Bloody Weather

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Fed up with constantly complaining about the rotten British weather, Paranormal editor RICHARD HOLLAND puts things in perspective with some examples of meteorology gone mad.

The British are often accused of talking too much about the weather. And it’s a fair cop, because we do. When we’re not moaning about it. Considering the fact we have a mild climate and don’t have to put up with typhoons, tornados, blizzards, drought or earthquakes – at least not very often – this may seem absurd. I guess we’re obsessed with the weather because we never know what it’s going to do next, and despite millions of pounds spent on meteorology, it remains stubbornly unpredictable (moaning about inaccurate weather reports is almost as popular a pastime as moaning about the weather itself).

After two particularly lousy British summers, we’re complaining more than ever, so I thought it would be fun to dig out some reports on really weird weather. Twenty years ago, when I first started seriously researching the supernatural, I turned my attention to an obscure old journal called Bye-gones, published in the years before World War 1, which contained many nuggets of paranormality from Wales and its border counties.

In an edition of May 1889, for example, I found this snippet: ‘In Cardiff it was noticed that after a fall of rain, pools of water in the thoroughfares were tinged with red – the effect of what is known as “red rain”. In past generations this appearance produced the gravest alarm, a fall of so-called “bloody rain” being regarded as a sure precursor to plague.’

This Feature can be found in Paranormal issue 30 still available for purchase. For subscription information simply click here.

[Sources include: Volumes of Bye-gones dating from 1886-1910; Some Medieval Cases of Blood Rain by John Tatlock (1914); Phenomena by John Michell and Robert J M Rickard (1977); newscientist.com; sursock.blogspot.com; Deseret News (Salt Lake City) Aug 26, 2006.]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.