UK Hammered, not in a good way (New Peter Sinclair Video)

I first interviewed Dr. Alun Hubbard on the edge of the Watson River in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland last summer. His vivid language and lucid storytelling made that video on of the most popular in the Yale Series. (see below)

Both Dr. Hubbard, and my Dark Snow Project cohort, Sara Penrhyn Jones, live in the tiny village of Aberystwyth, on the coast of Wales, and teach at the local university. I skyped with Alun a week or so ago in the midst of the storms hammering the area. Shortly after that he wrote me to explain that his roof had just blown off in hurricane force winds....

Read the rest HERE, and this is one of two videos on Peter's post:

More like this

tiny village of Aberystwyth,

The 'village' of Aberystwyth (population about 16,000) is larger than the Canadian 'city' (population 12,000) I now live in.

It is no stranger to storms - when I lived there I saw storm-tossed pebbles on the road behind 4 or 5-storey hotels. The panes of glass in our living room window could be seen bending when it got windy.

By Richard Simons (not verified) on 25 Feb 2014 #permalink

Hello! I filmed some of the footage and can confirm that Aberystwyth is a small (lovely) University town. I know that we all have different definitions of small/large & hamlet/village/town/city etc, but in the UK we wouldn't call Aberystwyth a village! The holiday 'village' (above) is a caravan park, basically! I'm sure that it is also great in better weather conditions….Anyway, I think Peter Sinclair did a great job with the video!

By sara penrhyn jones (not verified) on 27 Feb 2014 #permalink

Yes, the definitions are more of historical than demographic or geographic use. In Minnesota, almost every bit of land exists in a city ... "city" is the smallest governmental unit. Up north, our cabin is near the "City of Longville" which has 271 people living in it. Where I grew up, in New York, you could have a "town" within which could be a denser settlement called a "township" unless the settlement was too small, then it could only be a "hamlet." So, ironically, thinly settled Minnesota has 853 cities, while high-population New York has 62 cities.