This idyllic scene was ruined by rain just hours later.
We have all seen extremes of weatheraround the world described in various media and the destruction it can wreak on the lives of ordinary people. All too frequently we watch or listen to stories of homes, businesses and lives being lost in the wake of the worst nature has to offer and the subsequent tales of how the survivors rebuild their lives, sometimes against the greatest of odds.
Well, there is a multitude of similar events right here in the United Kingdom, many of which go unreported. On any given day there are literally several people who can have their entire day ruined by sudden and expected changes in the weather. Be it going shopping without a hat or umberella because 'it looks fine out', having a breeze make reading a newspaper outdoors inconvenient or worse: virtually impossible. An unfortunate few will know all too well the peril of having to navigate footpaths awash with puddles up to half an inch deep in extreme cases, wetting shoes and cruelly dampening the hem of trousers up and down the land.
This is not a place where stories of that type of life-changing misery can be shared, this is a place for something or rather someone you won't believe exists... Yes, there walks among us a certain group of people who are willing to put their personal safety aside in the pursuit of just the kind of weather events that have the potential to spoil a barbecue, picnic or even worse, a hurried trip to the shop for milk or cigarette papers. A group of people who deliberately go outside when ordinary folk know it's common sense to stay in unless it's necessary not to. A group of people who are determined not only to experience such events as light rain, steady wind, below average temperatures or fog, but to record them too. For a long time, using specialist equipment such as expensive weather measuring machines made it impossible for many people to record weather as it happens, being forced to simply remember their experiences. A mobile phone camera with internet connection has set these people free. They are THE UK STORMCHASERS and they are going to amaze you...
Wind, rain and fog. A triple whammy for Britain's most northerly point in autumn.
Rain. Outside. Yesterday.
A tree, probably. Blown over by some wind I excpect.