Blue skies over London

London continues to experience the wettest Summer in living memory. It's hard to believe that after 18 months in the UK we're finally seeing traditional English weather. West of London flood waters continue to rise. Almost 150,000 homes now under water making it the worst flooding in 60 years.

Yesterday I managed to spot blue skies over London. I was sitting in seat 6A on British Airways flight 950 to Munich. As we broke through the cloud above Heathrow the sky was a dazzling blue. Sadly, this is likely to be the only such sky we'll see this week. England has already had nearly two-and-a-half-times its normal rainfall for this time of year. This will definitely be the wettest July on record by month's end.

This evening two major rivers, the Thames and the Severn, are well above normal levels. Experts expect them to burst their banks within 24 hours. More rain is forecast and more severe flood warnings have been issued. The drought that greeted us in December 2005 is definitely over!

I spent yesterday afternoon in Kitzbuhel celebrating my niece, Nicole's 5th birthday. It's hard to believe she is already five years old. I joined my parent and my brother's family at a wonderful restaurant in St Johann. The weather was very warm and pleasant in Austria and the same today in Munich. However, a major thunderstorm came through Barvaria this evening delaying my flight home by more than an hour. This made for another long, tiring day of international commuting in planes, trains and taxis.