2012 UK Drought

[picog]

If we can get another 1 mm from the rain band before midnight, then we will come in at 50 mm — a big improvement on other months, and better than the eastern side of the midlands.

[The PIT]

grand total of 37.4 mm here for this month.

[Staffordshire]

What a perfect example of rain becoming exhausted after crossing the welsh border yet again, look at that rain in Wales around

1-30 then how much it disipates by 2-00. Really can't get my mind around why this keeps happening?!

[TonyH]

Something to do with Wales having hills.. anyway that only gave a couple of mm here it went through so fast.

Edited December 1, 2011 by TonyH

[Coast]

Drought risk high for England next summer, government warns

Environment secretary Caroline Spelman calls on water companies and public to plan now for 2012 water shortage

Drought will almost certainly hit parts of England next summer unless there is sustained rainfall this winter, according to the environment secretary, Caroline Spelman.

Her warning came on Thursday as South East Water applied to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for a drought order to help refill Ardingly reservoir, where the level of usable water is now just 12%, to secure supplies for East and West Sussex. Spelman warned that water companies and the public needed to plan now for a potential drought in 2012. Spring in 2011 had been the driest in England for a century.

The Environment Agency said the south-east of England was at a high risk of drought because of continued low rainfall, while central and eastern England were unlikely to see a full recovery from current water shortages. Parts of the rivers Colne, Nene, Trent and Kennet are nearing their lowest-ever recorded levels for November, a report by the agency has revealed. Anglian Water has already been issued with a drought permit allowing it to refill two of its reservoirs from rivers in an attempt to avoid hosepipe bans next year. Severn Trent Water will have to apply for a drought permit to refill the Tittesworth reservoir in Staffordshire if it is not replenished naturally by next spring, the agency said.

The drought order requested by South East Water would allow the company to reduce the minimum flow of the river Ouse and slow down the rate of water drawn out of Ardingly reservoir so that it can refill more quickly. Lee Dance, head of water resources for South East Water, said: "Faced with a worsening drought situation, and with no sign of significant rainfall and customer demand for water continuing, it is vital we take immediate steps to protect Ardingly reservoir and our customers' water supplies." He said the short-term impacts on the river Ouse would be minimal but measures had been put in place to protect the environment. Spelman said: "It may have surprised people that we've granted Anglian Water a drought permit in November, but it is a warning of the need to take action now after the country has seen the driest 12 months since records began.

"Everyone has worked hard to stave off any threat of hosepipe bans this year, and help keep our rivers flowing. "Unfortunately, if we have another dry winter, there is a high risk that parts of the country will almost certainly be in drought next summer – so it's vital we plan ahead to meet this challenge." She added: "Droughts are not new but we may face a future with less rainfall and less certainty about when that rain will fall."

http://www.guardian....2?newsfeed=true

[Costa Del Fal]

I dont think that article highlights the problem enough here in Central England which is ust as bad if anything maybe worse than in the SE, locally anyway.

[TEITS]

Drought risk map for 2012 from the EA.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Leisure/Drought_risk_map.pdf

Have to say its becoming concerning. Even a winter with average rainfall won't prevent some regions from being in a drought. Infact Cambs, Lincs are still officially in a drought and its now Dec!

[TonyH]

Just 358mm to date this year at my parent's in Rugby, Warwickshire.

Should Coventry get below 43mm for December, then 2011 will be the driest year on record (back to the 1860's). Currently the city is on exactly 400mm, while the driest year, 1921, had 443mm. This is possible, but more certain is that it will be at least the second driest, as that's currently a much wetter 505mm from 1898.

http://bws.users.netlink.co.uk/

[Frosty.]

very serious drought affecting parts of eastern and southern england but at least some decent rainfall in the week ahead.

Edited December 2, 2011 by reef
Removed comment regarding the other thread

[cyclonic happiness]

very serious drought affecting parts of eastern and southern england but at least some decent rainfall in the week ahead and for anyone to be so stupid as to call this drought rubbish, naming no names, is disgusting. Netweather should ban the idiot who said the drought is rubbish.

I know! It made me have a post deleted for the first time in years!!!! grrrrrhhhhhh!

[Eugene]

For purely selfish reasons i am hoping for a dry(with some snow) and cold winter, nothing worse than lots of rain to go with short daylight hours and long nights when the potential for the coldest nights is at its greatest.

[picog]

I think we are still in drought or near drought conditions, so bringing this forward.

Pond partly refilled, but started to drop with wind and heat evaporation in last few days. Well water still struggling to get to the half-way mark. It's generally pretty full by this stage in winter.

[picog]

Just 18mm of rain here so far this month. That combined with a dry autumn, does not bode well for the coming summer unless we get a washout late winter (not looking likely) or spring.

[TonyH]

Plus high pressure dominates from this weekend.

[Weather Boy]

At my location, December saw about 20% over average rainfall (first above average month since Jan!) and so far Jan is about average. The contents of Tony's post suggest that the average is likely to finish somewhat below average. If February is a generally blocked month, then that would point to below average, although obviously that assumption may be quite wrong.

It's looking as if the winter overall will be no wetter than about average. This is nowhere near enough to make up for the dramatic shortfalls from last year. There would seem to be a risk of water restrictions with only average conditions in play, let alone below average rainfall from the spring onwards.

[Terminal Moraine]

Although there's been plenty of precipitation here in the last two months ( almost 160 mm in December and 84 mm so far in January) it's done little more than moisten what was very parched ground. The local reservoirs are still well below capacity, in fact Carsington water, not far from here, is still only about 61% of capacity; a very low level at this stage of the winter.

As Picog says above it's going to take a very wet end to the winter or a very wet Spring to return the water levels to normal.

[damianslaw]

Today's observer has an article about the current very dry winter and how it doesn't bode well for the summer. Could we about to see drought conditions this summer if we don't get a wet spring?

The dry winter is coming on the back of a very very dry 2011. I think the dryness of this winter has gone under peoples' radar. Reservoirs and rivers in central and eastern parts of the country are bone dry and the recent cold weather won't be helping matters - any rain in the coming days will have trouble percolating through the frozen ground - a bit like heavy rain in the summer when it hits hard dry ground. Its been a dry start to the year here in the Lake District.

Would like to have the stats for this winter in terms of rainfall. I think the north did fairly well in december, but the south was quite dry. January was notably dry everywhere despite the atlantic rulling the roost.

[Polar Maritime]

I agree completely, as i have said in the winter thread Feb is usualy a dry month anyway so any would be a bonus. Hopefully April will make up for the lack of rainfall otherwise we will be looking at "shades of 76" regarding drought, even if it's not a barbeque.

Quite worrying realy.

Edited February 12, 2012 by Polar Maritime

[Aaron]

There's been absolutely no rain here so far this February. Nada. Zilch. Just 10mm of snow melt.

[Ben_Cambs]

Drought conditions are a certainty for here along with surronding counties well into the summer, because the defecit from last year is ever increasing. The problem is for such a dry part of the country anyway, it's seriously going to take a long time to replenish reservoirs for example.

Officially, Lincs, Cambs, parts of Beds, parts of Northants and W Norfolk are in drought conditions, though I would of thought that list will grow bigger unless we see a wet spring. Unless this spring is wetter than average then hose-pipe bans are quite likely come the summer, particularly in the regions that are 'officially' in drought.

Total rainfall in December was 43mm here, which is slightly below average. Not sure about the January total , though it was below average. The only real precipitation in February has been via snowfall. Met office stats for December and January for East Anglia:

December: 58.1mm (102% of the mean, so a very average month for rainfall)

January: 38.2mm (72% of the mean, so quite below average)

http://www.metoffice...y/averages.html

Towards the weekend, it does look like there will finally be Atlantic fronts bringing in bands of heavy rain, but we need a lot more of that, because generally after any wet periods of weather last year (say a 3-4 day spell) a longer, drier spell of weather (1-2 weeks at a time) occured straight after! Last November was a very good example of this, the month started off on a very wet note but after the 8th there wasn't any meaningful rainfall until the 29th! I'm just hoping it will be the reverse this year, any dry periods being relatively short lived with longer, wetter periods of weather.

Edited February 12, 2012 by Ben_Cambs

[Polar Maritime]

To address the shortage of rainfall last year, the Environment Agency estimated that it would need 20% above average for the months from December last year to April this year. To date, the rains have been 30% below average.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/feb/12/summer-drought-looms-for-england?mobile-redirect=false

[TEITS]

Very worrying the lack of rain for here especially as we are already officially suffering a drought.

My rainfall figures so far this winter are.

Dec 38.8mm

Jan 30.0mm

Feb 3.4mm

What makes it worse is apart from last year being very dry the months of Nov, Dec 2010 were also well below average. I shall have to recheck the figures but im sure between Nov 2010-Feb 2012 we have recorded below 500mm!

[Harve]

In nearby Buxton:

December - 242mm

January - 143mm

February - 24mm

A more zonal outlook for February should mean that it reaches at least 100mm. Of course, the Peak District's weather is very different to places even 20 miles to the south, nevermind East Anglia. However, I was under the impression that the entire country was quite dry? Clearly not.

[kold weather]

Last year I wasn't overly concerned...

This year I'm VERY worried, the dry winter in some areas that have not had that much rain anyway in recent months is not good and once your past March the sun becomes too strong for it to make much difference if we do get a very unsettled pattern develop then.

[picog]

We have had only 1 wet month in over a year — that was June 2011, when we had 110mm rain. This winter remains dry/very dry, and as we have been saying for months now, we need a lot of rain, quite quickly now.