Beautifully sunny day, with only a few clouds in the sky. It's still windy, but this should gradually subside through today. It did rain overnight, but it can rain as much as it wants in the night.
Speculation is rife about an impending general election, although nobody knows why it should have to be called now. Gordon Brown did take over from Tony Blair in June, but the Labour Party's mandate for government still has 2½ years to run.
Typhoon Krosa has hit Taiwan, as I reported in a separate entry. Electricity supplies are down, and people are hunkering down, waiting for this category 3 system to pass into China. The Special Olympics in Shanghai are preparing for a swipe of this system, although it is expected to be weaker by the time it reaches there on Sunday or Monday. Typhoon Lekima, which struck Vietnam earlier in the week, has apparently claimed 17 lives there. It was a of category 1 strength.
It is 50 years ago this coming week, that a fire at the Windscale nuclear processing plant in Cumbria [Northern England] threatened the United Kingdom with nuclear disaster. There was tremendous pressure at the time to produce material for a nuclear bomb, pressure which led to an erosion of safety standards. Permission was granted to turn water onto the inferno, although there was a risk of an explosion, which could have covered the nation in a cloud of radioactivity. It never happened. Read more here. Windscale was renamed Sellafield in the wake of the 1957 near miss. It is now being decommissioned.
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Gloomy and wet here in my part of Washington this morning, with temps in the mid 40's. Brrrrrr. I guess two days of sun in a row is too much for Mother Nature in October. There's lots of snow coming down in the local mountain passes...the skiers are getting their boards out and patiently waiting for the ski resorts to open. Traditionally they do not open until the third week of November, so with this early snow it will be interesting to see if they hold to that this year. Linda in WA
ReplyDeleteWow I never knew about that...thank you for sharing....June:)
ReplyDeleteNever knew that, although i am pleased its been decommissioned.It started to rain here at teatime, but it did not spoil the day.
ReplyDeletehugs
Katie