Oxford Flooding

So far, although I could be jinxing it, everyone comments about how aweful the weather is in the UK. Weather is relative, and when you come from the Northwest, after living in both the Willamette Valley and The Gorge, the winter weather here in England has actually been really nice. It's the middle of winter and we are still running outside in t-shirt and shorts, ok maybe that's just Tyler, but either way, the temperature is very mild year round. This is caused by the warm Gulf stream coming over from Mexico, brings warm water, the westerly winds blow over this warm water, and therefore blows warm air across the country, there you have it. "Does it rain all the time?" This also has not been true, as most days are grey in the morning, sunny in the afternoon, and grey in the evening. We did have a week long spell of a 'little' rain in January. This was truly very little rain in comparison to The Gorge, and everything flooded. As you can see in the picture above, our running activities were rerouted during this week.

This picture was taken earlier in the year, shown here as a comparison, Oxford was one big lake. For a country that 'gets so much rain' you would think they would be more prepared for it. Flooding has become more popular in the last couple years, must be that 'Global Warming".

These are communal gardens that are all two feet under water.

Besides that week when it rained, any of you who want to escape the winter in the Northwest, come visit us in England, where the weather is 'nice'.