From Mike Stentiford.
I SUPPOSE, generally speaking, we’ve all had a reminder these past few weeks of just how glorious the early season weather can be when it sorts out its high pressures from its low cumulus and tight isobars.

Indeed, ‘just as I remember it when I was a pup’ has been a phrase commonly in use recently by many of those of a certain autumnal age.

For those of a more serious nature, of course, climate change has also edged its scientific way into the general hum of conversation although, purely from a layman’s point of view, deciding whether it’s all pure fact or remote fiction can be a bit of a tricky coin spinner.

Having said that, the current reality of what 40-plus days of drought can do really should offer pause for thought and edge us into taking serious stock of just how difficult things could, one day, possibly be.

While potato growers seem well on course to make a big loss on ‘Jersey new marbles’, there’s the similar likelihood that livestock are likely to be hugely short-changed with quickly disappearing quality grazing.

Even the fruits of the labouring ‘allotmenteers’ are not nearly as wholesome as they should be, through lack of a thorough soaking. No doubt in a few weeks time, when umbrellas make a possible comeback, this current spell of uncharacteristically dry weather will fade into misty memory.

On the other hand, it might do us all a power of good to, at the very least, give due consideration to the truly serious effects a month-long dry spell could have on a tightly populated Island such as Jersey.

While the majority of us are likely to have very few complaints about endless sunny days, it’s the fickleness of a changing climate that will always insist on there being considerably more losers than there are winners.