Why it rains ‘cats and dogs’ — and we have more white Easters than Christmases
... as revealed by Britain’s favourite — and funniest — weather forecaster Philip Eden who has died aged just 66
AS A schoolboy, Philip Eden would boost his pocket-money by writing reports for Luton Council. Officials relied on him to predict which roads in Bedfordshire would need gritting during the winter.
It was a remarkable responsibility for one so young, but then Eden had published his first meteorological paper — in his school magazine — at the age of just nine.
so began the long career of the much-loved BBC meteorologist who died last week at the age of 66 from a form of dementia.
and in this nation of weather obsessives, there are many who will miss the humorous style of a man who once described Mother Nature as a ‘sadistic old crone’.
‘It’s extraordinary when you think about it,’ he wrote in 2006. ‘Even in a comparatively benign climate like ours, we have gallons of water thrown at us at regular intervals, we can be thrown halfway across the country by winds gusting at 100mph, blankets of fog may hide practically everything familiar from view, and we run the risk of being blasted into next week by a million-volt bolt of lightning.
‘On occasion Mother Nature will launch an artillery barrage of solid ice missiles at 50 or 60mph — hailstones — or utterly transform the landscape under a 6in layer of snow.’
Eden was at his most passionate when debunking the claims of the ‘we’ve never seen weather like this before’ brigade.
‘Having spent more than 30 years in the forecasting business, I have become rather proprietorial about the weather,’ he said.
‘I become quite cross when those we charge with looking after the nation’s infrastructure routinely blame ‘‘unprecedented’’ weather when they fail to do their job. It provides a handy excuse for government’s failure to maintain adequate flood defences or the water companies’ lack of financial provision for drought.’
similarly, although proclaiming himself a ‘fully signed-up member of global warming’ — that the planet is warming as a result of human activity — he repeatedly challenged those who routinely blamed it for any unusual weather event. and although often critical of the Met Office, Eden was sympathetic to fellow forecasters facing the occasional backlash, not least Michael Fish.
In May 2003, he wrote: ‘We have poor old Mike Fish’s “hurricane” being aired yet again. Don’t the critics realise that trotting out a bad forecast made in 1987 is a considerable compliment to the skill of weather forecasters during the past 16 years? Has no forecast gone wrong since then?’ His sympathy was perhaps born out of his own experiences of coming under attack.
Born in 1951, his dad was an engineer at Luton’s Vauxhall plant, and his mum was a tailor. Eden only ever wanted to be a weatherman.
HE STUDIED meteorology at Birmingham university before working as a forecaster for the North sea oil industry, where he discovered that his work required diplomacy as well as accuracy.
‘Money was spent at a rate of millions of pounds per day, but when mistakes were made by the engineers the daily log would blame it on “an unexpected strengthening of the wind” or “a sudden increase in wave height” which was not forecast,’ he said.
‘although inexperienced and therefore shocked by these blatant untruths, I had to keep my mouth shut.’
Later, his reputation as a weather presenter was honed first on LBC radio and then as chief network weather presenter on BBC 5 Live.
some listeners reportedly delayed getting dressed until they had heard his morning forecast.
He also wrote widely for national newspapers, with wit, wonder and observations sometimes bordering on the philosophical.
Of one bank holiday weekend he said: ‘the way I always treat this holiday is not to expect anything, so if the sun does shine it’s a bonus.’ Wise words for anyone attempting to predict the British climate, the study of which was a lifelong passion that he was able to share with millions.
Interspersing his forecasts with tit-bits of weather history, folklore and quotations was Eden’s meteorological hallmark so here, by way of tribute, are some of the best . . .
ST SWITHIN’S DAY
WE SHOULD doff our cap to the author of the rhyme suggesting that rain on July 15, st swithin’s Day, will continue for another 40 days. since records began in 1861, there have been neither 40 dry nor 40 wet days following that date. However, research suggests that by mid-July most British summers do settle down to become mostly wet or mostly fine.
RAINING CATS & DOGS
LEXICOGRAPHERS disagree about the history of this phrase but we can easily imagine that, in any large town or city in centuries past, a sudden downpour following a long dry spell would flush out the remains of hundreds of feral canines and felines, leading the more suggestible to believe it had literally been ‘raining cats and dogs’.
In modern use, it denotes rainfall of around 4mm per hour, a steady downpour in which rain bounces off pavements, large puddles form quickly and motorists use ‘fast wipe’. ‘raining stair-rods’, on the other hand, equates to around 10mm an hour, a heavy downpour in which most people seek cover and motorists should use headlights.
A WHITE . . . EASTER
WHITE Easters have been more common than white Christmases over the past half century. these 50 years include a period — from 1953 to 1983 — when Aprils were colder than they have been since, and snow was regularly observed even in southern England.
Flurries were noted at Easter in 1994, 1995 and 1998, but we have to go back to 1983 to find the last example of heavy, disruptive snowfalls during the holiday weekend.
LIGHTNING TAMED
THE risk of being killed by lightning has dropped from 1.6millionto-one in the late 19th century to 13million-to-one today, thanks to fewer people working outdoors. Once the majority of those killed were farm workers. today it’s those playing golf, football, cricket or out jogging.
KILLER GALES
GALES are thought to have caused most weather-related deaths in the British Isles over the centuries, starting with Julius Caesar’s abortive attempts to cross the Channel in a north-easterly in 55BC.
unsurprisingly, given our maritime history, many losses have occurred at sea. Indeed, the Met Office was founded following the loss of 459 passengers on a ship sunk off anglesey in October 1854.
RIGHT ROYAL WEATHER
CORONATIONS and jubilees have a dreadful meteorological reputation. Both the Queen and george VI were crowned on chill, damp days, while Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 was marred by dramatic hailstorms, thunder and lightning.
TORNADO TERROR
WE REGARD tornadoes as rare events in Britain but TORRO (the tornado and storm research Organisation) claims they are reported here on an average of 20 days per year. In May 1950, one particularly vicious spiral in Bedfordshire, caused today’s equivalent of around £1 million worth of damage and traumatised local animals, with reports of one cat flying past in mid-air with paws outstretched.
BANK HOLIDAY BLUES
DESPITE the standing joke that bank holidays can be relied on for poor weather, analysis of the conditions throughout 2000 suggested saturday and sunday were the warmest days of the week, closely followed by Monday. tuesdays were the gloomiest.
INDIAN SUMMERS
THE north-eastern u.s. is well known for high summer temperatures extending until september and american Indians traditionally depended on warm autumn weather to complete their harvest, hence the phrase Indian summer. some claim that an Indian summer cannot come until after the first damaging frost of autumn, sometimes known as a ‘squaw Winter’.