We are wintering in the west of Ireland this year. Our boat is in Galway in the marina within the locked harbour. Thankfully we have not had to worry too much about the strong storms and tide surges we've had this winter. Storm after strong storm, gale after gale, we've had nonstop blowing going on. And the rain - pelting, driving, and filling our rain gauge daily. Now weather has always been a subject of discussion here, and when I heard about Fifty Shades of Grey I thought it was about the Irish weather. But this year is really extraordinary. We had a wonderful summer for a change and now we are paying for it in spades.
 |
Westerly wind combined with a super high tide created a massive storm surge.
The road at the end of our driveway is under water. |
Our house, our car and our boat have all experienced a bit of SEAsoning. Everything has been scoured clean of paint by the salt spray off the water and coated with a thick layer of sea salt. It's like sand blasting. After each storm I hose off as much salt as I can with fresh water. You cannot even see through the windows after a big storm.
With all these storms, we've not had much opportunity to get out to work outdoors on the growing list of "honey do" projects, particularly the ones on the boat. We had such grand ideas of going to Galway and living on board for a week at a time in the city while working on the boat. No such luck.
And they just announced on the radio that this pattern is to continue into the foreseeable future. Last year was the year of the easterlies. This year, we are back to southwesterlies, but the procession across the Atlantic just doesn't stop. Will it ever? They are saying this is linked to climate change. The British are planning to dredge their rivers to improve drainage. The Irish want to raise the banks of the Shannon to keep the flood waters out. But will that be enough?
How hard did it blow? It blew so hard it blew our weather station down and our satellite dish right out of the wall
. Yes, our weather station has been SEAsoned. We're going to have to add a new category to our Irish Weather Station forecast alerts. See below.
 |
| Stone on ground coated in sea salt. Save yourselves! |
Field Station 1
 |
Alex's Irish Weather Station
|
Stone is dry
|
Not raining
|
Stone is wet
|
Raining
|
Stone dripping
|
Raining cats and dogs
|
Stone is white on top
|
Snowing
|
Stone is very shiny
|
Ice
|
Stone briefly visible at night
|
Lightning
|
Shadow on ground
|
Sunny
|
Intermittent shadow
|
Partly cloudy
|
No shadow on ground
|
Cloudy
|
Can’t see stone
|
Foggy
|
Swinging stone
|
Windy
|
Stone hanging sideways
|
Hurricane
|
Stone missing
|
Tornado
|
Stone bouncing up and down
|
Earthquake
|
Comments
Post a Comment