Eastbourne Youth Radio has been supported by Weather Front Ltd since 2002. This project is part of the Eastbourne Education and Business Partnership which aims to provide links between Education and Business.

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The Eastbourne Youth Radio is enjoyed by all schools in the Eastbourne area. See www.eyr.org.uk

“EYR is not about giving young people a chance to play at being radio presenters. It is about giving them a platform for practicing a whole range of skills and talents, useful in all walks of life, whether it’s writing, researching, interviewing, performing, organising material, or just having ideas and seeing the results”, writes Tim Sorensen who manages EYR each year.

Sing a song of seasons! Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer, fires in the fall!
(Trad Childrens verse; Anon)

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We have all enjoyed a very warm September (written in 2006), one of the warmest ever in fact and it will no doubt come as a shock to us when as we move now into October the weather starts to deteriorate, as indeed it must. As the calendar moves from September’s Autumn Equinox with its balance of equal days and nights, October it is the traditional time when, as the nights draw in, those with gardens start to gather up the leaves, prune back the bushes, clearing the vegetable patch, removing bedding plants from borders and flowers from pots and hanging baskets.

All the garden waste can then be removed to the compost heap or, if dry enough, piled onto a traditional bonfire. The British countryside is still full of the always nostalgic smell of burning leaves and wood smoke curling up into the late afternoon sky, on

Young people aged 5-19 from across Eastbourne and Hailsham delivered three days of fantastic programmes on Eastbourne Youth Radio last week.  These included a wide range of music, interviews, drama and competitions. Live performances included several college bands, soloists and a stunning musical showcase.

As always, the organisers, Eastbourne Education Business Partnership, are truly grateful to everyone that helped to make EYR happen for the ninth successive year.  In particular, to the lead sponsors The British Wireless for the Blind Fund (www.blind.org.uk ) and The Weather Shop (www.weatherfront.co.uk), to the schools and colleges for over 55 hours of programmes and finally to Sussex Downs College for giving up their studio space for the 3-days once again.

One of the most obvious things you might expect about the climate is that it has a habit of righting itself; that is for most periods when the weather has got set into a warm dry pattern there will be a definitive break from this; a prolonged period of rather wet unsettled wetter weather can result and you can certainly say that about the weather recently!

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Summer rainfall is not especially useful generally as it tends to run off the soil rapidly without sinking in and so does not increase the water table in the long run. Equally, it can cause flash flooding where large volumes of water pile up and cause damage, both to crops in rural areas and, of more concern, across urban areas especially in valleys and near to floodplains. Given this possibility it is as well to be prepared for such eventualities. If you think you are likely to be affected by flash flooding then you should take precautions before the event if possible.

You can purchase flood

We all know the lyrics to the Xmas nursery rhyme:

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat, Please to put a penny in the old man's hat;
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do, If you haven't got a ha'penny then God bless you!

I wonder how often we stop to think about what they really mean though? The lyrics of this song were to associate the Christmas feast with geese which were traditional English Christmas fayre. In this case the meaning that was conveyed to a child (or anyone else come to that) was that the festive period was where each should give to charity, according to their means...even if they could only give a blessing! Fair words which still have meaning today I think.

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A lot of nursery rhymes had an original meaning far beyond those which children would appreciate though. Quite a few were weather related. From 'Mother Goose' we have: An icicle lives in winter,dies in summer, and grows with

Whilst we tend to think of avalanches as being a hazard likely only to be encountered in exotic mountain resorts abroad, in fact they are just as likely, given the right conditions, in the UK.

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Although overshadowed by the severe weather in France & Spain on the 24th January, there was a dramatic mountain rescue attempt in Scotland that same day, when a major rescue operation found three climbers who were lost after an avalanche on the Highlands mountain Buchaile Etive Mor near Glencoe. Though the climbers were taken to hospital in Fort William in a serious condition they all sadly died later, from the effects of the avalanche.

Avalanches are more common in this country than you might imagine, as we often see the kind of conditions that precipitate them. With the popularity of winter climbing and off piste skiing greater numbers are at risk and each year people are killed or injured in

Case study 1 Tropical Maritime airmass

This is probably the most common air mass that affects the British Isles, and it can do so at any time of the year, reaching it from near the Azores in the mid Atlantic Ocean, with low pressure to the north west and high pressure lying over France. Winds are south westerly and may be quite strong in winter. Having formed over relatively warm waters, it is also relatively mild or warm and very moist, at least in its lowest layers. As it approaches south-western and western parts of the British Isles it usually gives a lot of cloudy, damp weather with sea and hill fog. Although in winter it often stays dull and cloudy at low levels as the air mass crosses the country, in the summer insolation may be strong enough to dry out the air and warm it up

If we were to sing carols that started

In the balmy winter, all around was fine,
Christmas carols were sung outside,
Coats off, holding glass of chilled wine,
Not a touch of frost nor snow around, could be a-spied
In the balmy winter, so very mild and dry...

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..we would probably all be up in arms very quickly and I doubt it would be a very popular number (not least for its poor scanning!).  The fact is we expect our carols to talk about bleak hard frosty winters with plenty of snow around.  It's certainly not the weather that would have likely been experienced in the 'Holy Land' around Christmas time, indeed it's not often the weather we generally experience here around the Christmas period. Most winters are green and only up in the north east of Scotland does the chance of a white Christmas start to increase significantly.

Look at some of the other

Last year in August we gave some advice as to how to react to flash floods. It seems a long time ago now, with a very different situation then to the one we now find ourselves in. Last summer we had a very dry July, with hose pipe bans in force in various parts of the country, especially in the south east. The worry was that any heavy

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August rain from thunderstorms would not be able to drain into the ground, as it was too dry to rapidly absorb excess water and so would run off, causing the potential for flash flooding. Now, whilst the ground is very moist the problem is more or less the opposite. It is so saturated in places that it cannot accommodate any more water and so will run off again, causing the potential for flash floods but also due to the high level of the water table at present, rivers and their tributaries are running at very high levels and are not allowing further substantial volumes of water to be carried away downstream, as they normally

It's late autumn and the Native American Indians on a remote reservation in South Dakota asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild.
Since he was a chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn't tell what the winter was going to be like.
Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared.
But, being a practical leader, after several days, he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, 'Is the coming winter going to be cold?'

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'It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,' the meteorologist at the weather service responded.
So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared.
A week later, he called the