'We'll Weather the Weather'

.

This weekend is the Shabbington Steam Rally...it is run over the Saturday and Sunday.

So, with all this talk of rain and showers, I thought to check the weather forecast and choose the best day to go.

Saturdays forecast here...was heavy rain from midday onwards.

.

.

In fact we hardly had a drop.

OK grey sky's and a bit of drizzle but not heavy rain. Had it been a 'One day do' on Saturday, based on their forecast, I would not have gone. But in fact it would have been a 'reasonable' day out.

This 'making it sound worse' has been going on ever since The Great Gale and is upsetting a lot of businesses.

The problem is also being compounded by television weather bulletins. You see it all the time: the newsreader turns to the weatherman; they exchange fatuous remarks about the 'typical British summer' just because it might rain in one area.

This perpetual negativity is damaging the reputation of the UK.

In Blackpool, tourism leaders have begun posting their own forecasts on YouTube after research showed that four in five Britons would trust local weather information over a national source. Alan Cavill, of Visit Blackpool, said: "They said it would rain today and I haven't seen a drop. The prospect of good weather makes a big difference to our visitor numbers."

On the first Bank Holiday weekend in May, hotels, chip shops and ice-cream sellers in Bournemouth suffered a 25 per cent drop in custom, after the Met Office incorrectly forecast rain, resulting in 25,000 fewer visitors than the 100,000 it was expecting on what turned out to be its hottest day of the year.

A few crazy facts I came across in the news:-

High-street clothing chain Peacocks said its sales of Wellington boots rose 41 per cent in the last week of July compared to June.

Asda, says it saw a 65 per cent rise in sales of oxtail soup in July compared to June, but a drop of two-thirds in sales of sunscreen.

B&Q said it almost sold out of barbecues by the end of June, but that customers had "retreated indoors" during July, prompting a 19 per cent increase in sales of paint and wallpaper. (Wise Herb?)

And a dittie to finish before I scoot off to Shabbington......

Whether the weather be cold

Or whether the weather be hot;

We’ll weather the weather ,

Whatever the weather,

Whether we like it or not.

.