Friday 12 October

After an inch and a half of rain since yesterday, it has finally dried up this evening. There has been much more rain in northeastern Scotland, where a house was partly washed away in dramatic flooding.



Image courtesy BBC.

The first tropical cyclone of the southern hemisphere season (01S) has formed in the Indian Ocean near Diego Garcia, and will move westsouthwest across empty waters far to the north of Mauritius. The northern hemisphere season is by no means over, with typhoon Prapiroon south of Japan and minor tropical storm Patty off the Bahamas. Another storm could be forming near the Lesser Antilles, although 98L is only a very active tropical wave at present.

I have taken delivery of a book "World War One - A Chronological Narrative", which offers an overview of events between 1914 and 1918 / 19. I have a tenuous grasp of the subject, and it's useful to have the greater picture.