Strangest Things

Prompted by the scrapyard thread what's the strangest thing you have seen, in my case as said previously I worked in a steel work back in the 60's when we had the corn beef scare lorry loads of opened corn beef tin were brought to the steel worked to be destroyed they were tipped then a crane picked them up and dropped them in a large pile the pile was say around 50ft high rats were quickly attracted to this free feast very soon the pile of cans was covered in rat's, rat's standing on rat's the whole pile covered in furry bodies.

H

One of the strangest things I've ever seen was a weather event in the Birmingham area round about 1980 (I can't be sure of the exact year). I was working for Lucas Girling at Tyseley at the time, and I'd been on my own in a room without windows. When I came back into the main office area something was different, but what? Then I realised it was pitch black outside even though it was the middle of the day. Everyone was staring out of the windows and asking (not entirely jokingly) if this was the end of the world. The sky stayed black for some time then it seemed to turn green before going back to normal. At the same time there was a massive amount of rain. Some parked vehicles wouldn't start afterwards because water had got right inside their engines causing a hydraulic lock. Fortunately my trusty old Transit just managed to turn over and fire. Does anyone else remember this event? I've never seen anything like it since.

Edited By John Barber 5 on 25/07/2023 11:53:11

I gave Bing a try-out about this storm. I asked about a severe rainstorm in Birmingham around 1980. It responded with the following...

It happened on July 14, 1981, when a record-breaking 58.2 mm of rain fell in just one hour at Edgbaston, causing widespread flooding and damage across the city.

The storm was caused by a cold front that clashed with warm and humid air over the Midlands, creating intense thunderstorms and torrential downpours. The rain was so heavy that it overwhelmed the drainage system and turned streets into rivers, trapping cars and buses. Some areas were submerged under 1.5 metres of water.

The flooding affected many homes, businesses, schools and public buildings, such as the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and the Birmingham Central Library. The library suffered extensive damage to its archives and collections, losing thousands of books, manuscripts, maps and photographs. The total cost of the damage was estimated at £12 million. continued in next post...

Continued from previous post.

The storm also disrupted the electricity supply, the telephone network and the railway service. Many people had to be rescued by the fire brigade or the police from their flooded properties or vehicles. Fortunately, there were no fatalities or serious injuries reported, but many people were left homeless or without essential services.

The storm of July 14, 1981, was described as a “once in a lifetime” event by some meteorologists, who compared it to the Lynmouth flood of 1952 or the Boscastle flood of 2004. It remains one of the worst floods in Birmingham’s history.

Gary you have reminded me of that event we had 6 pumps that were it what was termed 'pump house' it was below ground level and when that storm hit the sump pump couldn't cope with the amount of rain water and it started to flood but fortunately as the pumps/motors were on concrete beds the water didn't damage the motors.

H

If that had happened today, the climate change nutters would claim it was because of global warming !!!!

Thanks, Gary, for that information confirming that it really was "once in a lifetime". But that account doesn't mention the total darkness during daytime which to me was the most strange and memorable part, something which would only be expected normally during a total eclipse of the sun.

The only nutters are the people that disparage the scientific backing of climate change.

Andrew.

Edited By Andrew Tinsley on 27/07/2023 11:45:01

One of the strangest things I experienced involved rain. I was up in the NFD in Kenya and we watched a lone cloud coming towards us, draining rain, you could see it! Then, as it came past it was raining on one side of the road but our side remained dry as it passed, you could reach out and touch it !

That black thunder and lightning cloud that went over the Forth Road Bridge a few years ago

A chap got photos of it

The lightning only travelled around the cloud, lots of rumbling, I think it rained a bit

(Maybe it was an alien spaceship on holiday)

I remember my dad fishing on Ullswater and seeing a line straght across the lake. It was pouring down on one side and bone dry on the other.

Roy

I once had a squall come through in Mid Atlantic that crossed the 45 foot sailboat leaving the entire aft half bone dry and raining stair rods forward of the mast.

Quite a bit of wind in front of it but plenty of time to see it coming and drop the sails.

Martin

A rainbow.

Strange?

It is when only one colour - yellow.

.

Two very odd cloud effects.

1) Flying back to Bristol I think, from Glasgow in the middle of the day we were above a complete sea of cloud right across the country. It was split by a single, nearly straight rift of clear air that would have been well under a mile wide, stretching away Eastwards into the distance.

Whilst I have seen other cloud patterns that suggest very long (miles) wavelength pressure-waves, eddies, shears and such-like in the air, this feature defied any basic physics.

.

2) Late one night, in a clear and moonless sky some distance from any towns, seeing what appeared to be a vapour-trail form. Then three more developed, creating something like the letter 'Pi' in the sky (couldn't resist that), with a diagonal across it.

Vapour-trails? Well, central Dorset is not far from Hurn Airport, and only 70-80 miles from each of Exeter, Bristol and Southampton Airports; but these things developed along their full length not from the leading "end". and there were no signs of aircraft lights. Also they did not disperse in the way exhaust trails usually do, and the entire pattern slowly drifted away, gradually fading as it went.