flood close to London

[Flyair]

Several towns close to the River Thames in the West of London are under water due to the wettest weather since 1766.

A succession of storms and tidal surges have buffeted Britain since December, flooding the coast and many thousands of buildings, and… cars

[49er]

 We saw these stories on our local news here in CA along with the high tides hitting the French and Portuguese western coasts. Weather in the Northern hemisphere has been one for the record books for sure. I guess the folks down in southern hemisphere have been dealing with record heat too.
  We had a "small" storm ride in off the Pacific this past weekend that dumped nearly 8 inches (200mm) of much needed rain at our place and 5 ft (1.5m) of snow up in the higher elevations of the Sierras. Still need about 6 or 7 more storms of the same intensity to get us out of our current drought but this was a good start for sure.

John

[stickandrudderman]

As well as a weather storm it has caused something of a political storm too since residents have been complaining about a lack of dredging for decades, a rather appropriately named community secretary Ed Pickles has taken a public snipe at the "experts" who have been advising the government and the "experts" (The Environment Agency) have been bitching that that ministers are ignorant and have denied them sufficient funding to do the dredging in the first place.
Meanwhile, homes and property are destroyed and lives are risked............

[Garry]

Like the Northern hemisphere, we have been getting wild weather.  Hottest on record and in the last weekend big grass fires all around where we live with a few houses burnt down and stock lost.

We have one additional problem, our current government and Prime Minister is from the Global Warming denier camp. so they are scrapping the Carbon Tax and removing some areas from the World Heritage listings so they can either be logged or in the case of the Great Barrier Reef, have spoil from dredging for a new harbour up north dumped within the reef area. 

Some of us just shake our heads and hope for a change in the not too distant future.

Garry

[Flyair]

Garry,

in other words: since something must change, it would be easier to change Prime ministers that the climate... at least in Australia, I suppose

By the way... do you remember the film Flood? I am not determinist, but, for once I can say that it has something prophetic...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790665/

[Flyair]

Meanwhile, homes and property are destroyed and lives are risked............

Colin
I was actually wondering how is your business, since as far as I remember you are quite close to the river, although London should not be affected, at least so they say...
 

[JamesL]

If Colin gets hit, gawd help us! The river loops north of him and should flood the Playing fields, golf course and Kew Gardens first
He's based just north of the L of "Lower Richmond Road"
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Kew+Gardens,+Richmond,+Surrey,+United+Kingdom&hl=en&ll=51.468873,-0.295687&spn=0.036197,0.099134&sll=-37.80682,145.031007&sspn=0.091819,0.198269&oq=Kew,+surrey&hq=Kew+Gardens,+Richmond,+Surrey,+United+Kingdom&radius=15000&t=h&z=14

Upstream is a mess however. Devatstating for people's homes and livelihoods.

[stickandrudderman]

Indeed, as JamesL has pointed out, I don't think I have to worry just yet.

[Flyair]

Even the MB World Silverstone Circuit in Surrey got wet...

[Flyair]

An article in ClassicCarsForSale mentions the sad effect of the recent flood in the UK

here is the link

http://www.classiccarsforsale.co.uk/news/general/800023320/?utm_campaign=CCFS-Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=01112013-Newsletter&utm_content=Lead-story&cm_ven=ExactTarget&cm_cat=CCFS_NEWS_FRI_210214&cm_pla=CCS_Newsletter&cm_ite=Lead+story&cm_ainfo=&att1=&att2=%%__AdditionalEmailAttribute2%%&att3=%%__AdditionalEmailAttribute3%%&att4=%%__AdditionalEmailAttribute4%%&att5=%%__AdditionalEmailAttribute5%%

[JamesL]

Wraysbury - a couple of weeks back