The Weather Report

Since I'm English, it's about time I talked about the weather! Specifically I was interested in the word climate. We all know that, at a very basic level, it's colder up north than it is down south. This is all due to the angle of the sun when it hits the earth. If your country only gets a glancing blow from the sun, it's going be rather chilly! Climate reflects this fact. It derives from the Greek klima, meaning 'slope'. Once scientists worked out that our planet was round, they applied the idea of the slope relating to the sun to define seven different bands around the known world as the seven different climates.

Perhaps less scientifically, they associated these with the seven known planets of the time (which, by the way, influenced why we have seven days in a week).

While I'm on the subject of the weather, have you ever wondered why most weather vanes have roosters on them? Apparently, in the ninth century, the pope decreed that all churches should mount a rooster on their spire as a symbol of St Peter who denied Jesus three times before the rooster crowed.