You don’t like the weather?
Just wait 15 minutes.
That was the line in Calgary when I was growing up. Since then, I’ve heard the same comment about the weather in many places, often with the timeline shortened.
15 minutes? Hah!
Here, wait just 5 minutes.
Talk about your indomitable competitive spirit:
- Taking pride in things that we have no responsibility for or control over
- Taking a perverse pride in conditions that aren’t actually desirable, where worse somehow becomes better
On the other hand, changeable weather does offer more options for a photographer on a hilltop near Derry. A photographer bored with the neolithic burial site.
Almost hidden by the weather is/are one of those long loughs that penetrate deep into Donegal. By the time the tide has poured in over sands heated by the sun — yes, it happens sometimes — even the North Atlantic is swimmable.
Jim T
Jim – LOL. I hadn’t heard that about Lough Swilly, but I did hear of people who swim in other loughs year-round. Our guide clearly thought they were crazy – not in August, necessarily, but in every month from October through May, perhaps.
Jim
I don’t know about Ireland but tell ya what…I lived in Newfoundland for a couple of years. The more-or-less north Atlantic water that runs by the city of St. John’s doesn’t typically get much about 42F…that’s way to chilly for me to even dream of swimming in there. May be swimmable for some, but not for this laddie, even when I was in my prime!
Tom
Tom & Jim – A better geographer than I could make better sense than I can of these maps showing the relative proximity of the Gulf Stream to Newfoundland and Ireland. I think it’s the case that the Gulf Stream warms Ireland more than it does Newfoundland. Having spent all my life in a continental climate, I continue to be amazed by how much sea temperature matters on land.
Isabel
Memories of living in Newfoundland are that the Gulf Stream flows off the west coast of the province, more in the Corner Brook area, and the waters are considerably warmer there. But St. John’s is stuck right out in the most easterly part of the province where the waters are…brrrrr….colder than a mackerel’s nose.
Tom
Tom – And the winds come all the way across the Atlantic from Iceland? Greenland? Nowhere warm, that’s for sure.
Seen one burial sight, seen one too many.
But here’s my chance to talk about the six Ottawa tornadoes. I had no
idea it was so bad, for we only had a few plant pots topple over.
The next day, I look on the Ottawa Public Library site and saw
that 20 branches were closed due to power outages. My first thought
was — who could possibly be targeting libraries? Who, not what — and
then somebody called to see if we were all right and told me about the
terrible damage.
Barbara – Yes, but someone might have been targeting libraries. You Never Know.
The idea of a tornado (let alone six) striking Ottawa was as remote as sidereal time, that I could believe in a learning moment in grade school and dismiss as irrelevant for decades. Until I saw the damage reports mounting, I could hardly credit the first reports. I am very glad to know you Ottawanians escaped the storm.
Laurna – Yes, it was news to me, as it were, that Ottawa could have tornadoes. I hope that’s the end of it for a long while. And although the injuries and loss of property and damage to businesses (some are closed, awaiting repairs to their buildings) is significant, at least no one was killed.