23C and sunny here in the late morning though they except it to hit 28C here today.

Cheers.

Until Dr Beeching, aided and abetted by a Conservative Transport minister who had 'interests' in road building companies, there was a 'Northern Link', which could have bypassed Dawlish if the need arose. All that the proposed routes seem to be doing, is using links that used to exist, prior to Beeching! Some of the other old links are now used by 'preserved railways/Heritage lines'. My sister lives at Starcross and they don't seem to have the same problems as at Dawlish....I've often stood on the platforms at Starcross and it wouldn't have taken much to have got wet! One suspects that the reason Starcross suffers much less damage, is because the line seems to be higher above the shore, than at Dawlish. Can I also point out, that Starcross also has one of Brunel's Pumping Houses for the Atmospheric Railway of the South Devon Railway. Being something of a cynic, I could say that the reason that Dawlish suffers more disruption now, than in the last 150 years is due entirely to Network Rail not doing maintenance/repair work to the standard needed!!! Naturally, the CEO will continue to collect his massive salary, paid, in part, by me!

---

Don't take life too seriously, as you'll never come out of it alive!

We had a steady drizzle for the last few days. Got things wet, but really nothing write home about.

---

Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Windchill alert for tonight.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Try this,Darned cold. I'm getting a little tired of it.

---

Chicago under wind chill advisory for dangerous temps overnight.

Yep, sick of this.

---

Here we may hit 30C.

Cheers.

Darned cold.

Wow, I am just outside of town and
it is much colder out here. Looks
like it is getting better over the
next few days. One of my boys lives
in the north end of Edmonton and I
could hardly drive down his street
for all the snow and ice.....

---

Here we may hit 30C.

Cheers.

We may hit 30F this Thursday. More snow Saturday.

But first it will be damn cold tonight.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

It's been raining all day over here. Kind of wish it was snow, but hey, moisture is moisture.

---

"Failure is always an option!" -Mythbusters

Only about a .25 of an inch today, but better than nothing.

---

Pluto will always be a planet to me.

Seti Ambassador
Not to late to order an Anni Shirt

Dark, wet and windy @ 8°C

---

rOZZ
Music
Pictures

We actually hit 32C/90F, but the constant easterly made it feel like 27C/80F.

The forecast is for 28C/82F, easterly winds with possible afternoon thunderstorms and showers.

Cheers.

Last night they showed the 8-14 day temperature trend map. It shows a big surge of above normal stretching north from Texas and New Mexico into the plains. Doesn't quite reach this far east, but we will at least have "normal" temps, 30s and 40s F.

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

Woohoo!

Northwest England yellow warning of snow, 11 Feb 2014, 03:00 - 11 Feb 2014, 15:00

---

Member of the People Encouraging Niceness In Society club.

About time too...
I've had enough of this mamby pamby warm wet and windy weather this year, let's have some PROPER winter weather - a few feet of snow, minus whatever it feels like and kill off all these bugs that are going around

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Thames flooding

SW London and NW Surrey are now getting flooding.

Thames levels

The River Severn is about to burst its banks at Shrewsbury

Shrewsbury

They shouldn't have built around the river Thames ;)

---

Although I have to say that it was rather daft to have built a railway line where they did at Dawlish to link Cornwall to the rest of the country. All very picturesque for the tourists but not clever.

"Daft"? It's there for a reason. It was the only way Brunel could achieve the feat in the 1840s when Locomatives were not powerful enough to pull trains over hills, which would have been required should the alternative route been chosen. This would also have involved massive tunneling works, which back then was a very costly undertaking.

History of the South Devon Scenic Railway

In 1843 Isambard Kingdom Brunel was commissioned to build an extension to the Great Western Railway along the South Devon coast. Due to the landscape in the area, he had two options - to build along the coast or put the route through some very long tunnels linking Dawlish to Teignmouth.

He built a system of five tunnels through cliffs and a 4 mile sea wall. When the line opened in 1847 he used a new means of propulsion - the Atmospheric system. But it was expensive to maintain and steam locomotives took over after a year.

---

For those of you in both Aus and the US, this is water, we have rather a lot of it at the moment.

Want some?

I'll pass. It would just add to the layer of ice we are expecting tomorrow and the day after.

---

BOINC WIKI

For those of you in both Aus and the US, this is water, we have rather a lot of it at the moment.

Want some?

Tell me about it!

---

"Failure is always an option!" -Mythbusters