hours one way with no traffic), but he at least made a good deal of money out of it. I got home very tired and frustrated, but as soon as I saw the pictures in the papers I realized I had been very lucky. At least I got home to a dry house.

[Geonz]

Fenders and an enclosed chain and internal hub and Gore-Tex have gotten me through our rains but it hasn't yet actually deluged during my commute. I need to figure out the bus route in case things get really hinky... but it's been nice in a way not to have the option of driving (sold my car to my brother at the end of May). THe commuting bike is heavy enough to give me a workout even in 7 miles
Here's to moderate weather throughout!!!!

[Python]

Heard on the radio tonight (was in the kitchen doing that necessary evil - ironing ) that in Worcester people haven't got drinking water because one of the water plants had to close due to the flooding. They've put the Army in now.

I've never heard of this happening here before.

It's hard to believe we're one of the most advanced countries in the world. You expect this type of thing to happen in developing countries, not here.

[RoadRaven]

(was in the kitchen doing that necessary evil - ironing )

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

*pauses to reread the bit where ironing and necessary are in the same sentence*

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha CRASH

*sheepishly picks self up off floor after falling off chair with laughter... glances at screen and laughs so hard, vision becomes impossible due to tears*