Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

Recently China experienced a large-scale outbreak of fog and haze that affected some 600 million people and covered a quarter of its territory.

The deadliest event of the Klondike gold rush occurred in April 1898 on the Chilkoot Trail. Numerous avalanches took place and 65 people lost their lives.

The word tsunami comes from the Japanese tsu (harbour) + nami (wave).

I shall never forget the poor gentleman who once travelled with me on the Channel boat. Only the two of us were on deck as a violent storm was raging. A tremendous gale was lashing mountainous seas. We huddled there for a while, without saying anything. Suddenly a fearful gust blew him overboard. His head emerged just once from the water below me. He looked at me calmly and remarked somewhat casually: “Rather windy, isn’t it?”