Put any two Englishmen together in a room, they say, and their first topic of conversation will be the weather. With good reason: English weather is so variable. A cynical remark, often repeated, refers to four seasons in one day.
It has to be said that February's weather is worthy of mention. Extreme it was; variable it was not. Town, villages and farmland the length of the country were inundated with once-in-a-century rainfall and flooding for the second or third time in a decade. Television news bulletins showed images of rivers that had lately been streets, lakes where crops were now drowning in their fields, islands where there once had been rolling countryside. In some places emergency flood defences succeeded in holding back the floodwater—flimsy metal frames festooned with blue plastic sheeting along river banks, sandbags stacked in doorways or dedicated permanent barriers installed after recent flood events. In other places they failed. They River Severn spilled over its banks in Shrewsbury, rendering the town a virtual island.
In south Yorkshire the River Aire encroached upon untold acres of farmland and the unfortunate villages of Snaith, East Cowick and others. Chillingly, television images from these villages told a longer story. On the far horizon the grey cooling towers of Yorkshire’s Drax coal-fired power station loomed, ominously reminding us of the cause of it all.
February gave way to March. In like a lion, in keeping with the old adage, but now there was a new worry. The corona virus was finding its way across the world from China and had reached our shores. On March 5 it took its first English life, and it was clear that it would take many more. In common with other lands around the world, special measures were put in place. Pubs, restaurants and, eventually, schools closed. The old and vulnerable were advised to stay home for safety. The advice soon became an instruction, and extended to others. I need not elaborate. It will be a familiar scenario to all. The roads and streets are now empty of floodwater: and of people too.
