Singing (and Dancing) in the Rain

Thanks to Hollywood and John Grisham, most of us now know what a 'rainmaker' is, which is to say a person who brings prestige or business to an organisation through their contacts and past associations.

Sort of like a sacked British

Foreign Secretary becoming a paid consultant to the airline industry, if he escapes a prison sentence.

The term rainmaker was taken more literally in bygone days. In 1915 the city of San Diego in California hired a man called Charles Hatfield to bring an end to a devastating drought.

"I do not make rain," said the self-proclaimed 'moisture accelerator', "I simply attract clouds, they do the rest."

As it turned out, Hatfield conjured up epic floods, and a year later he had upped his previous price to $1,000 per inch of rain. Hardly enough to get your shoes wet, especially if they are high heels. Which mine aren't, by the way.

Sometimes great thinkers aren't as idiotic as their actions would suggest.

Alexander the Great once visited the Greek philosopher Diogenes, and found him sunbathing atop the barrel in which he lived. (See what I mean?)

Alexander, at that time the most powerful man in the world, asked if he could do anything to help Diogenes. (Build him a house, springs to mind.) Diogenes said, "You could stop blocking my sunlight. I think it might rain later." Was this an oblique reference to the fact that Alexander might be a moisture accelerator?

Rain dances, or 'weather modification rituals' were performed by many American tribes, including Hollywood personalities.

I'm sure the older citizens among us have watched in astonishment as Gene Kelly danced up a wall as if he had wings on his feet in the film Singin' in the Rain, while singing the title song, as if we hadn't already noticed what he was doing. ("I'm singin' and dancin' in the rain!") Okay, got that, Gene.

I recall that 'Rain Dances' was a 1977 studio album by the English rock band Camel -- which is a surprising combination, given that I'm pretty sure a camel needs -- or encounters -- very little rain. Or no rain.

Where I grew up in Scotland, raindrops kept falling on my head, and 48 hours of nonstop precipitation was jokingly referred to as "the weekend." When the Eurythmics released their song 'Here Comes the Rain Again', it became our local anthem. There are more hooks about rain in songs than you'd find at a Peter Pan convention. Rain's fascination for us is at least partly owing to the fact that it is one facet of nature that we cannot completely control.

We can cause limited rainfall by seeding clouds, but we cannot prevent natural rain from reaching the ground -for one thing, too many buckets would be needed. Better, by far, to buy shares in umbrella companies. And umbrellas.

According to data collated by the American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Torrevieja is one of the worst towns in the province in terms of air quality. Orihuela, on the other hand, is one of the best.

The Air Quality Index is measured with factors including particles, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, and sulphur dioxide, and others, and from all the indices calculated for each of the pollutants, the one with the most unfavourable value is selected, and it is precisely this value that is taken as the air quality index at the time of the study.

After analysing the different polluting parameters in several locations across the province, Torrevieja and Elda, are the municipalities with the worst air quality. The Air Quality Index (AQI) runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern. For example, an AQI value of 50 or below represents good air quality, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality.

Torrevieja had a score of 79 while in Elda it was 52. In both cases, the air quality is acceptable, although there may be moderate health concerns for a small part of the population, those sensitive to ozone, who may experience symptoms of a respiratory condition.

Another of the conclusions that can be drawn from the measurement is that Orihuela is the municipality with the best air quality in the entire province of Alicante. There the values ??reached by the polluting agents reach the lowest index of all the measurement stations placed by the Alicante geography.

In Orihuela and Elche, Alicante, Pinoso, Alcoy and Benidorm, the values of polluting agents do not exceed 50 in any case, so it can be said that the air quality in these municipalities is satisfactory and does not pose any risk to the health of its inhabitants or it is very small.

It should be noted that one of the ways in which air quality can be improved is to reduce pollutants, which is entirely the point of the new low emissions zones which should have been implemented at the start of this year under European and Spanish legislation. Other than putting a proposal to public tender, Torrevieja town hall has not progressed any further with this plan, as they claim they are awaiting clarification on a number of points, points which other towns, such as Benidorm, have not struggled with.

You can check the AQI and PM2.5 measurements, in real time, on the website, https://www.iqair.com/spain/valencia/torrevieja

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