2012 UK Drought

[Summer Sun]

Its strange cause I live in Essex which clearly states drought area, but I dont have a hosepipe ban in my postcode??

That is the same for the south west and many other areas like parts of Yorkshire there in drought but no hose pipe bans, the drought is to warn the public to cut down on the water usage or other wise a hose pipe ban will be the next stage

[Evening thunder]

Maybe the map is showing 'drought' as in areas that have had anomalously low rainfall, and maybe the possible effects on the environment/wildlife, rather than 'drought for humans' with lack of/low water supplies, if that makes sense.

February and March were very dry here (26mm and 19mm) and April has only had 11.6mm so far as many showers/rain has missed here. Hopefully that will change this week.

[Wynn D Woo]

Maybe the map is showing 'drought' as in areas that have had anomalously low rainfall, and maybe the possible effects on the environment/wildlife, rather than 'drought for humans' with lack of/low water supplies, if that makes sense.

February and March were very dry here (26mm and 19mm) and April has only had 11.6mm so far as many showers/rain has missed here. Hopefully that will change this week.

Indeed I think its more connected to rainfall than actual water restrictions as Severn Trent (the region I am in) is looking at possibly selling water to Anglia, so I would think that in the medium term at least we are safe from 'hosepipe bans'.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-17663393

[Terminal Moraine]

So is it actually drier than 1976????

Not here it isn't.

The running 18 month rainfall total reached a low of 1216mm here from April 2010-Sept' 2011 and currently stands at 1343 mm from Oct' 2010-March 2012.

This is much higher than the dry spell in 1995/96 when the 18 month total bottomed out at 974 mm from April 1995-Sept' 1996 and this is probably similar to the driest 18 month period in 1975/76. Although I don't have directly comparable statistics for that period as I was recording at a different site, lower and drier than the current one, I do have a long overlap of records between the two sites and applying the % difference in rainfall between the two gives a driest 18 months of about 980mm in 1975/76.

[Nick L]

I think people are getting confused between drought and water shortages. The Midlands IS in drought but in terms of public water supplies we should be fine as we get our water from areas which have plenty. The south-east is the area of big concern though as their reservoirs are exceptionally low and it is densely populated.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Nick L

[Aaron]

Yeah.. parts of Yorkshire are in drought but Yorkshire Water are not expecting any hosepipe bans in the foreseeable.

[Snowangel-MK]

[Snowy Easterly]

pathetic rain here, yes the charts look scary with all that low pressure around, but i think people get carried away by the charts sometimes, its the same old same old here and probably in other parts do, yet again another damp squib, the drought goes on.

[Summer Sun]

pathetic rain here, yes the charts look scary with all that low pressure around, but i think people get carried away by the charts sometimes, its the same old same old here and probably in other parts do, yet again another damp squib, the drought goes on.

Yes just because lots of Low pressure is showing doesn't mean there will be lots of rain with it, here in Darlington we did get rain overnight but that all dried up before mid day and we have had a sunny day today.

[Mapantz]

There was lots of rain associated with the first front over night/this morning. But you cannot expect an equal share of rain everywhere.

So on that basis, i don't understand why people moan about it?

[cyclonic happiness]

How many weeks of rainfall do you suppose it would take to get us back on track reguarding ending the drought?

We seem to be doing pretty well at the minute and there's no real end in sight on the models to the 'rainey' pattern that's current;y in charge.

[Radiating Dendrite]

How many weeks of rainfall do you suppose it would take to get us back on track reguarding ending the drought?

We seem to be doing pretty well at the minute and there's no real end in sight on the models to the 'rainey' pattern that's current;y in charge.

I would imagine around 3 well above average months over a 5 month sort of period?

[Summer Sun]

How many weeks of rainfall do you suppose it would take to get us back on track reguarding ending the drought?

We seem to be doing pretty well at the minute and there's no real end in sight on the models to the 'rainey' pattern that's current;y in charge.

Some experts have been quoted as saying the worst hit areas need 500mm of rain before the drought will be over, so there is a long, long way to go yet, I would think it will be at least the Autumn before the worst could be over a lot depends on the summer if summer if a dry one then it could well be 2013 before the drought eases.

[Cheese Rice]

West Yorks isn't in drought thats for sure... rain rain rain seems to be the order of the day !

[Aaron]

It hasn't rained like this all day for ages. Probably since January. Even after days rain we're still below average here.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Aaron

[picog]

Some experts have been quoted as saying the worst hit areas need 500mm of rain before the drought will be over, so there is a long, long way to go yet, I would think it will be at least the Autumn before the worst could be over a lot depends on the summer if summer if a dry one then it could well be 2013 before the drought eases.

Since we had a virtual dry week last week and just 1.5mm today, we've some way to go!

[The PIT]

Now recorded 86.3 mm of rain 135.9% of average 30.1mm falling yesterday. Keeping an a beedy eye on this as we could be recording one of the wettest 48 hr periods in recent years. The wettest of course in June 14th 123.5 mm in 72 hours.

Edited April 19, 2012 by The PIT

[Weather-history]

Already the wettest April since 2008 for England and Wales but it wouldn't have taken much for that to happen. Question is how wet this April will turn out at least south of the Border.

[Polar Maritime]

Wettest April since 2006 here in my location, up to now...

[sunny scunny]

An incredible 80mm of rain has now fallen this month, with 15mm of that falling last night.

[Aaron]

Wettest April here since 2008. But, April 2008 had over 100mm of rain here, so not saying much.

[Terminal Moraine]

It's the wettest April since 2004 here so far. We've had just over 114 mm, about 8mm less than the 2004 total.

[The PIT]

Morning TM if the rainfall hadn't lessened in the last couple of days we could have a rather curious situation where we were in a drought area but suffering from floods. There's a good chance now that by the end of April we will be up to average rainfall for the time of year.

[johnholmes]

yes it does seem ironic with the weather we have had over the past 10 days or so.

The weather has a way of making monkeys out of anyone who pretends to understand it. I have many bruises to prove it!

[Essan]

We've only had about 60% of average rainfall here this year - the same as we had all last year.

However, at present, April rainfall is exactly average (31mm) and it's possible we could end up with this being the first month since Oct 2010 to end above average (though I wouldn't bet my life on it!).

All the current rain is doing is helping plant growth which might otherwise have been seriously affected by the low water table. Only in the past 2 days has the water level in Avon risen above it's normal midsummer minimum ....  It's going to need months more of weather like this to make up for the past 18 months.