Southeast England In Drought Conditions

[Evening thunder]

Randomly found a link to these interesting maps that shows parts of the SE having 10-25mm all spring and puts this into context with the rest of Europe.

http://www.cpc.ncep....ring/3cpcp1.gif

Apparently though part of S Finland has had less than 1mm! But for some reason this doesn't seem to add up with May showing 25-50m there http://www.cpc.ncep....ring/1cpcp1.gif So not sure if there's an error on one of those maps.

Anyway it shows the SE has had less rain than nearly all of Europe in spring.

Edited June 21, 2011 by Stormmad26

[TonyH]

Exceptionally dry first 6 months of the year in Coventry and Warwickshire. Still not quite reached 200mm, if this were to project ahead then 2011 would be the driest year on record- cue monsoonal rains July onwards!

http://www.bablakeweather.co.uk/

For the record Coventry's driest year in its 145 year rainfall record is 1921 with 443mm.

That really will take some beating, as only one other year has been below 500mm, 1996 with just 481mm, although several have been just over the 500 mark, including 1975 having 509mm. That's the recent standard then.

In contrast, here in damp west Wales, we are currently on 487mm, possibly more than Coventry will receive for the whole year!

1976, with only 153mm January to June, is the record dry first half of a year still though.

Edited June 30, 2011 by Coast

[TEITS]

1976, with only 153mm January to June, is the record dry first half of a year still though.

120mm of rainfall so far for Peterborough as we only recorded 19mm during spring. Thankfully June has been much wetter otherwise it could of been alot worse. This is why Cambs has been officially declared as experiencing a drought.

[Terminal Moraine]

Just over 382mm here so far this year which is the 4th lowest total for the first 6 months in the last 35 years, the drier ones were 1996, 2005 and 2010.

Not really in the same league as 1976 though. I was recording at a different site then and, allowing for the fact that my current location has 20% more rainfall, the 1976 total for the first 6 months would have been around 286mm.

[TonyH]

Cheers for the merge Coast, forgot there was a similar one on the go!

[Village]

No drought where I live in southeast Essex.....my grass is the healthiest and greenest I have ever experienced ....I cant remember a time when we have had such a sustained period of heavy rain and sunshine alternately day in day out, week in week out during the whole of May and June. It was a dry April, but I havent had a dry four day run since the first week of May. rainfall totals for this month are three times what I would normally expact and our reservoirs are at very healthy levels.

Where is the drought?

[TonyH]

Its not a drought anywhere as such given junes frequent though in parts not heavy rainfall.

However certain central and eastern counties are only half to two thirds where they should be by july. 5 to 8 inches rain in 6 months is very little given that amount can fall in one very wet month.

[TonyH]

From a tot up of various Counties from the NW radar totals (averaged for the whole of each County- Norfolk has only has about 110mm this year! Incredibly dry, even with June on almost 40mm..

Various other counties well below 200mm including Cambs, Beds, Warwicks, Northants.

Essex on about 240mm, thanks to a wet June (about 90mm).

May was dry over Essex just 15mm Village.

[Ben_Cambs]

We've had only 99mm up to 31st May. My guess is that figure is closer to 150mm at the moment, I'm waiting for the Cambridge NIAB station to update for June before confirming June's rainfall for my location. If June has totalled around 50mm, then this would beat February, March, April and May put together!!

[TonyH]

Buckingamshire exceptionally dry too, just 130mm approx January- June (35mm June)

Cambridgeshire a wet June Ben, about 65mm.

Edited June 30, 2011 by Tonyh

[Ben_Cambs]

Buckingamshire exceptionally dry too, just 130mm approx January- June (35mm June)

Cambridgeshire a wet June Ben, about 65mm.

Thanks Tony for that interesting statistic, so June will be holding the title (so far) for the wettest month of 2011! Now that would be an incredible feat if actually turned out to be the wettest month of 2011, though going by the fact that 4/6 months have been much below average for rainfall, a month in the "very wet" category must be due sometime soon.

[ZONE 51]

something i am noticing around here is some trees have gone like autumn with brown leafs and drooping of some thinner leafed branches, the grasses are looking good though! i can only think although we have had some downpours through june the roots have not got the water in time-to late damage is done kind of effect, the shrubs have responded nicely.

[SP1986]

Still very dry here, grass is starting to die again, ground is very dry indeed!

[AderynCoch]

Large swathes of grass gone yellow again here too, despite the odd respite from intermittent rain. The reservations along Scotland Road look positively parched (I'll try to get some photos).

It's been a drier than average June here (36.2mm up the coast at Crosby).