~o~
Wednesday 1st 46F/8C. Dark grey, very wet and stormy. Up to 50mm/2" of rain is possible today. With winds peaking at 24m/s/54mph gusts this afternoon. Warnings of potential flooding conditions and high tides. Happy New Year?
9.00 Up at 8am after waking at 4.00 and monitoring the clock at intervals. A miserable 61F/16C in the room. I have just lit the stove. It has taken a full quarter of an hour to fire up despite multiple firelighters! I have loads of smaller strips and chips of beech. So now I've brought a basket full indoors. To dry them out thoroughly. For when the stove needs a quick boost to a recalcitrant fire.
The wind is whistling through the gaps in the lean-to greenhouse. The adjoining front hall is cold and very draughty. The trees and hedges are bending and waving in the wind. The drive is reflecting the dull sky from standing water. As it creeps gently downhill towards the house.
9.30 Room up to 63F/17C. I can already feel the heat of the stove on my back and my neck.
10.30 Morning coffee over. Room temperature is up to 67F/19C. Tomorrow's forecast is all day sunshine and light winds. Cold though, at just above freezing.
11.20 The wind is getting even stronger. It has ripped a corner panel out of the greenhouse! Clear polycarbonate rather than glass thank goodness. The top half has vanished. I have re-fixed and clipped the lower half. Moved the remaining logs on the floor onto the stack against the house wall. I have found the missing panel. Lying on the ground beside the Morris in the back yard. I hope it didn't hit the car! It might be sensible to silicone that panel into the greenhouse framework. It is most vulnerable to suction from high wind speeds passing the front corner. Sometimes exceeding the ability of the greenhouse glass clips to retain the panel.
It may be better to let it lie rather than going outside. It is raining hard and the wind keeps whistling loudly. It hasn't even reached its forecast peak yet. That comes between 15.00 and 16.00 this afternoon. The wind is from the south west. From which there is little or no shelter. Thank goodness I didn't clip the hedges and huge shrubs to the west yet. They must provide some protection. The temperature in the room has dropped several degrees. The highest wind speed so far has been measured south of us at 31m/s. That's 68mph!
15.30 44F/6.7C. Getting dark. The wind is still blowing but has stopped whistling on gusts. The drive is one continuous puddle. Almost as far as the gate once hung. There is no risk of flooding from that source. Because the flow rate is so low to have taken this long to reach this far. There is no standing water on the back field to suggest flooding. I don't need to go outside to check. It would be visible from reflecting the sky.
The DMI show my location on the edge of a transition between different gust speeds. Judging from the current conditions I think they are being unduly pessimistic. It is certainly not still but there is little movent in the trees and hedges now. I should refit the panel in the greenhouse to protect it from the overnight cold. It was very windy inside the greenhouse earlier. When I went out there for more logs.
The upper panel is back in place. Everything is soggy outside. With the ground soft and puddled. Still blowing hard. Eyes and nose streaming. I managed to find enough clips to hold it overnight. There should be loads of spare clips but I have lost them. I'll search again tomorrow when it is light.
The polycarbonate replacement is very flexible compared to glass. So it may have bent enough under wind suction on the corner to escape the clips. Mechanical fixing makes sense. Since polycarbonate, unlike glass, can tolerate drilling and bolting. Perhaps clear silicone sealer would be better and neater in the longer term.
Toast beckons for dinner. Probably mackerel in tomato sauce. I haven't used the new oven for grilling yet. I must have become overexcited. I forgot to take a picture. What a day!
~o~
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