Weather's memory-man delights diners

Ex-teacher Ian gives an average of 255 talks a year - in an infinite number of variations to suit the circumstances.

He certainly suited the circumstances last night when he was guest speaker at Bexhill and District Gardens and Allotments Society's annual dinner at the Cooden Beach Hotel.

It was his second talk of the day.

Ian has a large garden at his home at Coulsdon, Surrey. Introduced by society chairman Dick Lancaster, Ian was able with ease to put a horticultural slant on what was to prove - in both senses of the word - a whirlwind tour through slides and memory archives dating back to when he first developed an abiding passion for the subject of the weather at the age of six.

Today, the man who accurately forecast a "furious storm" 20 years ago, writes regular columns for newspapers and gardening magazines, is the author of countless books and magazines on his subject and - until axed in August - was the familiar morning voice on BBC Southern Counties Radio.

Facts, figures, dates, anecdotes, scientific fact and weather lore fiction flood out in a ceaseless torrent as, devoid of any notes, Ian delivers his talks.

He had Gardens and Allotments Society members rocking with laughter with anecdotes such as the freak summer chill which interrupted a cricket match when a shivering batsman had to hand his false teeth to the umprire to avoid losing them.

Lest anyone doubt it, he confimed that global warming is a fact with a host of hottest-day, mildest-winters figures but put the blame 60% on Nature and 40% on Man.

His slides ranged from the 17th Century frost fairs when the Thames froze to the winter of 1962-1963 when the sea froze at Eastbourne.

Polar bears had terrified crofters when in 1684 they stepped off freak pack ice onto the Scottish mainland.

Buses were brought to a standstill in Tunbridge Wells on August 6 1956 by waist-deep hail.

He de-bunked much familiar weather lore.

"Cows do not lie down because there is going to be rain. They lie down because they are tired..."

An abundance of berries does not signify the onset of severe winter. Some of the most abundant autumns had presaged the mildest winters and were the product of a dry, sunny summer.

Sussex suffered the highest wind in the Great Storm of 1987 - 116mph.

But Ian had good news for his appreciative Bexhill audience. Because of their position, Bexhill and Hastings are among the sunniest places in Britain.