Tuesday, June 18, and from my fairly high bay-window vantage point, a number of notable weather and astronomical observations were in evidence…
The day started off greyish, quickly brightening up through the morning. From late-morning until late into the afternoon it was very humid. During this same period, far out towards the seaward horizon, lay a thick band of brown, polluted air that was quite distinct with the unaided eye, probably arising from the dirty fuel that most ships still use.
Late-afternoon and the sky clouded over. (Mid-evening and the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2 sailed down Channel making for St.Peters Port). Late evening, and very low over the far south-eastern horizon the full moon – minus a day, slowly rose from out the blackness – it probably being the most blood-orange-coloured moon I have ever witnessed in my entire life! Fantastic!
As it slowly rose in the heavens, it was consumed by the storm clouds of a fierce electric storm which radar showed to have developed over the mid-Channel on air coming out of the Cherbourg peninsula, this drifting north-eastwards and clipping Sussex and Kent, there being much intense fork lightning, thunder, a stiffening breeze accompanying the intense rain that arrived just after 11pm, the roads resembling rivers. The storm then slipping away some 40 minutes later. What a spectacle!