2012 UK Drought

[all weather]

Nice amounts of rainfall being seen around the country, reservoirs filling, river levels increasing, this drought was never going to last long.

I still can't believe they called a hosepipe ban. Too early for me. How much has it cost them with all the advertising? They had an idea we were in for a spell of wet weather, might it have been wise for them to hold off for a wee bit?

Maybe, but they must stick to the rules and if rules are broken, oh dear, someone will get a smacked bottom. lets forget about common sense, which sometimes this country does not know the meaning of.

Since the hosepipe ban came into effect on the 5th April, England & Wales have had nearly all their average april rainfall in those 2 weeks. With plenty more coming.......

AW (totally against a hosepipe ban being called here, never should have been in my eyes)

[Essan]

Nice amounts of rainfall being seen around the country, reservoirs filling, river levels increasing, this drought was never going to last long.

I still can't believe they called a hosepipe ban. Too early for me. How much has it cost them with all the advertising? They had an idea we were in for a spell of wet weather, might it have been wise for them to hold off for a wee bit?

Maybe, but they must stick to the rules and if rules are broken, oh dear, someone will get a smacked bottom. lets forget about common sense, which sometimes this country does not know the meaning of.

Since the hosepipe ban came into effect on the 5th April, England & Wales have had nearly all their average april rainfall in those 2 weeks. With plenty more coming.......

AW (totally against a hosepipe ban being called here, never should have been in my eyes)

You obviously don't know much about the water table!

As noted above, we have had below normal rainfall for 18 months - one wet month, however wet it is, won't make much of a difference.

If you expect to earn £100 a month but for 18 months you only earn £60. Then, the next month you earn £120 ....... have you recouped your loss? Or are you still in deficit?

[Summer Sun]

Nice amounts of rainfall being seen around the country, reservoirs filling, river levels increasing, this drought was never going to last long.

I still can't believe they called a hosepipe ban. Too early for me. How much has it cost them with all the advertising? They had an idea we were in for a spell of wet weather, might it have been wise for them to hold off for a wee bit?

Maybe, but they must stick to the rules and if rules are broken, oh dear, someone will get a smacked bottom. lets forget about common sense, which sometimes this country does not know the meaning of.

Since the hosepipe ban came into effect on the 5th April, England & Wales have had nearly all their average april rainfall in those 2 weeks. With plenty more coming.......

AW (totally against a hosepipe ban being called here, never should have been in my eyes)

This rain is having very little affect on the drought after 18 months of below average rain this rain in April will have very little affect due to the time of year as well, trees and plants take a lot of the water, this is the latest from the EA

The Environment Agency said the drought — the worst since 1921 — is so severe that levels of groundwater, the main source of drinking supplies in the south and east, have not improved. Trees and plants have sucked up much of the water, with the rest lost to evaporation or run-off. Rainfall was only likely to replenish groundwater supplies if there were large amounts of steady rain in the next month or two - the chances of which were 'very slim'.

Some reservoirs need 500mm of rain to be in a decent level again, we have had no where near 500mm of rain, you can excpect the drought and hosepipe bans to be in place to at least Christmas maybe even 2013

Edited April 21, 2012 by Gavin D

[all weather]

You obviously don't know much about the water table!

As noted above, we have had below normal rainfall for 18 months - one wet month, however wet it is, won't make much of a difference.

If you expect to earn £100 a month but for 18 months you only earn £60. Then, the next month you earn £120 ....... have you recouped your loss? Or are you still in deficit?

I am not disagreeing with the water tabel level at all, and i am not that stupid, although some may disagree.

I know about this, don't you think I hear enough of it in the news? Suddenly its big news, but I am guessing that this did not happen overnight.

1 months rain is not going to sort it - agreed, but they hand a hosepipe ban when we are currently in a cycle of a lot of rainfall

What I am saying is, we had a long dry period overall, yes, but we are now having a lot of rainfall, which will no doubt take the water table to above the levels we had in March and the start of April.

Don't orget reservoirs are also important factors and currently they are filling up quite quickly, and would not be surprised if they are above average for this time of year shortly.

This is obviously my opinion, and the experts obviously get paid shed loads of money to make these decisions, so what do I know.

We get rain all year round, and I know water does gets used more in summer esp with extra warmth and the vegetation growing, but it does not take much for above average rainfall in this country, and all along i have been saying it will be quite a wet period we are going to see, which will bring us back close to average or the time of year and the ban was unnecessary.

AW

[Nick L]

You obviously don't know much about the water table!

As noted above, we have had below normal rainfall for 18 months - one wet month, however wet it is, won't make much of a difference.

If you expect to earn £100 a month but for 18 months you only earn £60. Then, the next month you earn £120 ....... have you recouped your loss? Or are you still in deficit?

I am not disagreeing with the water tabel level at all, and i am not that stupid, although some may disagree.

I know about this, don't you think I hear enough of it in the news? Suddenly its big news, but I am guessing that this did not happen overnight.

1 months rain is not going to sort it - agreed, but they hand a hosepipe ban when we are currently in a cycle of a lot of rainfall

What I am saying is, we had a long dry period overall, yes, but we are now having a lot of rainfall, which will no doubt take the water table to above the levels we had in March and the start of April.

Don't orget reservoirs are also important factors and currently they are filling up quite quickly, and would not be surprised if they are above average for this time of year shortly.

This is obviously my opinion, and the experts obviously get paid shed loads of money to make these decisions, so what do I know.

We get rain all year round, and I know water does gets used more in summer esp with extra warmth and the vegetation growing, but it does not take much for above average rainfall in this country, and all along i have been saying it will be quite a wet period we are going to see, which will bring us back close to average or the time of year and the ban was unnecessary.

AW

There is no way the reservoirs are going to have improved significantly after a week of showers. We are still very much in a serious situation.

The ban was definitely necessary.

[all weather]

Bewl has increased since last week by about 10% and we look like getting more prolonged rainfall. It now stands at 51% as at 19/04/2012.

I know its below average but by the end of April my guessing is that it will be between 70% - 75%.

AW

[picog]

Judging by the water level in my well, the water table is a good 18 inches lower than this time last year. Same as you Essan, we have only had about 35mm rain this month - nothing remarkable at all. At least there is some water flowing over the weir in Ludlow now thanks to the rain in Wales.

[Mikel Nimbus]

We get rain all year round, and I know water does gets used more in summer esp with extra warmth and the vegetation growing, but it does not take much for above average rainfall in this country, and all along i have been saying it will be quite a wet period we are going to see, which will bring us back close to average or the time of year and the ban was unnecessary.

AW

We all know how fallible long range forecasts are, even those which come from the experts. What output have you seen that suggests we're going to have the prolonged, above average rainfall needed this summer, or is this just a gut feeling you have?

You're saying we shouldn't have a hosepipe ban because you think we will all get sufficient rain? What happens if, like during the last 18+ months, we don't and then the water supplies become dangerously low? We'd be thinking "wouldn't it be handy if we had saved some extra water". Taking a chance with such a valuable resource as water in the way you suggest is reckless to say the least.

[chionomaniac]

Useful link here to check river levels

http://www.environme...ls/default.aspx

Even with the recent rain the levels are low in my neck of the woods.

[Thundery wintry showers]

78mm at Cleadon so far, making it the wettest April since 2004, although I strongly doubt that it will surpass April 1998's 135mm. A large proportion of the rain (and sleet) fell on the 3rd/4th. The first three months of the year, however, were so dry that rainfall for 2012 so far is still running below normal.

[The PIT]

Rivers pretty normal round here. You can see the Sheaf got into the possible flooding range last week. http://www.environme...?stationId=8099

Don is also normal. http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120702.aspx?stationId=8090

Edited April 22, 2012 by The PIT

[bobbydog]

why don't they get a hosepipe and fill up the reservoirs from the nearest tap?........

[johnholmes]

why don't they get a hosepipe and fill up the reservoirs from the nearest tap?........

that did make me smile

[Pennine Ten Foot Drifts]

Does anyone have any idea how much rainfall is needed to get water levels back to normal ? (or to put it another way, how much more weather like we're having now would be needed ?)

[Summer Sun]

Does anyone have any idea how much rainfall is needed to get water levels back to normal ? (or to put it another way, how much more weather like we're having now would be needed ?)

Experts have been quoted in the papers by saying the worst hit parts need 500mm of rain, the drought will last right through summer that is certain

[Pennine Ten Foot Drifts]

Experts have been quoted in the papers by saying the worst hit parts need 500mm of rain, the drought will last right through summer that is certain

Thanks Gavin, so even a few weeks like this, (never mind a few days), still won't make a huge difference then

[Bottesford]

We need a wet autumn and winter really. A wet summer will stop it from getting worse but be an unpleasant pain in the backside to most people.

Hopefully after our long hot but at times thundery summer we can have an Atlantic dominated winter to replenish water levels.

[Aaron]

Oh no, so we have to sacrifice our cold, snowy winter?? I'd rather have a washout summer and autumn!! From a purely selfish POV.

Guess at some stage most of us are going to be disappointed.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Aaron

[BlueHedgehog074]

After a long spell of generally drier than average weather, the drought conditions have seemed to have been reduced here a bit since this unsettled spell started, though some of the showers we have had have generally been on the light side, with one or two odd very heavy ones. Think the rain occurring today will have hopefully helped with the drought conditions, too. But would probably still need a fair bit more to really make up for the dry conditions.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Rainbow Snow

[Nick L]

I too would prefer a washout summer than washout winter! Although then again, I'm buggering off to the states in August anyway...

[Eugene]

Yes i too prefer a wet summer to a wet winter, with such short days in winter and a weak sun to dry the excess water up, nothing is worse than very muddy fields for walking through, in summer even wet summers have alot more daylight/potential for sunny breaks and a strong sun to soak up the wet conditions making it not too muddy to walk through.

The drought is nowhere near over as some seem to think it is, around here we have missed most of the showers and even today isnt like a complete washout either, hopefully next week will deliver some proper thundery rainfall as warm easterlies are a complete waste in early May as the north sea is still cool, ive known warm looking easterlies to just give dull cloudy days here in warwickshire with temps around 15C/16C.

[Nick L]

The positive from this wet spell is that it will have helped farmers water their crops - reservoirs are going to need far more heavy rain.

[Milhouse]

The positive from this wet spell is that it will have helped farmers water their crops - reservoirs are going to need far more heavy rain.

It will have helped, but a thoroughly wet summer like 2007 will be not what the doctor ordered. It was a common sight during July 2007 to see wheat fields flattened and unharvestable.

[Bottesford]

But summer rain doesn't actually up the water table so if we only ever had wet summers & dry winters we'd be some serious trouble after only a few years. Not to mention a total destruction of our crops - things don't grow in constant rainfall, they need sunlight!

For most people away from weather forums I think you'd find yourselves in a real minority for some pretty obvious reasons.

Besides we've had plenty of dry and cold winters along with Atlantic dominated summers recently - time for a change!

[Aaron]

But isn't that the whole point of being a weather enthusiast? Most of us like thunderstorms, blizzards and cold weather.. I can't think of one person in real life who enjoys any of these. Most of us want hot summers too but then again most people I know in real life only want warmth, not heat.

Anyway, the winter just gone had many Atlantic dominated periods and was very mild in Scotland and average elsewhere. And let us not forget that recent summers are not as bad as made out.