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Issue:-
03 January 2013
Please note that this edition
has been published late on the Friday, due to New Year Holidays,
sorry for the unusual delay.
Rain and High
Winds over Christmas 2013
OVER Christmas, the UK was
plunged into chaos as wind and rain battered the country. Merseyside
this time was not as badly affected as some parts of the UK. Some
damage reports of the results of this Christmas storm were received
by us, one of them being the large Snowman in Formby Village that
was sadly blown over and had to be removed the following day. We
also had reports about some power cuts over parts of Southport. If
you had been affected by the storms, please let us know by emailing
us to:-
news24@southportreporter.com.
Before the wind over Christmas.
After the wind over Christmas.
Quadrantids put
on a fiery display in the sky
KEEP an eye out for the
first meteor shower of the year, called the Quadrantids visible
across the Northern Hemisphere, cloud does not close in. Sadly if you did not see the
peek of the Quadrantids shower that happened on 2 January 2013, when
around 80 meteorites per hour, would have been able to have been
seen seen streaking across the heavens above us, don't worry. It will not be as
good, but you still have time to see some of the show, as it normally finishes around 12 January 2013.
Quadrantids are often missed by stargazers as the peak intensity
only lasts a few hours and is one of the lest known periodic meteor
showers. If you want to see it, look at the Plough, otherwise known
as the Big Dipper or the Saptarishi. It is easy to locate this
constellation as it is easily recognized. People should concentrate
their view around the nearby bright star Arcturus. If you get any
good photos or if you spot it, do let us know. One astronomer told
us that:- "It is a shame to think these objects are heading to
a fiery end after a long journey, but what a fantastic end!"
Did you spot
Santa?
WELL Santa is back home now
and his Elves are enjoying a well earned rest after another
Christmas Eve marathon trip. We hope you enjoyed our Santa Watch
Live
WebCam and that Father
Christmas got to you ok. If you did not see him we have this 24hr
time lapse clip from the webcam for you to view. We hope to have the
Cam back in action for you for Christmas 2014, and are in contact
with the big man in red for his help. We would like to thank
EmailSanta.com and also all the
other sites we have been linked with this Christmas. Did you know
that Santa has to go 3,000 times the speed of sound and deliver 822
homes a second! So his reindeers are pulling the sleigh at a
staggering 650miles a second! So a massive thank you to Father
Christmas for slowing down so our WebCam could glimpse him as he
passed on by, delivering to an estimated 1.6 billion children on
Christmas Eve.
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We can also say that well done to
NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command), who this year
handled an estimated 12,000 emails and more than 70,000 telephone
calls from more than 2 hundred countries; thanks to all the NORAD
staff volunteers. They have been doing this since 24 December 1955,
when they placed an advert in the USA, in a Colorado Springs'
newspaper in which they invited young readers to contact Santa...
Christmas Lights
raise cash for Charity
A local Formby resident was
lighting up his house for Charity this Christmas. This is nothing
new and many others do this, but we had been told that we should
take a look, so over Christmas we popped round to the house located
on Beechwood Drive. The house, each year, raises cash for
OCD-UK, which is a rather
overlooked charity. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental
health condition which affects a person's ability to function
normally because obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour.
Shockingly, according to the charity, based on current estimates for
the UK population, there are potentially around 741,504 people
living with OCD at any one time. Add to that the fact that upward of
50% of all these cases will fall into the severe category, with less
than a quarter being classed as mild cases. OCD-UK is the leading
national charity, independently working with and for almost 1
million children and adults whose lives are affected by the
condition. Well done to the owners of this house, who are pictured
above for putting on this display and shining a light on OCD in
Formby.
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