piglet

I did find some water in the empty water butt yesterday morning, so yes, a day with rain. The volume of water was about 30-litres from a 30 square metre roof. Hoping my maths is correct, but that's 1.0 mm and that's in a now 4 to 5 week period. Add to this the high temperatures, the baked soil, the geology (solid chalk overlaid with about 30 cm topsoil) and that isn't going far. Looking at the Met Office forecast through to next Monday, it's pretty much less than 5 to 10% chance of precipitation and wall to wall sunshine. So another day watering to keep stuff alive. More pressure on the aquifer. Three local supply boreholes now have Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) orders for action to be taken to reduce the nitrate levels by 2026. Nitrate mainly from fertilizers and given that the percolation rate of surface water through unfissured chalk can be as slow as 1-metre per annum and boreholes here can be up to 75 metres deep, this could be the tip of future problems. As things stand, there is no alternative supply for a largish town. Back in 1980, most borehole water required no treatment other than adding some chlorine for public use. Now, it's going to have to have additional treatment. By the sounds of it, I could already be getting nitrate in the tap water. Nitrates and nitrites are not good health wise. Although rare, by-products like nitrosamines can result in cancer and blood disorders, methemoglobinemia, or "blue baby syndrome". Of course, the stats will say that this is nothing unusual and that last year's heat might have been a one-off. If you've had some rain, that's good, but don't wonder why I find it a worry.

All down to location. Wherever you are, divert some my way. Annoying to hear thunder last night, but maybe a bit of drizzle. Worked out at 1litre per square metre.

You are right about the change in pests and diseases. The last couple of years here has seen infestations of Box Moth and Spindle Ermine Moth caterpillars. Infested bushes and trees stripped to branches. As for fungus, Plum Pocket disease has appeared this year and is well established in the wild populations of plums, gages, blackthorn etc. A reservoir for future years.

Eastbourne has certainly expanded as has Burgess Hill. I walked over to Ringmer yesterday, another expanding "village". Plenty of nearby fields, but one field of maize sown just when the rain stopped, has made next to no growth and is 4" high at most. This is cattle fodder for winter months.

No such luck here. The heavier clouds rolled in from Newhaven and that was that. I could hear the thunder. Bournemouth was lucky to get some. I know your patch of East Sussex quite well and years ago worked with Eastbourne Water Company at Cornish Farm and Wigdens Bottom looking at nitrate levels in the chalk. You might get your water from Arlington reservoir, but here it's borehole only.

With respect, comparing past civilisation's events with today's situation is irrelevant. Those were probably local events - someone will dig out some stats to say otherwise - but more importantly, those civilisations were not causing global changes. Increased population, increased demands on resources, decades of burning oil, gas and coal are making a difference, we, or at least the scientists know that and we are in a position to start to reverse those changes. It's likely that the Mayans would have blamed it on the Rain God, but things have moved on since then.

Well, I had to call it something. It's dry and it worries me. I can see that you are much further North in an area noted for wet weather, or is that just newspaper talk? It's a different story here, fifth week now and no rain. The ground is looking parched, what passes as a patch of lawn is largely brown and won't recover until October, my small pools are way down on water level, the leaves are falling from trees, I'm out of about 1000-litres of stored rainwater. If I don't water every other day, I might just as well not bother trying to grow anything. All that wet weather earlier in the year is a distant memory now. The domestic water supply is from chalk aquifers, no reservoirs. Yes, the levels are good, but more and more development is putting a strain on supply and waste disposal. In these dry periods, local streams rely on treated waste water to survive. Already, pollutants like nitrates are being pulled down because of extra demand. At least half of the local boreholes are affected by nitrate pollution. Last year, I stood on the turf of the South Downs, and other than tree shaded areas, the local patch was brown carpet wall to wall. Of course it doesn't bother some, but it bothers me.

They certainly didn't have the means to measure carbon dioxide accurately at parts per million leveis, but we do now. I'm open to suggestions, but 33% increase in 50 years looks suspiciously like human activity. My greatest concern, though, is the loss of arctic ice and glacial retreat as that can quickly go into runaway degradation.

May 2023 Met Office figures https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/maps-and-data/regional-values Just starting 5th week of zero or < 1-mm rainfall, coupled with oppressive heat, not nice.

After decades in the business, I can tell you that you can't win. Before privatisation, there was little money from sources other than the customer. Remember, that water companies, the regional ones, have two jobs to do. Supply drinking water and treat sewage. By far the most neglected was the waste water side of the business. Many of the treatment works were run on a shoestring by local councils. There was no substantial investment, other than essential repairs. After privatisation, it was a boom time for the now directors to branch out into money-making schemes like vehicle leasing and estate agency. Out went the Cortinas, in came the 5-Series BMWs. The core business suddenly became a bit of a nuisance. It all came to a head a couple of years ago when Southern Water landed up in a Crown Court and found guilty on 51 charges of deliberate pollution for financial gain. They were concentrating on pleasing their majority shareholders and not bothering with cr*p in the rivers and on the beaches. It's why we now have all the hooha about storm overflows, something no-one had heard of before, and now they've got to put their hands in their pockets. What has gone, is the engineer led, pride in doing a good job, pioneering improvements from the likes of Joseph Bazalgette.

Yes, that's exactly correct. It's clear that in this discussion, there are different perceptions of weather and rainfall. I would love to see some rain here, despite the fact it was very wet earlier on in the year Sitting in the middle of the South Downs, might sound nice, but if you do things like gardening, a grower or a farmer, it's a different story. Several hundred feet of chalk underfoot means that you can have a downpour one day and it's a fleeting memory the next. I'm already out of stored water and it's only early June. Any rain now will either roll off the soil or disappear into the sponge. The town is dirty and dusty, the drains smell. A telling chalk stream, a winterbourne either has or will dry up. Of course it's green, in places, the downland turf has adapted over centuries, but a couple of years ago, thanks to another dry spring, whole fields of cereals did not germinate. In July and August last year, you could smell the baked soil. It was wall to wall brown. When the native grass gives up, you know it's bad. If I ever get the chance to move, it will be north and west. I've had it with heat and droughts.

Yes agreed. Of all the utilities, water supply is crucial and should not be run for shareholder profit. When profit becomes more important than the core service, engineers get replaced by money men. £216m fines for Southern Water demonstrated that they can't be trusted and luckily they got caught. We need engineers with the vision of Brunel and Bazalgette, not MBAs.

You miss the point. It's not just the water that comes out of the tap, but it's the acres and acres of farmers fields and general countryside that suffers the most. Last year houses burnt down when grassland was tinder dry. I know the Southeast gets a lot of stick, but it's in the firing line when it comes to water stress. The forecast here is for another 10 days at least without rain. I personally don't want another year like last when it was too hot to go outside. As well as reservoirs, probably half the supply here comes from chalk or greensand aquifers. With a recharge rate of about a metre a year in unfissured chalk, the problem might be years before it becomes apparent. Some of the coastal boreholes are already close to pulling in seawater and nitrate from farming was appearing in the late 70s.

In the SE of UK, Spindle Ermine moth caterpillars have really gone to town on spindle bushes in just the last two years. Box moth caterpillars are decimating box hedging and for the first time this year, plum pocket disease is in the wild plum and sloe trees and bushes. Spindle moth caterpillars congregate together and the whole bush can look as though it's covered in cotton wool. When they've eaten every leaf, they huddle together in a tight group. Changing weather patterns? I can put up with some things, but the loss of plums and sloes of sloe gin variety is a different matter. For years I've frozen the wild plums for winter consumption and do some bottles of sloe gin. If the fungus of plum pocket disease gets established in the wild stock, it could be goodbye plum jam.

I've been professionally involved in climate change since the early 70's and well before the term became popular. When I started, carbon dioxide levels were 320 ppm. It now stands at 410 ppm. A 33% increase in about 50 years. This is almost certainly due to population growth globally and demand on resources like energy and fossil fuels. I think this is something to worry about. We do get plenty of rain in the winter in the UK, but most goes to waste. Of course, storage would help. The Southeast last year was like a desert. But there has to be a global solution. The climate and the weather systems are like supertankers, slow to accelerate and slow to respond to corrections. All the indicators like extreme flooding and droughts are there. Ignore at our peril.