It's raining

Rain. Manchester's known for its rain. When I first left home, moving just 100 miles or so further south, colleagues used to laugh at me for always turning up to work with an umbrella - even if the sun was shining. There, in the east Midlands, you could predict the weather pretty accurately. It didn't always rain. Here on the wet, west side of England, you can expect rain more often. And particularly in Manchester where the prevailing winds bring rain clouds in off the Irish Sea; these then break on the first line of hills and dump their cargo on the city and surrounds.

Apparently, we're going to get more of it as the winters get warmer and wetter.

I've just watched a TV programme showing what rain did to Boscastle, a picturesque village in a narrow valley somewhere near the coast in south western England. Within hours, flash floods destroyed the place, sweeping cars into the sea and knocking down centuries-old buildings.

Rain. Floods. Tsunamis. They seem to be this week's theme.