After all the rain, London's reservoirs are around 96% full, despite having the highest population density and being a dry region. London has always had to be careful, the west of England not so much.
We've had no rain here in a long time. Over Summer all 4 of my 240L butts were fine (for the first time I can remember - they're usually all empty by June), but over the last few weeks there's not been a drop. I've got 1 butt that's 1/3 full now - the rest are empty and having to water with a hose frequently again. The ground is like concrete. There's no sign of rain here either in the long-range forecasts - so it seems we're back to 'normal' here
PS A mate volunteers at Hanningfield reservoir which he says is almost full.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
The weather patterns this year are certainly extreme in the south-east. One of the: driest ever Feb, the wettest March, the wettest July and the hottest Sept.
I watched a programme last night about the Great Flood of 2007. I live in Gloucester so actually experienced it, although we live on higher ground so didn't have issues with property flooding. It took my wife nearly 6 hours to drive the 10 miles from work to home. It's not an experience I would wish to repeat and much does seem to have been done on flood prevention since. The main water treatment works for the area flooded and we had only bottled water for quite a while. That would have paled into insignificance if the main electrical distribution complex for the South West of England and South Wales had been inundated. An estimated half million people would have been without power for a long time as all the equipment was bespoke for that site and nothing could simply have been bought 'off the shelf'. As one contributor to the programme asked "How do you evacuate that many people, and where do you put them?"
Over the past ten years I have been involved with projects to reduce flooding local to me. We have just had five new SuDs systems put in this year; we are in a valley, where five small rivers meet, below a hill covered in moving springs.
Our neighbourhood has had no major flooding event this year - despite very heavy downpours over the summer. I take that as a mark of better recent rain management and it's a relief. No homes ruined, drains working now and SuDs taking more excess water.
I spoke too soon. Despite all the new SuDs and checking the drains are clear over this summer, and annual gutter/grate clearance, we still had local flooding last night. No homes, but it was a close run thing. Homes and businesses were built right over a small river. The culvert really needs expanding dramatically, I suspect, but I doubt that will ever be done.
Been another strange summer down here, though nowhere near as stressful as last year. Cold and sunny in May, then a warm sunny June, with 6 weeks straight without rain across those two months (I feared the worst). Then the coolest, wettest July I can remember in years. A mixed bag in August (good!), then until a few days ago a hot dry September with 3 straight weeks without rain.
So probably a normal amount of rain across the whole growing season but concentrated in a long wet spell in between two long dry ones.
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Over Summer all 4 of my 240L butts were fine (for the first time I can remember - they're usually all empty by June), but over the last few weeks there's not been a drop.
I've got 1 butt that's 1/3 full now - the rest are empty and having to water with a hose frequently again. The ground is like concrete.
There's no sign of rain here either in the long-range forecasts - so it seems we're back to 'normal' here
PS A mate volunteers at Hanningfield reservoir which he says is almost full.
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I spoke too soon. Despite all the new SuDs and checking the drains are clear over this summer, and annual gutter/grate clearance, we still had local flooding last night. No homes, but it was a close run thing. Homes and businesses were built right over a small river. The culvert really needs expanding dramatically, I suspect, but I doubt that will ever be done.
Cold and sunny in May, then a warm sunny June, with 6 weeks straight without rain across those two months (I feared the worst). Then the coolest, wettest July I can remember in years. A mixed bag in August (good!), then until a few days ago a hot dry September with 3 straight weeks without rain.
So probably a normal amount of rain across the whole growing season but concentrated in a long wet spell in between two long dry ones.