The UK’s festival season started in a downpour with the lovely Sunrise Celebration cancelled on the first day as the site flooded and ended with a
mudfest at the Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight where 30,000 revellers and organisers bravely made the most of a very very wet weekend – never could Bestival’s fancy dress theme have been more appropriate – it was “under the sea” (doh!). Whilst Glastonbury escaped with only a little rain – and in fact was said by many to be a vintage year and mostly sunny, other festivals were not so lucky and it will come as no surprise that weather in August has been some of the wettest ever in Britain and this has continued into September. As the USA was battered by Hurricane Gustav and tropical storm Hannah, here the month began with severe weather warnings across Wales and the North East of England and the forecasters predicting more and more rain – with the weather maps of England, Wales and Northern Scotland covered by a sea of blue – only Northern Scotland escaped. Northern Ireland has had it’s wettest summer since 1914 and England its wettest since 1992 – and several counties across England have recorded their wettest August since records began, including East Anglia, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Northumberland, Yorkshire and Lancashire. Much of Wales has had its wettest weather since 1992 and sunshine levels are among the lowest on record according to the BBC. Whilst an average Welsh August has 106mm of rain, this year its been 180mm. Wales has been wetter than both England and Scotland, and outstripped by only Northern Ireland, which has had over double its average rainfall. The BBC’s Darren Bett said the town of Leuchars, near Dundee, had recorded over 200mm of rain for August. That was three times the normal amount the town would receive, he said. “That amount of rain happens once every 1,000 years,” he said. The blame is partly put on the jet stream bringing weather systems across the Atlantic being further south. The unseasonal weather affected major events such as the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff on some days. Heavy rain also saw homes being flooded in Aberystwyth and Llanelli, while a school was flooded near Aberaeron. An annual harness racing festival in Ceredigion was cancelled because of bad weather for the first time. So the big clear up at Bestival begins – and one sad side effect was the growing mountain of discarded Wellington Boots at the Isle of Wight ferry port as exhausted funsters discarded footwear before trekking back to the mainland witnessed by your intrepid reporter. Come on peeps – it really is time to adopt that simple policy – “leave no trace” – well at least don’t leave your wellies, tent and big mess – reduce, resuse, recycle. It makes sense and might just keep us all a bit drier in the future!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3599132.stm
mudfest at the Robin Hill Country Park on the Isle of Wight where 30,000 revellers and organisers bravely made the most of a very very wet weekend – never could Bestival’s fancy dress theme have been more appropriate – it was “under the sea” (doh!). Whilst Glastonbury escaped with only a little rain – and in fact was said by many to be a vintage year and mostly sunny, other festivals were not so lucky and it will come as no surprise that weather in August has been some of the wettest ever in Britain and this has continued into September. As the