Storm warning

A hurricane storm with hurricane-force winds will move across Germany during the next 24 hours, coming ashore near the Dutch border and heading southeast towards Austria. Tonight's forecast for Nordrhein-Westfalen (where it comes ashore; where I was yesterday) is for up to 40 litres of rain per square metre before morning, with winds of up to 120 Kmh. The worst of it should miss us, our forecast is only for heavy rain and winds of up to 85 Kmh. Should be a very interesting time.

Hurricanes in the North Sea, in January? That has nothing to do with global warming, no no no, of course not; and even if it did (which it doesn't) that has nothing at all to do with your SUV. Happy motoring, dude.

Updated Thursday evening so far, all is well down here in the valley. The wind is rattling the windowframes, but neither more forcefully nor more often than in many a previous storm; there hasn't even been much rain. Of course, we are getting the edges of the storm, not the full-frontal attack. We'll see what the night brings.