2012 UK Drought

[johnholmes]

Village?

How about you give over with the trumpet and just move on. You, me, all of us have our opinions and I have to say your view has been the loudest in here. Do us all a favour please and divert your energy to something else-your constant trumpeting is getting beyond tedious.

[Nick L]

As I said back in March, I live in the driest place in the country. I lived through the same couple of dry winters as everyone else did. There was no drought in my region the driest region in the UK. Essex and Suffolk water had normal levels in reservoirs, they never introduced any restrictions whatsoever. So you have to ask the question as I did and many others at that time: Why in a few regions is there a drought?

Is it that bad? or are some water companies not investing enough and managing the commodity? I doubted their claptrap...others bought it hook line and sinker. They told us that ancient aquifiers were so low that it had never ever been seen before! They told us that to get back to normal levels would take years or six months of continuous rain!! They told us that we would be in drought for the rest of the year! They told us that any rain that falls during this time of the year just gets soaked up by the plants! They told us that the water falling onto the dry land just runs away into rivers and wasnt going to soak in! They told us to prepair for hose pipe bans and restrictions right through the summer! They even made the flower show change all its plants to plants that wouldnt need watering because they wouldnt have the water!!

I thought it was a joke! I never saw any restrictions, I didnt buy the nonsense, I expected the rain and the floods. And guess what!

The ancient aquifiers are full up again despite all the exagerated scaremonger claims about underground supplies remaining dangerously low!

Experts these people were.... that was the expert view and people lapped it up because it sold newspapers and BBC air time. The clever ones sniggered at the stuppidity of it all. I mean....come on...this Island of ours...short of water? do me a favour please!

What did you do?

I don't know where to start on this post. I really don't. I give up.

[Methuselah]

I don't know where to start on this post. I really don't. I give up.

I was thinking the same, Nick!

[Nick L]

Going back on topic though, Peter Gibbs mentioned that the Western Isles has a severe drought at the moment. Difficult to imagine when we're drowning in rain!

[The PIT]

Damn someone was coming in my garden and putting a Umbrella over my rain gauges all last year and early this and I never noticed. Those cracks I saw early spring in Hornsea in the fields were created by huge mutant earth worms and the dust on trainers were from the volcanic ash eruption source unknown.

Too be honest I reckon all floods didn't happen either and it's a Government conspiracy to distract us from the recession. The rain in April and June was also our imagination.

[summer blizzard]

Anybody have an update as to the ground water levels and reservoirs as we go into the 'dry' season?

[richie3846]

Quite an informative site............

http://www.bgs.ac.uk/research/groundwater/datainfo/levels/levels_news.html

[Great Plum]

http://www.southernwater.co.uk/at-home/your-water/water-resources/reservoir-levels/

There's no problem at Southern Water's reservoirs!

Or South East Water's!

http://www.southeastwater.co.uk/our-environment/our-reservoirs#.USnLaPogGc0

[philglossop]

http://www.southwestwater.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1501

OK in south west as well

[Summer Sun]

The environment agency's water report for January is available here - http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Research/WSR_Jan2013.pdf

[AderynCoch]

Hard to believe there was ever a thread called "2012 UK Drought".

[SP1986]

Move along, were in the 2013 drought now.. 17 days consecutive rain free!

[TonyH]

Same here might get to 20.

[Summer Sun]

Move along, were in the 2013 drought now.. 17 days consecutive rain free!

15 and counting here we had a few spots yesterday but it didn't even dampen the ground let alone register

If it wasn't for all the rain last year we would be looking at drought conditions again this year but thats looks a long shot now however never say never some where may end up in drought before the year is out the south east, Lincolnshire or somewhere in the midlands would be a good bet

Edited March 2, 2013 by Gavin.

[summer blizzard]

It will be interesting to see how this dry spell will impact water values and how quickly are poor infrastructure leads us to trouble again if it keeps up.

Here i'm almost certain that we've gone the 13th Feb-12th Mar with less than 10mm.

[The PIT]

Jan was dry here Feb close to normal and March is doing too badly. Ground still drying out from last year though.

[TonyH]

Just about qualified as a 'partial drought' here, this the 29th day during which the rainfall has averaged out at below 0.2 mm (total rain below 5mm). This spell should be well and truly finished tomorrow.

[Terminal Moraine]

Fairly dry here so far in March but nothing to compare with that.

21.4 mm so far this month which is 60% of the average for this stage of the month. The second half of February was very dry with just 2.7 mm after the 14th; the second driest second half of February in the last 36 years.

[cyclonic happiness]

There's no way on god's earth that we are near a drought, regardless of what the 'textbooks' say, some of the farmer around here were only able to start ploughing last week coz the ground has been so claggy .

We could do with a couple more weeks of below average rainfall to dry the land out enough to start growing on properly again.

Around here there are still a couple of fields of wheat that weren't harvested coz of the monsoon and as a result, we've now got a plague of pigeons and rats in the area of my work.

[TonyH]

And to think just a year ago CH you kept saying Warwickshire always misses the worst of the rain!

[cyclonic happiness]

And to think just a year ago CH you kept saying Warwickshire always misses the worst of the rain!

I know, I should learn to keep my gob shut lol.

Well on the off chance......WE NEVER GET AND LOVELY, LONG, WARM, OLD FASHOONED SUMMERS ANY MORE DO WE???? :-D

[summer blizzard]

No drought obviously however the GFS output would put some people on for around 2 weeks without precipitation, not long after the three weeks without spell.

[Summer Sun]

Just wondering if the lack of rain has something to do with the wild fire in Fort William

[Carl46Wrexham]

There is absolutely no chance of the West and South West of the UK experiencing a drought this year. For one thing, the water tables here are still exceptionally high, and the ground is still saturated meaning that it only takes a single rain event to cause the renewed misery of flooding. For the first time ever that I can recall, I am still waiting for the first opportunity to cut the grass in my field as of early April..a combination of prolonged unusally cold weather and the fact that parts of my field (and many farmers fields around me) have been more or less constantly underwater since last November. Normally by now I have been able to cut the grass at least 2-3 times but I cannot see the possibility arising before May at the earliest without a prolonged dry spell after the remaining snow cover melts, because I have already noticed in the areas where snow has melted away, evidence of major waterlogging.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Carl46Wrexham

[DR(S)NO]

Just wondering if the lack of rain has something to do with the wild fire in Fort William

Could be Gavin.IMBY. We have had only 8 days of precipitation. Amounting to 24 mm since February 14 th!!

So that's 8 days out of the last 47. Pretty Amazing Really