2012 UK Drought

[Aaron]

February only had 5 days of measurable rainfall here

[picog]

38mm rain here for Feb. Should be around the 60-65mm mark, so again, quite a deficit

[Costa Del Fal]

Just 15mm or so for February here. January was closer to average but still below. Seems were on the dry run again!

[leicsnow]

If this continue's, we may be in a difficult predicament this time next year. If we had another summer like 76' we would be in BIG trouble (southern and central england anyway).

Edited March 2, 2012 by Tellow

[TEITS]

Only 13mm recorded here this month.

The total for winter is 78mm My average winter rainfall should be 130mm.

[all weather]

Not much of a poster here, but these drought conditions make me laugh.

I was not around in 1976 but from what I read conditions were bad, some rivers run dry up in Sheffield but would it have been a case of there wouldhave been no water or very poor water shoud restrictions not have been applied?

Maybe so, but I think that is at least a one in a lifetime event if it was. We live in a climate that will always see rainfall, all year round, and yes we have had dry months but we have also had wet months, so I am conident to say we will never be bone dry. now that can mean many things, but what I am saying is our 'bigger' rivers, reservoirs will not dry up. I just can't see it. We get too may depressions that run by.

As I write there is a low pressure that will hit tonight and produce about an inch of rain, and next week sees more rain, I know that won't eplenish all rivers/resrvoirs or even make them 75 full but it won't be long before the next batch of wet weather comes along.

There are guidelines that must be followed and if rainfall is x below this and that then call the drought police out. Reservoirs get topped up by rivers anyway, underground water will never dry up. In this day and age, with so many resevoirs and so many rivers being able to top these up, it just wont happen.

Drought? Hosepipe bans, it's all nonsense.

So put those drought warnings away and get a grip.

Those are just my thoughts but saying we are in a drought (when honestly we had a few dry months) does bring a smile to my face.

2012 will be a wet year (UK). Take note.

AW

[HighPressure]

Not much of a poster here, but these drought conditions make me laugh.

I was not around in 1976 but from what I read conditions were bad, some rivers run dry up in Sheffield but would it have been a case of there wouldhave been no water or very poor water shoud restrictions not have been applied?

Maybe so, but I think that is at least a one in a lifetime event if it was. We live in a climate that will always see rainfall, all year round, and yes we have had dry months but we have also had wet months, so I am conident to say we will never be bone dry. now that can mean many things, but what I am saying is our 'bigger' rivers, reservoirs will not dry up. I just can't see it. We get too may depressions that run by.

As I write there is a low pressure that will hit tonight and produce about an inch of rain, and next week sees more rain, I know that won't eplenish all rivers/resrvoirs or even make them 75 full but it won't be long before the next batch of wet weather comes along.

There are guidelines that must be followed and if rainfall is x below this and that then call the drought police out. Reservoirs get topped up by rivers anyway, underground water will never dry up. In this day and age, with so many resevoirs and so many rivers being able to top these up, it just wont happen.

Drought? Hosepipe bans, it's all nonsense.

So put those drought warnings away and get a grip.

Those are just my thoughts but saying we are in a drought (when honestly we had a few dry months) does bring a smile to my face.

2012 will be a wet year (UK). Take note.

AW

Carshalton, I know it well - Served entirely by Boreholes situated on the chalk downs. While I agree with your sentiments these can and do run dry. With a borehole (modern version of a well) the issue is with yield and the level when the pump is running. Its like sucking water out of a bath faster then it is coming in, the level will drop as will the output until eventually you are abstracting nothing.

Carshalton is part of Sutton & East Surrey Water now and has no raw water storage capacity, it lives hand to mouth. Water restrictions and hose pipe bans are a very real possibility for your area.

Just to add that ground water is responsible for almost all the flow in rivers rivers from the Spring to Autumn, so if the levels are low so will the rivers be.

Edited March 4, 2012 by HighPressure

[all weather]

Thanks HP,

Yes, from doing some research, 85% of the water here comes from underground, the other 15% comes from Bough Beech Reservoir.

Good to know though, thank you

AW

[chionomaniac]

Only 13mm recorded here this month.

The total for winter is 78mm My average winter rainfall should be 130mm.

Be interesting to see how how East Anglia fares in the next few days. The UKMO has persistent moderate to heavy rain until Tuesday morning with the trough stalling over the North Sea close enough to the east coast before fizzling out. This type of rainfall is perfect for relieving drought conditions.

[sunny scunny]

More rain today than the whole of last month, with 11mm so far.

[ukpaul]

If this continue's, we may be in a difficult predicament this time next year. If we had another summer like 76' we would be in BIG trouble (southern and central england anyway).

The current model output is looking very worrying with HP being predicted to take over for a while, just because we desperately need a wet year it doesn't mean we're going to get one sadly; good to see East Anglia getting a drenching in the next few days though, even if it did pass through here far too quickly.

[reef]

More rain today than the whole of last month, with 11mm so far.

Same here too. We've had 13.2mm today compared to 11.8mm in the whole of February.

Unfortunately Ill probably have to finally cut the grass now.

[Ben_Cambs]

Here's a baffling statistic. There has been more rainfall today than what fell during the whole of last spring! :wacko:

[BlueHedgehog074]

That's incredible. :-O Suppose it kinda shows how dry Spring really was in some parts last year.

[Nick L]

The uni campus sports pitches are covered in standing water. Obviously the ground is so dry it can't absorb it all.

Edited March 5, 2012 by Nick L

[Love weather]

hi all

Through the day on Sunday we had 26.1mm of rain in lincoln which we needed here. last night i watched a programme on BBC 2 called orbit and it was on about where all our weather systems start and how they develop. see it on the iplayer.

All the best

Love weather

[summer blizzard]

Mixed emotions for some of you guys?

On the one hand you are looking at sunshine and mid to high teens next week (arguably near perfect given the lack of humidity) but on the other you are looking at no rainfall after tommorow for as long as the eye can see.

[SP1986]

in dry conditions water tends to evaporate rather than percolate.. well that's my experience from the past few Springs.

So far this year we've seen 70mm of rain up to today. It's not a great deficit, but not much rain is forecast here after tonight.

[Coast]

Drought a threat despite rain

Published on Wednesday 7 March 2012 09:30

ANGLIAN Water is warning that drought still poses a very real threat to the region despite the wet weekend, and even though more rain is forecast. With much of the region now officially in drought, the water company is reminding people of the importance of saving water.

And with spring starting to show across the region, customers are being encouraged to consider what they can do now to save water for summer, including installing water butts to collect water and choosing drought-tolerant plants for the garden.

Ciaran Nelson from Anglian Water said: “It’s going to take a lot more than a few wet days to get us back to our target position for this time of year. “We’re dealing with the impact of two consecutive dry winters, with the months in between also suffering from below average rainfall. To recover from a situation like this will take months of persistent rain. A few wet days, while welcome, won’t do much to change the underlying situation.â€

http://www.marketrasenmail.co.uk/news/local/brigg/drought-a-threat-despite-rain-1-3595346

[Aaron]

The outlook for March is very dry.. so unless we get some heavy rain soon, this month will turn out very dry indeed..

[ukpaul]

Mixed emotions for some of you guys?

On the one hand you are looking at sunshine and mid to high teens next week (arguably near perfect given the lack of humidity) but on the other you are looking at no rainfall after tommorow for as long as the eye can see.

It's a choice between what would be nice and what we need, and we need, rain, rain and more rain. Maybe we could cope with a dry summer after that but, at the moment, there are no mixed emotions, just despair at the continuing dry conditions.

[leicsnow]

I wonder what kind of position we would be in, and I mean particularly the East Midlands and East Anglian parts, if the expected dry spring was followed by a 1976-like summer?

[damianslaw]

Its certainly a dry outlook for the foreseeable future - at this time of year we can endure lengthy dry periods thanks to a much weakened atlantic, so nothing that unusual, however, SE and E England has endured a mighty lengthy dry spell for so long now the prospects of drought conditions this summer in these parts do look quite high - but we are a long way off summer yet, and things could very quickly break later in the spring.

[HighPressure]

A dry March will ensure low ground water levels where they are already so, pretty much regardless of what happens in the Spring. As pointed to above once we get into Spring then most of the rain that falls either finds it's way into the rivers by runoff or is evaporated. The jury is still out on those who rely on reservoirs for their supply as there is still a little time. From my experience summer river levels certainly in the S a E will be low because of groundwater levels. Abstraction from rivers depends on some degree of groundwater flow in the summer and if low levels/flows are twined with a dry Spring/summer then we could find ourselves back in a 1976 situation.

[Interitus]

I love how people are saying that we may not be able to take water for granted anymore and while i do think we need to prevent wastage i have a solution... Get the government to get off its behind and build a desalinization plant.

We have got just one desalination plant -

http://www.guardian....-beckton-london

A far more arid country such as Spain seems to cope partly because they have 100 large desalination plants and around 900 in total.

The island of Lanzarote for example has virtually no natural water supply, they get over 80% from desalination with the rest from recycling.

I think fixing leaks should come first though I suspect that water companies would prefer water to be a 'product' rather than just providing pipes and water treatment and so restrict consumption instead.

Its certainly a dry outlook for the foreseeable future - at this time of year we can endure lengthy dry periods thanks to a much weakened atlantic, so nothing that unusual, however, SE and E England has endured a mighty lengthy dry spell for so long now the prospects of drought conditions this summer in these parts do look quite high - but we are a long way off summer yet, and things could very quickly break later in the spring.

Things might change but it would be better sooner than later because of some obvious factors -

- the significance of rainfall interception by vegetation - deciduous foliage, long grasses/weeds, crops etc.

- related to the above plant growth is transpiration - negligible in early spring but significant later on.

- temperature - air at 20c can hold almost twice the weight of water as that at 10c leading to more evaporation + drying.

Even a relatively wet late spring and summer might not avert a drought.

Its incredibly expensive but I think that the country is going to have to face up to developing a piping system from the wet west/NW into the frier regions. A long term project but it has to be done eventually. I wonder if the canal system could be utilised in some way?

I think the limitation of the current canal network is that the gradients would require too much water pumping, which was one of the main reasons for the proposed Grand Contour Canal, to provide both transport and water supply infrastructure.