Storms Old And New

On the 30th anniversary of the Great Storm of 1987 another great storm- originally a hurricane- is sweeping over the British Isles. In 87 we didn't name the buggers, but now we do and the current Great Storm is called Ophelia.

The 87 storm devastated the South East of England. Here on the farm my parents lost a number of trees. That was the downside. The upside was they installed a wood-burning stove and the harvest from the storm kept the living room warm for years. And, of course, they replanted. Thirty years on and the farm- and the area round it- is as bosky as it was before.

The trajectory of Ophelia is to the west of here. Ireland is already being battered and Scotland has it to come but it looks as though most of England will escape. The sky has clouded over now but this morning was so warm and sunny I hung washing out to dry.

And Then...

...the sun turned red.

And the sky turned a sort of dirty yellow, thickened and hid the sun.

I think we're still at the very edge of the action. There's a wind but not a high wind. According to the media the colour of the sky is a mix of desert sand and debris from forest fires in Spain and Portugal.