Letter from America: Please give me good old Yorkshire weather

The topic of weather is often in the minds of British people wherever we are, and is often used as a way to introduce ourselves to others and as a good conversation point.

How many times have you met someone and was the weather the first thing you mentioned? It's a natural opener in any conversation. But it affects us in some way, wherever we are in the world.

Often we tease it. I remember a sketch of comedian Peter Kay. He runs around with his hands and says, “Speezing, spitting out.” But it explains our approach to the weather. We can tease it as British, but it can have a serious side and potentially devastating.

Here we are frequently asked about the UK weather here in the US. I didn't care about the weather in Yorkshire. When you grow into it, you take it and find a way to work with it.

But now that I'm here, I see the weather in Yorkshire and the big difference between the southern Georgia I am in and the rest of the country. The “extreme” weather in the UK is important for some, but you will not reach the height you do here and the damage caused throughout this country during various periods of the year.

Since sometimes some of the extreme weather events happening here are shown on British television, you may have seen some of the problems that the weather has caused recently.

Over the past six months, there have been some severe weather events that have hit parts of the country very violently. Six months ago, Hurricane Helen emerged from the Gulf of Mexico (not the Gulf of America!) and caused great damage to North Florida, East Georgia, and North Carolina.

I had a friend who lives in Asheville, North Carolina, and in a beautiful place on the state hills, the idyllic, picturesque town was truly devastated in every respect, with hundreds of square miles of surrounding forests. It takes years to partially recover from what happened in the hours after the hurricane died.

The Hurricane Road was first to go where I live, but in a short time before I came here it moved east of Atlanta and we were spared the damage. It was an extreme weather event, but today there are even more results.

The forest was flattened, and the trees lay on the forest floor, dead and dried. The area is currently on fire due to a very dry period over the past few months. North Carolina's 10,000 acres of forests are on fire now. Football pitch is about an acre, so think about how big the area is!

The fire destroyed much of California earlier this year, destroying more than 1,000 homes. The Tinder Dry Forest was on fire for several weeks, but in total it covered the area equivalent to the entire North Yorkshire.

Now it's a big area. Imagine everything from Skipton to Scarborough On Fire. We managed to put out the fire after weeks, so somehow it was just as devastating that it continued.

Tree roots had no cohesive effect on ground stabilization, as they had dying and dying, with soil studs packed together on steep hillsides. The mud was then washed down the hillsides and violent muddy storms appeared in areas that had been devastated by fire. Like North Carolina, one big problem leads to another. Double Wammy of these communities.

A few weeks ago, it developed in the southern part of the country west of Mississippi and began to follow our path. For two days, the TV weatherer gave us predictions about where it was heading and when it would arrive there.

This was a heavy rain and tornado line. Then you will quickly learn the difference between a hurricane and a tornado. The first is a powerful rotating storm that forms on warm water with winds above 74 mph, the latter a violent rotating column that touches the ground and attaches to the base of a thunderstorm with winds of 300 mph. Both are potentially catastrophic.

After watching the track for almost two days, we arrived in the Metro Atlanta area shortly after midnight. We recommend having a torch or flask of hot drinks and moving everything from the deck or patio. If possible, go to the middle room in the windowless house. Sleep was non-stars.

My cat, Moggy, was hiding under the bedspread. Luckily, my house was not affected. But a few miles west of me, a tornado hit the ground. It was measured to be 200 yards wide and was tracked for 11 and a half miles. Imagine what damage it caused. Fortunately, that doesn't happen in Yorkshire.

But now we are obsessed with pollen season. It has not been experienced as it is here in Yorkshire. I've never suffered from allergies and the fever in the hay was never an issue for me. But it's completely different here.

Recently, pollen numbers have been higher than recorded dates back 35 years ago. Everything changes to fluorescent yellow/green. It covers not just a little, but everything. You can write your name in it, it's so thick. My black cat went out and rolled over to turn yellow! But it's a snapshot of the weather on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. The weather in good old Yorkshire is sometimes good.