Dear Reader
YOUR chances of being caught up in a natural disaster are slim but that will be of little comfort to those in Dubai this week who had flown in for what they hoped would be a sunny break.
There’s been nothing like it since records began in that part of the world 75 years ago.
Some of the pictures were almost apocalyptic and would have given Biblical literalists a lift.
Less well publicised was the tsunami alert on Wednesday in Indonesia after eruptions at Ruang Mountain, pictured, sent ash soaring thousands of feet into the air.
Officials raced to evacuate people from the region and closed the airport.
Meanwhile, the spire, shaped as the tails of four dragons, on top of Copenhagen’s old stock exchange came crashing down following a ferocious blaze.
The Dubai downpours, during which a year and a half of rain fell in a single day, make one think twice about using the phrase ‘guaranteed sunshine’.
And although the theory that cloud seeding — whereby chemicals are released into the atmosphere to produce water from clouds — has been ruled out, it’s still a case of be careful what you wish for, not least because this practice in the United Arab Emirates is all about increasing rainfall.
Perhaps less meddling with the natural world might be in order. Then, again, we’re the best country on Earth when it comes to accepting the weather we’re given.
I was in the Scottish Borders last week and it rained every single day. And as if to cement the idea that there are some things over which we have no control, when we woke on Saturday morning and started packing, the sun was shining defiantly from a clear, blue sky.