Wednesday 07/02/07

Cold night, which saw the moon out very brightly. At the moment, the sun rises at 8.15 a.m. and set at 5pm, which means we've gained 2½ hours of daylight since Christmas. A layer of ice, 3mm thick, sits in a watering can outside, bearing out the overnight low of -2C. A chemicals tanker, the Keewhit, sits stationary off Holm Point for a few hours, until she sails off at 3.30pm. AIS stated her destination as Stornoway, but she did not dock. Snow is set to affect England overnight. Mrs B and myself hang out birdfeeders, because the ground is now frozen. Supper is chicken curry. Watch an interesting program on the cataclysmic eruption of Krakatoa in Indonesia, which happened in 1883. This killed 36,000 people in tsunamis up to 30 metres (100 feet high), which reached as far as the English Channel. Flows of ash which had a temperature of 500 degrees Celsius scorched the neighbouring coasts of the islands of Java and Sumatra. The soundwave of the explosion of Krakatoa was the loudest noise in recorded history, and circled the world seven times. The ash and fumes from Krakatoa caused a temporary reduction in temperatures around the world, for more than 20 years. They created weird optical phenomena, such as green sunsets. I rate it as the worst natural disaster in written history.