My Mum was adamant that really wet or dry weather was the result of the conflict between the USA and USSR and they were stealing each others rain. Apparently The USA wanted the Russian wheat crops to fail and vice versa and we got caught in the middle.
It doesn't make sense (she often didn't) but may be understandable for those of a certain age who remember the Cold War.
I grew up in East Anglia surrounded by US and RAF air bases during the cold war. My dad had contact with serving officers at the time. His story was that the US constantly monitored the USSR wheat crop, in fear that it might fail and the Russian tanks would start rolling into Germany starting WW3! So it sounds like a bit of a twist on something with an underlying truth.
Excepting the fact that the USSR were net importers of wheat from the US. A crop fail in the USSR would simply have meant more profit for the US...
If seeding clouds to make rainfall was a serious possibility drought would be a thing of the past. Weather patterns in the last few decades have been hugely affected by human activity - clearing rainforests, pollution from industry and transport and so on.
Seeding is perfectly possible, if impractical, but the main issue being that you need the moisture to be in the air in the first place for you to seed it and cause it to rain. In which case, it was unlikely you needed to make it rain and it was likely to rain anyway.
Obelixx, you said weather affected by human activity, the rainforests being cleared, yes, and I think people misinterpreted what I meant about the aircraft, I was told that because of the lack of aircraft, we used to live under the gatwick flightpath, more than one every 60 seconds, that the vapour trails meant the sky is clearer, course, I dont know if that is true, or after what seems like permanent rain since last October, we have forgotten what blue sky looks like!. I watched the late news and weather, it said rain in the SE, I thought yeah, right, usually manages to miss us, bcause of the Souith Downs, we had a decent shower, (Hubby had already got the hose out) everything sparkly, and some of the water butts are half full.
So you weren’t that far away @GemmaJF 😊 ... there are other hills in East Anglia ... they’re all here, in and around Norwich 🙄 ... cycling’s a lot more strenuous here than it was down in Suffolk 🥵 😝
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My Mum was adamant that really wet or dry weather was the result of the conflict between the USA and USSR and they were stealing each others rain. Apparently The USA wanted the Russian wheat crops to fail and vice versa and we got caught in the middle.
It doesn't make sense (she often didn't) but may be understandable for those of a certain age who remember the Cold War.
I grew up in East Anglia surrounded by US and RAF air bases during the cold war. My dad had contact with serving officers at the time. His story was that the US constantly monitored the USSR wheat crop, in fear that it might fail and the Russian tanks would start rolling into Germany starting WW3! So it sounds like a bit of a twist on something with an underlying truth.
Excepting the fact that the USSR were net importers of wheat from the US. A crop fail in the USSR would simply have meant more profit for the US...
I think the nuance was the US feared they would not be able to make up any shortfall, quickly, in the case of crop failure. Difficult to know where the tipping point would have been without all the figures, or if the relationship between the US and USSR was in reality far more cordial than the public or serving military were led to believe.
@Nanny Beach and @BenDover - just to put things in perspective, we moved in here on 1/10/16. There hadn't been much rain since our visit in August and we then had 13 months of just dribbles totalling 20cms before having any proper rain. That was a time of normal flights but abnormal jet stream.
This last winter has been very wet since early November with record levels. No planes for weeks now and just the odd shower since mid March when all the storms stopped and lockdown began. I have to turn on the sprinkler to loosen soil and weed roots if I plan to go a-weeding and planting.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
We've had a lot of sun for the time of year and drying winds. We started out waterlogged from the winter, but is bone dry here now, watering fruit trees, veg plot practically daily, else I'll just end up with a hard crust of clay and won't be able to weed or hoe effectively.
Two systems affect the weather patterns worldwide, the Jet Stream in the northern hemisphere an El Nino in the southern, if they are behaving abnormally there is not anything we humans can do about it!
No sure about El nino but we have been hearing enough about the Jet Stream patters over the last few years, hopefully it will get back to something like normal soon!
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
This last winter has been very wet since early November with record levels. No planes for weeks now and just the odd shower since mid March when all the storms stopped and lockdown began. I have to turn on the sprinkler to loosen soil and weed roots if I plan to go a-weeding and planting.