Rain or shine? Find out on the web

For a country that's so in love with the weather (why else would it feature so heavily in our telephone conversations, on our postcards, and on our television screens?) we seem to let it creep up on us with alarming regularity.

The recent floods are an extreme example of a weird weather-blindness that provokes raised eyebrows whenever a long hot summer hits ("phew, never seen one of these before") or after a particularly sharp winter snow fall ("what's this white stuff everywhere?!").

It's a peculiar state of affairs. Maybe we just love the weather because we find it so endlessly surprising and entertaining - though of course, there's not much entertainment in seeing your possessions floating down the high street.

Or maybe if we just understood a little more about how weather works, we wouldn't get caught out so often. Let's see.

The first thing to understand is that it's all your fault. According to Prince Charles: "Some recent occurrences such as the BSE disaster and even perhaps - dare I mention it - the present severe weather conditions in our country are, I have no doubt, the consequences of mankind's arrogant disregard of the delicate balance of nature."

Where to start
You can find out what global warming is by visiting the US Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Science Q&A at www.epa.gov/globalwarming/climate. It's one of the easiest and most persuasive explanations of what's going on, which is ironic, really, given the country's foot-dragging over the Kyoto environmental protocols.

Just one look at how the average global temperature has increased over the last 140 years and it'll scare the bejaysus out of you.

Incidentally, while you're waiting to find out who the new US president is, compare their environmental views at www.foreignpolicy2000.org.

There are lots of sites that offer advice as to how everyone can reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but for the bullet points go to the Top 10 Things You Can Do site (www.anr.state.vt.us/events/gwtopten.html) which lists simple measures - like leaving the car at home two days a week - and their estimated effect in terms of pounds of CO2 a year.

Given that no-one can change the world's weather in a day, maybe we should also spend a bit of time understanding why we get the weather we do.

Messing about in boats
For this, it's best to go not to some scientific establishment or research project, but to the UK dinghy racing site - after all, if you were bobbing about in the English Channel on a bit of rubber you'd make the effort to find out what was going on weather wise before the first metaphorical puff of air went into your sails.

The site, at http://ukdinghyracing.com/weather.htm, makes a good fist of explaining the major cloud types and what they mean: cirrus, for example, are light, feathery ice crystals, while cumulonimbus are more of a row-for-your-life kind of a cloud.

For the official angle, try the Met Office at www.meto.gov.uk where you'll find not just details of the UK weather, but of what's happening all over the world. The authors appear to be having a bit of an alliteration frenzy (Okinawa awash! Bethel bombarded! Sweltering in Sofia!) but it's high quality stuff with a solid overview of the UK climate (summaries, long-period temperature statistics and so on) as well as some analysis on the current deluge. Apparently, it was the wettest October since 1903, but you probably already knew that.

The Met site provides three-day forecasts for your particular region, you can 'zoom out' and watch an animation of 24 hours' worth of European weather, or go even further and see us as an invading alien would with infrared images of the entire planet. It's fab.

Fair dues though, you usually need an expert to help you tell your isolated showers from your occluded fronts, hence the popularity of TV weather people, and at www.tvweather.org.uk/index.html you can vote for your favourite, whether they're a blast from the past like Wincey Willis or a modern master like Carl Tyler. Currently, the BBC's Carol Kirkwood is riding high with nearly 22 per cent of the popular vote.

Warm fronts
Depressingly, there's also an extensive gallery of photographs of hardcore forecasting 'action' (hint: most of the photos aren't of blokes). Yes, here there's page after page of women in a permanent fashion catastrophe, standing in front of maps holding one of those little push button things on a cable. It's mind-numbing. Look, there's Sian Lloyd in front of map. There she is again in front of some clouds, then in front of another map.

Bob Dylan of course, once opined that "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows", so for practical forecast-it-yourself advice, there are lots of good UK weather links at www.ukweatherlinks.co.uk/imageframe.htm, including webcams. Here you can see what the weather's like from the Cuillins on Skye with one of the few webcams that actually does anything. There's also a nice local forecast feature where you can search for the weather in your area. No visuals, though.

For images, the BBC is pretty much tops and at www.www.bbc.co.uk/weather there are TV-standard 3D maps of the British Isles, along with a section on what all the symbols mean. You can find five-day forecasts for a range of larger towns, watch a RealPlayer TV forecast, leave a message on the lively message board (we just love to talk about the weather) or learn about weather basics. The most fun, though, is at the DIY section where you can become a 'weather detective' and try to beat the professional forecasters at their own game, or download a five-day forecast weather screensaver.

DIY forecasts
Alternatively, if you trust neither the professionals or their methods, there are various ways you can forecast the weather yourself. Kids will enjoy a visit to the eHow website at www.ehow.com where the advice ranges from the scientifically serious: "Look for the presence of cirrocumulus clouds that are in patches or in widespread layers. This is usually a sign of an advancing, large, unstable weather system", to more personal views like those of Sebastian from Fiji: "If it's foggy in the morning, it will be a nice day." Of course, it usually is a nice day in Fiji.

For those with a suspicious nature (or maybe that should be superstitious) there's always the 'weatherstick'. This so-called nature's barometer is essentially a stick "fashioned from seasoned branches harvested from selected trees growing in the woodlands of Northern Ontario, Canada", which you attach to a convenient place outside, six feet from the ground.

When fair weather is coming it bends upwards, when foul weather's on the way it bends down (so make sure it's the right way up). For £5 plus P&P, it's surely worth a pop. Find out more at www.pma2000.freeserve.co.uk.

Strong stomach?
Try another traditional weather forecasting tool - that old favourite, the pig's spleen - at www.almanac.com/extremes/pigspleen.html where you'll be inducted into the predictive secrets of this unusual performer. And you thought it was just a vascular, ductless organ. Pah.

To see a live animal predicting the weather on the other hand, look no further than Punxsutawney Phil at www.groundhog.org, the animal made famous by Bill Murray's film, Groundhog Day. This is the official site by the way, although a more fun (and more commercial) site can be found at www.groundhogsday.com. The best photo of Gobbler's Knob, the legendary heated home of the groundhog, is to be found at www.stormfax.com/ghogday.htm.

And we didn't mention the Weather Girls' classic song, It's Raining Men (www.1980-89.com/musicvideo/videomoments.html) even once. Nearly.