While other parts of the world, from the United States to Pakistan are seeing flooding the UK is experiencing one of the worst droughts we have seen in the past century. The BBC reports today that British Waterways is shutting down canals, such as the Leeds-Liverpool canal due to the drought conditions. Other restrictions are in place, including a hosepipe ban which is affecting millions of people and even with the rains a few days ago, the drought conditions persist. While many are in a drought in the UK, sky lanterns can still be used, provided they are used responsibly.

Here at NightSkyLanterns.co.uk we recognize that a drought can cause things to be more flammable than they normally might be, however; our sky lanterns are safe to use even in the driest conditions when used per the included instructions. There are a couple things to be extra sure about before proceeding though to assure a good flight and a proper landing. Your floating lanterns use a flammable heat source to float so extra care is necessary during takeoff to make sure the flight goes smoothly.

Assessing the wind direction before launch will let you know which way your paper lantern is going to want to go after you launch it into the night sky. You will want to make sure that there is at least a quarter mile of clear launch area prior to any trees or buildings coming up to give the paper lantern a chance to float up as well as a way. If the winds are blowing strongly, you probably will want to wait for another night to launch the lantern anyway as high winds will carry the lantern away much quicker, can make lighting the lantern more difficult and can actually damage the paper lantern itself. If the winds are mild and you have a quarter of a mile or more of flat area before anything rises up, your launch will be successful. Just light the fuel cell and allow the floating lantern to fill with warm air and when its ready to take off, watch it go.

If the launch is successful, which it will be if you followed the instructions, from there you have nothing to worry about from your sky lanterns. The fuel cell will extinguish itself in the air and there won’t even be any residual heat once the night sky lantern softly lands. On top of this, all of our Chinese Hanging Lanterns are wire free so wherever they may land, they will not do harm to livestock that decide to try to eat them. The lanterns are biodegradable and will be completely gone within a couple weeks and even less time if we get the torrential downpours we all are hoping for and need. Our Eco lanterns and our traditional Chinese lanterns are both wire free designs that use different technologies to achieve their wire free status. Either way, you are using a safe, well engineered product that with proper precautions can be used safely during this 100-year drought we are having in parts of the UK today.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 2nd, 2010 at 3:48 PM and is filed under General News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.