The Weather

Brits are famous for talking about the weather. Although I'm not British, I have been living here long enough to (gladly, mostly) pick up some of the local habits.

All of which is to say that I have encountered something truly new for me: fog.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I've seen fog before: for an hour or two as the temperatures between air and ground normalised, or in the morning just before the sun burns it off. No big deal, right?

But the whole of England, particularly the south and east, have been under a high pressure system, and we have had heavy, thick fog for three days. Now that's fog. It's not only fog, but freezing fog, so some of the roads are treacherous.

And the weather forecast is calling for more tomorrow (high temperature: -2C, low temperature: -2C), and for it to carry on at least through Boxing Day. If that holds true, we will have had more-or-less steady fog for eight days in a row. Honestly, I'm not sure I've ever experienced any weather for eight days in a row.

Unfortunately for many, this has put a major crimp in their Christmas plans. As elsewhere, maybe moreso, it is common for people to go home for Christmas. But the fog has caused massive delays and cancellations of flights -- British Airways, for example, have already cancelled all domestic flights out of Heathrow for tomorrow. So there are plenty of headaches from the fog.

But the silver lining is that it has provided a different aspect on Cambridge, as seen from the above photo (image copyright Neil Baker*), which I cadged from the BBC Radio Cambridgeshire website. You can see more of them here. Do go and check them out, they're quite lovely.

* I believe that this usage is within the BBC.co.uk terms of service, as my blog is personal, non-commercial use.