Way the wind blows

摘要

Like any Englishman, I am always interest-ed in the weather. It is a widespread topic of conversation around the water cooler, whether it's good or bad. This summer was particularly bad - a long, grey, damp season topped off by floods and high winds. Last year was almost just as tiresome, with unending weeks of blistering heat and almost tropical temperatures. News just in from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies suggests that it was not just the UK that was suffering last year. According to the Federation's World Disasters Report, 2003 was one of the worst on record for natural disasters. Nearly 77,000 people were killed, three times as many as in 2002, with almost half of these - an astonishing 35,000 - attributed to Europe's heatwave. In addition, 31,000 died in the city of Bam, Iran following a massive earthquake.