The case for planting trees to prevent flooding.

Thought Provoking

I missed this article when it came out in 2014 but it makes fascinating reading in light of the flooding in Ireland and Britain at the moment.

Water sinks into the soil under trees at 67 times the rate at which it sinks into the soil under grass. The roots of the trees provide channels down which the water flows, deep into the ground. The soil there becomes a sponge, a reservoir which sucks up water and then releases it slowly.

Read the article for the full context. I wonder why more action on forestation of hills isn’t being done.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jan/13/flooding-public-spending-britain-europe-policies-homes

Red Alert

Achill, Ireland

It’s been stormy the whole Christmas period from a very bumpy landing at Dublin airport to being without electricity most of Christmas Eve. Tonight looks like being the worst of it. Winds are blowing like hell at the moment and it’s much worse in other parts of Ireland.
Happy Christmas!

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At times like this, one needs a great weather app. All of the obvious and most reviewed ones are pretty useless when it comes to showing the forecast for wind. So after trying all of the top ones, I downloaded yr.no. Quite brilliant for showing predicted wind speeds and directions. The only quibble is that the meteorological forecast is in Norwegian.