and the sun turned black....

[durham light infantry]

Anyone else think of this?

 

[Tim Dubya]

Take a thunderstorm for instance, every mirror in the house had to be covered " just in case a thunderbolt came down a chimney" We never found out what would be the result of the aforementioned thunder bolt seeing its own reflection. Just one of many precautions that had to be taken to guard against the calamity that would surely befall the household if ignored.

 

Guy

That was a common one on my mother's side. I was told it had happened once, knocking a teaspoon out of a cup as it sped towards the backdoor.

[Horsetan]

I think someone's just bought a new sky & they haven't read the instructions yet on how to change it from the default sepia setting....

 

"Sky: believe in better."

 

Oh wait, hang on....

[russ p]

It got properly dark here about an hour earlier than normal...weird

[Edwardian]

In the middle of the day it was very dark inside the house and we were walled in by sepia fog

[Gwiwer]

Having recently returned from 17 years in the world's most bushfire-prone region I am accustomed to the effect of smoke on sunlight and of the particular smell of burning bush.

 

I was surprised to both see and smell the same this afternoon in London. The news media suggested the dust cloud was due to the uplift of Sahara sand (not at all unknown in the UK) but I definitely, if faintly, got that smell of burnt trees. Turns out the conditions were due as much to Portuguese bushfire smoke as Saharan sand.

 

As the sun finally lost the battle so the sky turned an eerie shade of yellow with silver-grey clouds scudding through at a lower level. It seemed that everyone and their dogs were out filming it. It felt like a massive rainstorm was imminent but there was no rain. Wind reached gusts of 30mph or so but all has now cleared to a pinky-orange sunset and afterglow in a largely clear sky.

 

Different. But by no means the only time I have seen this in London. The smell of smoke was unexpected however.