Hang on to Your Hat – Winter’s Coming
Hang on to Your Hat –
Winter’s Coming
As you might recall I have shifted myself to the sea edge and I am now very interested in sea level rise, waves and storm fronts on the radio. Well Scottish scientist are helping me in my search for better and more security from the battering the winter will bring They have a new system which enables them to predict the danger zones when vast waves batter coastal communities. It could prevent people from being swept out to sea.
Heck of a Wave
Those bright boffins at the University of Edinburgh have been studying the way waves collide with sea defences and cannily have identified patterns in the way that sheets of water crash over the top of harbour walls, sometimes at speeds of up to 100mph. Ah, they must have been down the bottom of my garden.
Freaks of Nature
They want to make a statistical programme to forecast where the huge weight of water will slam down as it collides with sea walls, buildings and cliffs. They hope this will allow them to recommend safety measure to reduce deaths at the sea side in rough weather. Each year across the UK some 12 people are swept to their deaths after going out to the coast to watch stormy seas or being caught by freak waves.
Improved and Improving in Times of Change
All this info will be used to protect people and property, like us, by improving the design of sea defences, which were not built to withstand the increasingly violent storms brought by climate change. You see as soon as it gets stormy, a lot of people go out to see the spray and get into trouble without meaning to. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency, which deals with coastal flooding, welcomed the report after a year which has seen tragic deaths in Scotland including Aberdeen’s Julie Walker, 37, and her son Lucas, six, who died on the city’s coast during strong winds, after high tides and surging waves across all of Britain.
New To Us
Well the terms improved and improving in times of change certainly apply here at James Pirie. Sad as we were to see the demise those lovely people at Border Fine Arts we have scoured Scotland to fine some fine goods to be good enough to grace your hearth and your friend’s and family’s homes. The Just Slate Company and Shearer Candles are just such stuff - the right stuff. By the way a Norwegian friend of mine said that the word stuff is originally Norwegian and that Stenhousemuir is perfect in his language. Great!
