Shropshire Star

Peter Rhodes on puzzling weather, recurring words and the high price of medical curiosity

I may have stumbled across an explanation for the Great British Weather puzzle. This, from the BBC Weather website: “While it has felt chilly, the statistics for the first half of April actually show that it has been warm.”

Plus
Published
A reminder of what a warm spring feels like

In other words, it's either a chilly sort of warm or a warmish sort of chilly. Moving swiftly on . . . .

Research from Germany suggests that as we grow older, our definition of when old age begins grows later. Thus, a generation ago old age was reckoned to begin at 71 but now the agreed figure among older folk is 74. This presumably means we remain middle-aged until our mid-70s which in turn suggests we expect to live to 140. The figures may be dodgy but you can't fault the optimism.