Drought Watch

[Nick L]

As promised, an updated version of the cumulative radar graphic:

[*Stormforce~beka*]

12 hours ago, Don said:

Thankfully I'm sort of out in the sticks, but they would still attract the rats and think about the mess!!  Free eggs would be nice mind!

Got ours in the back garden. It's a decent size so they get up to alsorts of mischief! They however love coming into the kitchen for a little visit. My favourite one just sits or stands next to me whilst I empty the dishwasher. She is such a cutie! Only rat we had was in the compost bin but he left when Spring came.

[dryfie]

23 hours ago, Nick L said:

As promised, an updated version of the cumulative radar graphic:

That's very interesting, but could I ask how it works?  When our record breaking temp spell ended in July, the southwest (according to radar images) received a deluge, whilst in reality many places remained completely dry.  The reason was of course the exceptionally dry air which the rainfall ran into, thereby evaporating the rain before it reached the ground.  Is there any allowance for this in your chart?  Unfortunately there is a great scarcity of monitoring sites in this region, and those that exist are mainly coastal, but their reports did support the lack of measured rain.

[Nick L]

1 minute ago, dryfie said:

That's very interesting, but could I ask how it works?  When our record breaking temp spell ended in July, the southwest (according to radar images) received a deluge, whilst in reality many places remained completely dry.  The reason was of course the exceptionally dry air which the rainfall ran into, thereby evaporating the rain before it reached the ground.  Is there any allowance for this in your chart?  Unfortunately there is a great scarcity of monitoring sites in this region, and those that exist are mainly coastal, but their reports did support the lack of measured rain.

Unfortunately it's simply a radar accumulation, so you're right, radar inaccuracies (or instances where rain doesn't reach the ground) won't be picked up. You can even make out the "spokes" from the Chenies radar going through Bucks/Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire. Really annoying around these parts!

Edited August 27, 2022 by Nick L

[dryfie]

2 minutes ago, Nick L said:

Unfortunately it's simply a radar accumulation, so you're right, radar inaccuracies (or instances where rain doesn't reach the ground) won't be picked up. You can even make out the "spokes" from the Chenies radar going through Bucks/Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire. Really annoying around these parts!

Many thanks for your prompt and useful reply Nick

[richie3846]

6 hours ago, dryfie said:

That's very interesting, but could I ask how it works?  When our record breaking temp spell ended in July, the southwest (according to radar images) received a deluge, whilst in reality many places remained completely dry.  The reason was of course the exceptionally dry air which the rainfall ran into, thereby evaporating the rain before it reached the ground.  Is there any allowance for this in your chart?  Unfortunately there is a great scarcity of monitoring sites in this region, and those that exist are mainly coastal, but their reports did support the lack of measured rain.

This map demonstrates perfectly why convective rainfall is not ideal at drought busting. 

 

On 26/08/2022 at 12:09, Nick L said:

As promised, an updated version of the cumulative radar graphic:

I live in that central blue area, and the lack of rain has altered the landscape dramatically. There's no bounceback second spring here, the false autumn continues to dig in, each day I travel about, the changes are becoming more obvious. The next week or so of sunshine and warmth is going to drive even more moisture out of the ground.

I'm taking a walk down the dry Thames upper reaches before any major rains set in. The upper portion always runs dry in summer, but I hear that it's run dry for the first 5 miles, more than would be typical, and unless we get a big turnaround, will continue to dry out until October. 

[minus10]

On 26/08/2022 at 12:09, Nick L said:

As promised, an updated version of the cumulative radar graphic:

Very interesting image. Excepting the built in inaccuracies i still think if you just look at England and Wales (no disrespect to Scotland as there are some dry areas there too) you can clearly see the effect of convective rainfull and the 'local' nature of it. What is striking is how dry the eastern half of East Anglia and Kent have been , together with a good second for dryness of central south England and majority of Wales weo north west. All this points to the absence of frontal rainfull for most of this year which was always the mainstay for our water supply in the past. This is fast becoming the year of extreme extremes, for currently we have historical heatwave/drought over a good part of China, biblical (possibly historical) floods in Pakistan. We had the hottest ever temp recorded back in July combined with very prolonged dry period in the uk while Europe has been in the oven for a good part of the summer. Historical rains hit the UAE back in July....need i go on. 

I know the world has always had extreme weather events, however in my opinion i think that the changing climate is taking these extreme events, including our summer drought to new levels of severity and frequency and is something that will continue to escalate with time. ....how we deal with this...well that is another matter/argument which i wont go into here...for now...

[ChannelThunder]

Fingers crossed that the models are correct right now for this time next week. There'd be plenty of opportunities for rainfall, both frontal and convective 

[damianslaw]

1 hour ago, ResonantChannelThunder said:

Fingers crossed that the models are correct right now for this time next week. There'd be plenty of opportunities for rainfall, both frontal and convective 

By September, water has a greater chance of perlocating hard ground.. namely the sun doesn't have the scorching effect of the summer.. dew also naturally moistens soft ground.. plants are going into dormant mode, long set seed, and evporation isn't an issue. A good sustained deluge now would be good timing in this respect. 

[richie3846]

The Thames at Ashton Keynes, 5 miles downstream from the source at Kemble.

[damianslaw]

Interesting to see the rainfall stats % map shown on countryfile. Suggests whole of UK has seen another dry month, not quite same extent as July though. Largest anomalies appear to be NE England and SW England. Not surprised about NE England as that region was spared the torrential downpours that hit some parts last 10 days, but I thought much of the SW wasn't... I guess its reflective of the fact August is generally quite a wet month especially in the west. SE England anomalies of 60% normal rain, much of that probably came from the downpour that happened one day - can't remember when exactly.

[hillbilly]

1 hour ago, damianslaw said:

Interesting to see the rainfall stats % map shown on countryfile. Suggests whole of UK has seen another dry month, not quite same extent as July though. Largest anomalies appear to be NE England and SW England. Not surprised about NE England as that region was spared the torrential downpours that hit some parts last 10 days, but I thought much of the SW wasn't... I guess its reflective of the fact August is generally quite a wet month especially in the west. SE England anomalies of 60% normal rain, much of that probably came from the downpour that happened one day - can't remember when exactly.

Slightly on a tangent but spoke to my brother in Sydney,Australia this morning and he said the weather has been atrocious with  the wettest year on record so far .

[MP-R]

2 hours ago, damianslaw said:

Interesting to see the rainfall stats % map shown on countryfile. Suggests whole of UK has seen another dry month, not quite same extent as July though. Largest anomalies appear to be NE England and SW England. Not surprised about NE England as that region was spared the torrential downpours that hit some parts last 10 days, but I thought much of the SW wasn't... I guess its reflective of the fact August is generally quite a wet month especially in the west. SE England anomalies of 60% normal rain, much of that probably came from the downpour that happened one day - can't remember when exactly.

In the SW it's more because there simply hasn't been that much rain. If one managed to dodge the downpours/odd thunderstorm the other week, it's been very dry. I know I'm in the nomansland of 'sort of southwest but not representative of the much of the southwest', but the grass is still brown here.

[Mapantz]

Here's some of my rainfall stats:

65.4mm for the summer. My own average is 172.7mm. The MO average is 145mm.

June:

July:

August:

[TwisterGirl81]

2 hours ago, damianslaw said:

Interesting to see the rainfall stats % map shown on countryfile. Suggests whole of UK has seen another dry month, not quite same extent as July though. Largest anomalies appear to be NE England and SW England. Not surprised about NE England as that region was spared the torrential downpours that hit some parts last 10 days, but I thought much of the SW wasn't... I guess its reflective of the fact August is generally quite a wet month especially in the west. SE England anomalies of 60% normal rain, much of that probably came from the downpour that happened one day - can't remember when exactly.

It’s been exceptionally dry here in Exeter, Devon….We’ve had some rain but I can count on one hand the amount of times it’s rained in the past 3 months here and that’s after several below average rainfall months grass everywhere Is yellow/dry…areas in mid/north Devon/north Cornwall have had a little more convective heavy rain, so their rainfall  totals are a little higher. 
 

Edited August 28, 2022 by TwisterGirl81

[minus10]

Desperate situation in Spain re Produce grown for export...

Spain's olive oil producers devastated by worst ever drought

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

---

Spain's olive oil industry is in danger after being hit by chronic water shortages.

 

Edited August 29, 2022 by minus10

[Summer Sun]

The Environment Agency has announced all of South-West England is now in drought it means Bristol, Somerset, Dorset, south Gloucestershire and parts of Wiltshire will be placed into drought measures

[minus10]

7 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

The Environment Agency has announced all of South-West England is now in drought it means Bristol, Somerset, Dorset, south Gloucestershire and parts of Wiltshire will be placed into drought measures

Yes....join the club...

[*Stormforce~beka*]

1 minute ago, minus10 said:

Yes....join the club...

Hose pipe bans next ...

[Bristawl Si]

7 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

The Environment Agency has announced all of South-West England is now in drought it means Bristol, Somerset, Dorset, south Gloucestershire and parts of Wiltshire will be placed into drought measures

Means v little to house dwellers and most businesses though. For Bristol and South Glos there are no use-of-water restrictions, like hosepipe bans.

This is about the sum of the action:

Public and businesses in drought affected areas urged to use water wisely as the dry summer impacts the environment.

Action being taken across the area includes additional monitoring of the effects of the dry weather on rivers and responding to environmental emergencies, such as rescuing stranded fish, wherever possible. We will also be ensuring people and companies who have water abstraction licences only operate within the terms of their licence and taking legal action against those who fail to comply or against anyone who abstracts water without a licence.

Edited August 30, 2022 by Bristle Si

[iand61]

So that’s pretty much all of England apart from the Northwest and Northeast regions now under some sort of official drought conditions and with Pennine reservoirs now averaging at 43% full; only the huge volumes of Cumbrian water being carried towards Manchester down the Hawswater and Thirlmere aqueducts is stopping much of the North West slipping into restrictions.

 

 

[Puddy Galore]

Desperate for rain again.  Saturday hopefully looks like it will deliver a good dousing though….fingers crossed.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

Looks like the supposedly very unsettled spell we were supposed to be having has been pushed back as well as downgraded yet again. This has been quite a common occurence all through the year. The rain was supposed to be arriving tonight, but was yesterday pushed back to Sunday. And this Sunday was supposed to be having rain for most of the day in my location, but now we're forecast to have just a little afternoon rain, which will most likely end up being just a few spits and spots. So frustrating. 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Weather Enthusiast91

[Don]

7 minutes ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

Looks like the supposedly very unsettled spell we were supposed to be having has been pushed back as well as downgraded yet again. This has been quite a common occurence all through the year. The rain was supposed to be arriving tonight, but was yesterday pushed back to Sunday. And this Sunday was supposed to be having rain for most of the day in my location, but now we're forecast to have just a little afternoon rain, which will most likely end up being just a few spits and spots. So frustrating. 

Don't worry, it will be relentless come December and January! 

[*Stormforce~beka*]

10 minutes ago, Don said:

Don't worry, it will be relentless come December and January! 

No it won't! It will be snow!! Pft! Get it right man ...