Tag: weather and climate
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Drowned valleys: the villages flooded for reservoirs in the age of big dams
From Capel Celyn to Mologa and the Lost Villages of the St Lawrence, I mapped the 100 places Wikipedia records as flooded by reservoirs. Most went under between 1930 and 1979, just as the world’s dam building peaked.
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Does rain keep Britain at home?
Every UK general election since 1945, seat by seat, against the rain that fell while the polls were open. Wetter seats saw turnout about 0.1 points lower per millimetre, but with only 22 elections that is not established, and there is no sign that rain helps any party.
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Does Parliament notice disasters, and whose?
I counted, month by month, how often the House of Commons named the places of 64 UK disasters between 1910 and 2020. Attention jumps to 10 times its usual level in the month of a disaster and mostly fades within the year. Bigger death tolls bring more attention, but less than in proportion.
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Where the sun sets into the sea: sea sunsets and sunrises at the beaches of Britain and Ireland
I traced the Sun’s path from 1,717 beaches in Britain and Ireland, day by day: 47% see the Sun set into open sea on some day of the year, only 52 every day, and islands like Arran and Lundy take a bite out of the year.
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What are the odds of a white Christmas where you live?
Every Christmas Day from 1940 to 2025 in 116 UK towns. Snow lay on about 1 in 11, from never in Bournemouth to most years in the Highlands, and white Christmases arrive in a few big years.
