The English language has a lot to answer for. Or maybe it's the way some people's sense of humour is wired up. Because as soon as friends knew I was working on this issue the lame quips started - 'Whither weather?', 'Weather or not?', 'Feeling under the weather yet?' Oh dear...

But it was a small price to pay in exchange for getting the chance to tackle a subject that has been close to my heart for as long as I can remember.

As a child, daytime was when the weather 'happened'. Waking after a summer night's inky sleep, the first thing to register was the morning air moving across skin. If it was dry, it seemed to reach down your pores and suck the moisture out. And if humid, the first prickle of perspiration would begin. We dragged our lightweight beds out into the open during the summer months in those days.

But that would change with the arrival of the mighty Indian monsoon. You smelt it damping down the dust first and then saw the clouds roll ever closer and a wall of rain advance. I'd be waiting outside, along with all the other kids in my neighbourhood, itching to get a good soaking. There'd be much shrieking and rolling about in mud, with my parents scolding from the safety of their verandah.

Once it had settled in, it would rain for days on end and the streets would begin, slowly, to flood. After a couple of days of grudgingly cycling through knee-high water, school would eventually be postponed. Saved from the tedium of the robotic regime at my school, I'd retreat into a novel, while all around the rain kept thrumming. At that age the plight of my home town's slum citizens whose makeshift dwellings afforded little shelter was far from my mind.

Living now in European climes, I am fascinated by the unpredictability of the weather. You never quite know what you are going to wake up to - even if, like me, you watch the weather forecast as if your life depended on it.

Recently I also find myself looking uneasily for other omens in the weather - along with millions of people around the world who share that unease. Because, of late, it's been doing strange things. More so than usual, more violently than usual, with a much higher cost than usual. Perhaps more unsettling is the knowledge that we know why this is so and that we are probably responsible. Whereas day-to-day predictions often leave egg on the weather forecasters' faces, longer-term trends seem to be confirmed with each passing year. Our lives could well depend on the forecast.

Gathering storm
Whilst the weather turns, the politicians bluster. Dinyar Godrej examines the changing weather, the lies and the fat cats.

Hail and high water
Viv Quillin inspects some control-freakery.

Catastrophe!
How the weather changed the world's destiny. David Keys reports from the Dark Ages.

The fight for food
Devinder Sharma explains how farmers in India cope with the monsoon's tricks.

Seasons of the mind, storms of the soul
The influence of rain or shine goes deeper than we may suppose, according to Dr Trevor Turner.

WEATHER - THE FACTS

Breathtaking
Nicola Baird eavesdrops on the rainforest's song in the Solomon Islands.

The cost of cool
No sweat means much waste in the world of high finance, reports Michael Peel.

Future is now
The toad's alert and other signals from a changing planet.

Smokescreen
What's the World Bank doing fanning the flames of global warming in China? Kate Hampton investigates.

And now for the weather.
Cartoonist P J Polyp's forecast for the 21st century.

Action

Letters
Letter from Lebanon
Update
The NI Interview with Marzieh
Reviews: plus Michel Foucault classic
NI Crossword
Endpiece: by Ben Skelton
Country profile: Saudi Arabia

FRONT COVER PHOTO: UNCHARACTERISTIC DROUGHT STRIKES THAILAND.
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