Tag Archives: temperature inversion

Saturday 8th May 2010 – Something exciting …

… happened at the footy this evening.

rising ground dew pionsat puy de dome franceIn fact many exciting things happened at the footy – more of which anon – but the most unusual of them all was at about 5 minutes to half time when I turned around and noticed a cloud of water vapour rising from off the disused railway embankment at the back of the ground. It was quite astonishing.

The second half was played through the banks of the cloud that was being slowly blown across the Overflow End of the pitch by a light but steady breeze. All in all it made for quite a surreal .atmosphere for this … errrr … tense game.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire lapeyrouse puy de domeligue de football league franceI say “tense” because that’s exactly what it was. With a Lapeyrouse linesman giving goal kicks against Pionsat when the ball hadn’t crossed the line, throw-ins against Pionsat when the ball hadn’t gone out of play, offsides against Pionsat that were nothing like offsides (I was right level with play – much more than the linesman was), and the linesman coming onto the pitch to threaten (yes, to threaten) Gregory after he had put in a heavy but legal challenge on the Lapeyrouse winger.

And with Lapeyrouse players collapsing like ninepins every time a Pionsat player got near to them and with a Lapeyrouse keeper hurling abuse at the Pionsat attackers all throughout the match, how the referee allowed this game to continue I don’t know. But Pionsat lost 1-0 and it’s the result that counts.

Back home (up here is above the cloud level experienced in the valley down at Pionsat) I discovered why the water vapour suddenly rose like that. All the clouds have gone and there is a clear sky with millions of stars again. We were obviously experiencing the effects of the change of the weather – some sudden temperature inversion and a pile of heat radiation into the atmosphere. It may well be hot tomorrow.

I went into St Eloy les Mines to do my shopping earlier and to my surprise almost everywhere was closed yet again. Of course, it’s May 8th – VE Day – and so most places were celebrating the end of World War II in Europe.

But I made an astonishing discovery. I popped round to Claude and Francoise and ….

  1. the bell push has gone from the front door (there’s a long story about this bell-push)
  2. their letter box has been removed
  3. the European Cardboard Box Mountain appears to have disappeared
  4. their car has gone.

All the indications seem to suggest that they have badgered off into the sunset. How bizarre!

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Monday 21st December 2009 – Temperature inversion is a wonderful thing

When I got back from the Anglo-French meeting tonight, the warmest place was … errr … outside. 7.5 degrees, a whopping 2 degrees warmer than in the verandah, a massive 7 degrees warmer than in the kitchen, and 3 degrees warmer than in my attic.

Yes, we’ve had a sudden thaw. My attention was drawn to it at about 13:00 when I heard a noise that sounded like a railway train passing overhead. I turned round and saw a huge sheet of snow slide off the roof. So I went outside, and it was WARM – the first time it’s been warm for over a week. I was humming and hawing about going out tonight but the thaw decided it – off to the shops before they close and stock up on things that I might need if I get snowed in again.But as things stand I am more likely to sink into the swamp that has been created outside.

And today is the first day in about 100 years that we haven’t had any precipitation. I suppose that that is something to celebrate. But that is truly astonishing for with the temperature inversion we have heavy grey clouds and so sod all solar energy.

Mind you, just now there isn’t a cloud in the sky and it’s totally clear. But of course that’s because it’s night-time. It won’t be like this in the daylight, that’s for certain. I’m convinced that the sun is never going to shine again.

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