Weather Coverage Reaches Saturation Point

It was interesting to watch Sky's coverage of the weather this weekend, an interest sparked off in me by the news that Hannah Thomas Peter (that's one person not a folk group) was in Christchurch. Dressed in a pink salmon coat Hannah was telling the nation about the dreadful weather down here and how we were all rushing to make sure our boats hadn't slipped their moorings but the story didn't exactly convey the whole truth.

I was at Mudeford a few hours before the Sky crew, they were in Christchurch at the time a mile or so up the road from whence I had come in fact, and the reason there was so much water everywhere wasn't all down to the storm - it was high tide. Conspicuous by their absence from any television coverage were any locals - apart from one windsurfer at Steamer Point who looked like he'd just seen Jaws chasing after him across Christchurch Bay - surely Sky weren't scared of somebody actually pointing out that this happens every November around this time? The Quomp in Christchurch isn't so named by accident it is low lying and subjected to regular flooding - the word Quomp appears to be peculiar to Hampshire (Christchurch was in Hampshire until 1974 and most people from outside the area think it still is) as there are also Quomps in Lymington and Ringwood. Come back next November Hannah, it will be flooded again.

The biggest news story in our area wasn't the weather but the lack of surfers off the recently opened £3 million costing reef at Boscombe. I asked one of the surfing 'community' why there weren't any Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze surfer dudes out there (what a great film Point Break is) and he said the current was too strong. Honestly, leaves on the line, wrong type of snow and now the tides too strong for surfers!

And what's all this about 'bad flooding' - show me an example of people being flooded out of their homes and subsequently waving and cheering in sheer delight and I'll eat my Sky dish. Apparently it was the worst storm of the year so far, surely that would be news in June, not November.

Still, onwards and upwards.....talking of which, chapeau, as they say in France, to these two dudes - no worries about the wrong sort of weather down in Sussex.