It’s Raining

This is a good thing. A very good thing right now.

When we arrived in Nethybridge you could see the low hanging smoke that was still rising from the remnants of the wildfires here, one area reignited yesterday too, this is far from over.

But through the night and, as I type at 9:11am, it’s been raining steadily. This is the forecast for the day and it’s very very welcomed here. There is an area still closed, local businesses are suffering into their third week of closed doors and lost revenue.

Last night I went out on my bike for a quick spin and part of my route —from Nethybridge to Tulloch— took me through a lovely little forest. It was quite startling to then come across a firebreak, a huge swathe of the forest destroyed, trees felled, shrubs and heathers, even the peat layer, all reduced to nothing but some dirt and rocks.

A visceral reminder that climate change is very very real and, I fear, this is only the beginning of things starting to change.

Looking to the South of England in a heatwave, record temperatures again, and seeing the reaction on social media to be a swathe of articles about installing air conditioning in homes, and I sit here and shake my head in disbelief.

We need to be more radical with how we tackle this, and that needs to come from the government AND the people.

Anyway, for now, it’s raining and even if it is a hyper-local one, it’s still bringing a small sigh of relief.