Horrific gusts put the wind up Mayor Tim, column hints at excess

Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt says he braved record-setting winds over England as he prepared to promote Southland’s potentially profitable pigs to European investers.

Our globe-trotting ambassador hinted at the drama in his Southland Times column on the weekend – but it’s taken an eagle-eyed and tenacious Southern Squall reader to get the full story.

We don’t usually do this – and our self-centred arrogance means we are entirely unlikely to do it again – but we’ve decided to print an only slightly abridged/messed-about-with-by-us version of the story our reader discovered.

Thanks, reader known only as “Ratepayer Concerned at Local Government Excesses, Including Dubious Trips to Norway”. You’ve just made Squall history (and our day with a minting wee yarn).

From our reader:

I have a possible story for your excellent blog site. It’s a followup to Mayor Tim’s Hotseat column in The Southland Times and a comment contained therein, viz:

“The first 45 hours of the journey were spent flying or trapped in airports because Heathrow was closed by a storm and 160-knot winds.”

Our reader went on to say he he is, when it comes to Timothy Richard Shadbolt, the eternal sceptic. 

He Googled Heathrow and associated sites but could find nothing to suggest or otherwise imply any weather-related closure of Britain’s most famous airport.

He happened upon the Met Office web site and fired off a query enquiries@metoffice.gov.uk and addressed it to “Dear Met Office Recipient Person,” who turned out to be weather desk advisor Dan Horseman.

Mr Horseman, in his book, instantly established himself as a top guy. He replied beautifully and thusly in an email on Nov 22:

“It has to be said that it’s a rather outlandish claim made by Mayor Timothy Richard!

“A gust of wind of 160 knots would have been a record for the British Isles, putting the current maximum of 123 knots to considerable shame.

“Indeed, England’s own (wind speed) record is a paltry 103 knots. As you’re no doubt aware, the weather is a perennially hot topic here and I would have thought that an incident such as this would have been mentioned to me at some point but, alas, I cannot recall hearing of it.

“Just in case I’ve been suffering from amnesia in the past fortnight or so I took the liberty of checking the METARs for Heathrow between the 10th and 15th November.

“For the uninitiated, a METAR is a report produced by airports every half an hour noting the current conditions, including the wind speed and direction. During this period the highest reported gust was 45 knots at 15:20 on the 14th; not insignificant by any means but falling rather short of the 160-knot mark.

“Out of curiosity and a desire to be thorough, I had a scout around online to see if I could find any references to Heathrow being closed recently; a newsworthy event when it does happen, naturally.

“The only mention I could find of this happening this year was in February due to almost four inches of snow.

“On the basis of this information, I think we can narrow it down to two possible conclusions:

1) Either (Mayor) Timothy is quite correct but, unfortunately, no-one else noticed the airport closure, the incredible wind or any of the damage that it would (have) inevitably caused;

2) or the story is a touch exaggerated.

I shall let you decide which seems (the) more likely. I hope this has been helpful. Kind regards, Dan.”

Our reader is in the midst of doing serious business with the whole ICC so he eschewed dispatching his findings to The Southland Times in a letter to the editor.

He did, however, tell several of his friends in what he calls the dissident community, which apparently has its own bush telegraph.

Later, he learned a reporter had been in touch with council finance man Dean Johnson who apparently said “the pilot” said Heathrow was closed and that Tim must have misheard – or misunderstood – the windspeed so, at that time, cited.

Goodness. The Squall team hope the work of our correspondent will serve as a warning to anyone else planning some in-print exaggeration: someone (someone much less lazy than the Squallers) is watching you.

Mayor Tim exaggerate? Who would’ve thought!