The wind is really picking up at the moment and there’s lots of talk in the press about the effect of various hurricanes and their tail-ends. Global warming is said to be the cause of much of our erratic weather and true or not we do seem to get a lot of wind these days.

Windy weather always makes me think of two things. Beans and loose slates. Beans because I’m just a kid at heart and school boy jokes never go away and loose slates because I for one always check my own roof any time there have been gales.

Loose slates and tiles go completely unnoticed until a gust of wind dislodges them, usually in the night. After a very windy night you can walk along most pavements in London and see the pieces of slate. If you don’t check your roof over after a storm then the first time you know that you’ve lost a slate is when you start to see a damp patch on your ceiling – and by then some damage has already been done.

I am always surprised that more people aren’t hit by falling slates in London or perhaps I just don’t hear about it as I don’t work in a hospital. I does seem to be that the worst of the wind comes at night which is lucky if you’re tucked up in bed.

Of course not everyone can see their own roof from street level so if it needs ladders get a roofer to have a look for you. You shouldn’t venture up on to a roof if you don’t know what you’re doing as the tragic story of the comedian Rod Hull who fell off his roof and died demonstrates.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 12:03 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.