Morning, Surbiton. It is eclipse evening, and the forecast has just done us a favour: not a cloud in it. Everything you need is below — when, where to stand, and how not to hurt your eyes. Then tomorrow, the hottest day of the year so far.
The eclipse: everything on one screen
Starts 6.17pm · deepest 7.12pm · finishes 8.06pm. Just under two hours. At its deepest about nine tenths of the Sun is behind the Moon — the most we have had over Britain since 1999.
Look west, and look low. At 7.12pm the Sun is only about nine or ten degrees above the horizon — roughly a fist held out at arm's length. By the end it is a degree or two up, minutes from setting.
Clear skies. Both forecasts I check say zero cloud from five o'clock until after ten. That almost never happens. It is going to be visible.
Where to stand. Yesterday I asked if anyone had a spot with a clean western horizon and nobody wrote in, so here is my own reasoning rather than a survey. The problem is not finding sky — it is finding sky near the ground, and in a town of terraces and mature trees that is genuinely hard.
The obvious answer is the river. Stand on the Portsmouth Road side and the Thames gives you a clear run west with nothing built on it — the one place round here where the horizon is guaranteed open at the height the Sun will actually be. Failing that, anywhere with a long west-facing view and no rooftops in the way: the open parks, a top-floor window, a hill that faces the right direction.
A back garden that faces east will show you nothing at all, and you will not be able to tell until it is too late to move. Worth checking which way you face before six o'clock rather than at ten past seven.
⚠ Do not look at it. Not through sunglasses, not through a phone camera, not through binoculars, and not just quickly. Nine tenths covered still leaves a tenth, and that tenth will burn the back of your eye without hurting at the time — there are no pain receptors in there, which is exactly why people damage their sight during eclipses.
Two safe ways. Eclipse glasses marked ISO 12312-2 — and if they are creased or scratched, bin them. Or the pinhole: prick a hole in a piece of card, stand with your back to the Sun, and hold it so it casts an image onto a second card. You will see the bite taken out of the Sun, safely, and children can do it themselves.
If you get a decent photograph, send it over. There will be a good one in tomorrow's issue if there is a good one to run.
Tomorrow is the hot one
The Met Office amber warning for extreme heat covers us from 8am until just before 11pm tomorrow, Thursday. It has gone up again overnight: the two forecasts I check now say 35 and 36 degrees. Today is no joke either at 32°C, but tomorrow is the one to actually plan around.
The practical bits, in the order they matter. Move anything strenuous to early morning or after eight in the evening. Take water with you even for short trips, because the buses and the trains are the worst of it and that is where people come unstuck. Check on anyone elderly on your road, particularly in a top-floor flat that has been heating up since Monday.
And the bit people underestimate: it stays about 20°C overnight. A hot day you can sleep off is survivable. Two hot days with a warm night in between is what actually makes people ill. Get the house cooled down tonight while it drops, and shut it up early tomorrow before the heat gets in.
Best of Surbiton: nominations are open
Something new, and it needs you rather than me.
We are running the Best of Surbiton awards. Eight categories, nominated and voted for entirely by the people who read this — which is to say, by the people who actually use these places. No panel, no judges.
The eight categories
Best pub · Best coffee · Best place to eat · Best takeaway · Best hairdresser or barber · Best tradesperson — builder, plumber, electrician, roofer · Best estate agent · Best dentist
To nominate, just hit reply. Tell me the category and the name. One line is plenty — “best coffee, the one on Victoria Road” will do it and I will work out the rest. You do not have to do all eight; most people will have strong feelings about two.
Nominations close Sunday night. The ballot goes out on Monday, voting runs for a week, and the winners are published at the end of the month.
One vote each. Votes are checked by email address and duplicates come out before anything is counted. Every business in town has staff and a family, and that is not the same thing as being the best.
New this morning — the K4 is on diversion. Roadworks on Villiers Avenue have put it both ways via Lingfield Avenue, Maple Road and Claremont Road. Towards Chessington it is missing everything from Cheyne Hill to Surbiton station; towards Kingston, from St Mark's Church to Cheyne Hill. TfL logged it just before nine and has not put an end time on it.
Everything else is running. K1, K2, K3, 71, 281, 406, 418, 465 and the S3 all on a Good Service.
Ewell Road. Thames Water's signals were meant to finish today; a second permit now runs today into tomorrow. The council's works there go to Friday, and the cycle scheme continues underneath both.
Until Friday. Raeburn Avenue signals, Manor Way, Tolworth Road. Kingston Road's signals come off tomorrow. Elmbridge Avenue runs to the 18th.
The A243 is a mess towards Chessington. Four sets of temporary lights now: Bridge Road (off tomorrow night), Chalky Lane and Fengate Close (both emergency Thames Water, to Friday) and Fairoak Lane (to Saturday). Add ten minutes, more in the heat.
⛅ Weather. Hot and completely clear today, 32°C, and still around 31°C at seven o'clock — which is warm for standing about outside watching the sky, so take a bottle with you.
Tomorrow: 35 to 36°C and the amber warning. Friday eases to somewhere around 30 to 32°C with some cloud, which will feel like a reprieve and is still a hot day.
That is it. Go and look west at about seven, through something safe, and then drink some water.
And if you have a favourite pub, coffee, curry or plumber in this town — hit reply and put them in.
Have a good Wednesday,
Mike
Surbiton Daily · a short email every morning about our bit of south west London. Written for the 601 of us who read it. Got something for tomorrow? Reply to this email — every reply reaches a person, not a robot.