STORMY WEATHER

STORMY WEATHER

SHINGLESEA

Detective Inspector Sonny Russell was thoroughly fed up with the weather. He’d been sitting in his railway carriage home for two days, watching the rain batter the windows and listening to the wind howl round the stove chimney like a banshee. Fierce gusts had thundered against the little structure, causing the very fabric to shudder. The storm had been relentless for so long he was starting to get stir-crazy. Apart from opening the back door to collect a scuttle of coal from the bunker and to let Aggie, his little Jack Russell, out for a quick trot round the garden, he had stayed tucked up indoors, the stove pumping out comforting heat, while he read, listened to music and dozed.

extract from BLOOD ON THE STRAND soon to be published

COMPASS POINT

Living by the sea I'm very well aware of subtle changes, and not so subtle changes in the weather. I regularly check the weather forecast although I can often sense when a change is coming. The Met office is most sophisticated now but I'm interested in the way that we were warned in the past about forthcoming storms. Fascinated enough to incorporate a signal mast into my narrow gauge railway layout, Compass Point, which was the inspiration for my DI Russell series of crime novels. On the mast a figure is hauling up a storm cone.

STORM CONES

These cones, made of canvas and rope, were used to warn sailors and mariners of expected storms and gales. 

Also, a slightly simpler system of flags was used. Neither as elaborate as modern methods, but interesting and useful, nonetheless.