Drought Watch

[AderynCoch]

Oddly enough parts of the UK had a drier July than some of the Gulf states thanks to an exceptionally rare rainfall event a few days ago (any amount of rain in the Gulf region at this time of year is very unusual). Doha copped at least 38mm.

(by the way, you'll never guess who Al Jazeera's senior forecaster is)

Rare July rain in Qatar as storms hit Gulf

WWW.ALJAZEERA.COM

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Heavy downpours hit Qatar and other parts of the Gulf in unusual July weather.

[seb]

Hosepipe ban in effect from 12 August for Kent and Sussex, until further notice.

[Nick L]

13 hours ago, minus10 said:

Yes absolutely...clay soils hold moisture and become very hard when they dry out whereas sandy soils drain very quickly ....thats why adding organic matter to all soils e.g compost helps both drainage but also retaining moisture which in turn helps the plants....

Our allotment has clay soils. Regular watering has ensured our crop is going strong! 

[minus10]

30 minutes ago, seb said:

Hosepipe ban in effect from 12 August for Kent and Sussex, until further notice.

Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Sussex......mmm...dominoes?

[Nick L]

Anglian Water have said they have no intention of bringing in a hosepipe ban. We are just within Anglian Water's area!

[Nick L]

Both EC and GFS still have no meaningful rainfall down here throughout their runs. Becoming increasingly concerning now.

[minus10]

This is the ground i am currently seeing in the gardens...

Rock hard too...

[Nick L]

11 minutes ago, minus10 said:

This is the ground i am currently seeing in the gardens...

Rock hard too...

Similar to here. Can genuinely fit my foot in some of the cracks on the allotment.

[seb]

21 minutes ago, minus10 said:

This is the ground i am currently seeing in the gardens...

Rock hard too...

 

9 minutes ago, Nick L said:

Similar to here. Can genuinely fit my foot in some of the cracks on the allotment.

Same here.

[Weather Enthusiast91]

Grasses over here are turning into that lovely lush green colour again as we have had quite a bit of rain over the last few nights, sometimes heavy. Just goes to show that the grass does quickly revive itself once the rains arrive.

[Puddy Galore]

43 minutes ago, Weather Enthusiast91 said:

Grasses over here are turning into that lovely lush green colour again as we have had quite a bit of rain over the last few nights, sometimes heavy. Just goes to show that the grass does quickly revive itself once the rains arrive.

Problem is though around these parts we have had a very strong gusty hot wind for 2 days in a row.  My garden is now bone dry again and I’m back to lugging watering cans around or the hosepipe rescuing plants.  Two hydrangeas needing rescuing with water today, which sort of tells me the rain we had hasn’t really penetrated enough for plants and trees.   

[Summer Sun]

Marks & Spencer will stop selling disposable barbecues in all of its UK stores due to the risk of fire they cause in drought

[minus10]

Extrordinary that with southern, central and Eastern areas of England in drought conditions the met office has issued a severe weather warning for .....you guessed it....rain for Central Tayside, Fife and Grampian in of course Scotland ..

Only in the uk....eh..

[minus10]

.....and while Scotland gets severe weather warnings for rain the green op precip flatline continues for gfs12z for the south of England..

whats more amazing is the rest of the ens are more or less flat until the 12th....gee whiz...

[stainesbloke]

2 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

Marks & Spencer will stop selling disposable barbecues in all of its UK stores due to the risk of fire they cause in drought

Sensible! They’re not very ecological and a permanent bbq is a much better option

[ChannelThunder]

5 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

Marks & Spencer will stop selling disposable barbecues in all of its UK stores due to the risk of fire they cause in drought

Whereas my local Lidl tonight had literally hundreds of the things at the entrance 

[RabbitEars]

14 hours ago, minus10 said:

Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Sussex......mmm...dominoes?

Isle of Man went first... in place last Friday as our reservoirs are at less than 70%. Typically its rained each day since, however only providing an estimated 1% of usable water.

I feel as I'd I've been saying it's been dry since the beginning of the year and only now (after the extreme heat which didn't break any local records) is someone starting to listen! (Not that I've been saying anything to Amy official type people!)

[HighPressure]

A couple of things to note today, SES water don't plan to introduce a hose pipe ban, which is interesting that they rely primarily on ground water via boreholes and wells, it seems to suggest that groundwater levels must be reasonable.

The other thing I have leant today is that the great Thames Water desalination plant at Beckon opened just after I left, is not in operation and will not be used in the event of a drought order. This is because it doesn't actually work properly, engineers forgot to factor in that salt levels rise and fall during the day making the plant completely unreliable, and unable to yield anywhere near the 150Mld promised. I can only continue to hope that companies like Thames are exposed for the shambolic way they run our water supplies.

Money is that matters to them!

[HighPressure]

Anyway got plenty of stuff still growing in my Kent garden :

 

Edited August 3, 2022 by HighPressure

[Weather Enthusiast91]

6 hours ago, Summer Sun said:

Marks & Spencer will stop selling disposable barbecues in all of its UK stores due to the risk of fire they cause in drought

Should be banned completely in my opinion.

[Don]

15 minutes ago, HighPressure said:

Anyway got plenty of stuff still growing in my Kent garden :

 

A typical British landscape in 2100?! 

[minus10]

Now part of Wales...didnt expect that..

Hosepipe ban for Pembrokeshire amid prolonged dry spell

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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Welsh Water says a prolonged period of little rain means there is pressure to maintain supplies.

 

[TwisterGirl81]

There was an advert of the radio earlier from Southwest Water on how to conserve water so I wouldn't be surprised if the parts of the southwest get hosepipe bans too....No proper rain in 2 months after several below average rainfall months, i wouldn't be surprised. 

[richie3846]

12 minutes ago, TwisterGirl81 said:

There was an advert of the radio earlier from Southwest Water on how to conserve water so I wouldn't be surprised if the parts of the southwest get hosepipe bans too....No proper rain in 2 months after several below average rainfall months, i wouldn't be surprised. 

I believe water companies have drought plans, so the first stage is public messaging, and if no change in situation there is a framework for each stage of a drought. These companies which have gone ahead with bans have already passed that stage of just public messaging.

[Nick L]

A useful roundup of where each water company stands on the potential for hosepipe bans etc:

Will there be a hosepipe ban in my area?

WWW.BBC.CO.UK

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Dry weather has seen bans for some parts of southern England, but what about the rest of the UK?