There was a huge fire in the Ashdown Forest yesterday,some as you might have seen it on the news depending where you are .
We take that route across the forest regularly during the summer, this was the first time this year and its very dry.
Edited by user 26 March 2012 16:35:24(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
There are moor fires in north west Scotland too, it's been dry there as well.
Although we've had drought in previous years, modern lifestyle and population numbers mean the lack of rain now affects us more. Our demand for water is greater now than it was even in the dry years of the 70's and when we do get rain, more of it runs off into drains rather than soaking into the ground and topping up the water table because we've covered so much ground with concrete and tarmac.
Indeed - very much what I've been emphasising recently. It doesn't take a big reduction in rainfall to cause problems nowadays
The characteristic unpleasant smell of the mud and muck at the bottom of a very low river was lightly in evidence (in one or two spots) in Bewdley today. It's quite often around in August, but I don't think I've ever smelt it in March before. There'd be hardly any water left if the next three months were as dry as the last three...
In the mid 80's I did a study on the local sewers because raw sewage was discharging into the local river whenever we had heavy rain. Our sewage works was built in 1901 to take an effluent flow (DWF = Dry Weather Flow) of our village plus rainwater run-off from storms up to a capacity that occurred only once in a hundred years. So theoretically, the discharge into the river should have only occurred once in a hundred years, yet it was happening several times a year due to the increased effluent volume.
I looked at our local urban growth over a thirty year period and lifestyle changes, comparing the number of households, roadways, population etc with what we had in the fifties plus changes in water usage. I can't remember my exact findings - my paper's up in the loft somewhere and I'm tempted to go find it, but the most notable change was our increase in water usage per household, mainly due to the use of automatic washing machines, modern bathrooms etc.
When I was young, a lot of houses here didn't have bathrooms, they had a tin bath that came out on a Sunday night and all the kids got bathed in the same six inches of water. Most houses only had an outside loo, so a guzzunder was used at night and was emptied in the morning. We heated water with a coal fire and back boiler, so hot water was used sparingly. Monday was washday, when all the family wash got done, whites first then darker colours, but all in the same water. Now, I have two bathrooms and three loos, my water is heated by a combi boiler that churns out as much hot water as I want and whenever I want it. I have an automatic washing machine that I put on most days.
How things have changed and how our demand for water has increased!
Edited by user 26 March 2012 20:38:51(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
We aren't the only people suffering a drought
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
Might be interesting to see some similar figures for the rest of the Northern Hemisphere.
This is the latest Drought Monitor for a period of 24 months
This is the period of 6 months
http://drought.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/drought.html?map=%2Fwww%2Fdrought%2Fweb_pages%2Fdrought.map&program=%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmapserv&root=%2Fwww%2Fdrought2%2F&map_web_imagepath=%2Ftmp%2F&map_web_imageurl=%2Ftmp%2F&map_web_template=%2Fdrought.html
That 24 month view Gavin, has a total number of people affected by exceptional drought as 44,330,000!!!
I know if this is to be proved correct the drought is going to get worse in 2013 instead of better, this could be a long and severe drought for many
In case you didn't realise, that's the 24 months ending March 2012. It's not a forecast.
Ah right thanks for that
12.4mm in the last 36 days here.
We've had no rain in Darlington since the 17th, and just 17.1mm in the past 2 months
Parts Of Yorkshire in Drought
Drought has spread in England, with parts of East and South Yorkshire now officially affected.
The Environment Agency said public water supplies should not be affected, but lower river and groundwater levels meant businesses and farmers taking water from rivers should use it wisely.
The agency has already declared drought in areas of the South East and East Anglia.
Seven water companies in those areas are to impose hosepipe bans on 5 April.
Yorkshire Water said it did not anticipate any restrictions such as hosepipe bans for the time being.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17533235
I don`t think that drought monitor map is very accurate. The first map shows Northwest England as far north as Lancashire, and most of Wales as badly affected by drought as the Southeast.
The PDFs here are worth looking at and also show how Wales hasn't been as wet as "normal" nor as wet as further north.
http://newsthump.com/2012/03/28/nasa-spacecraft-finds-evidence-of-water-in-south-east-england/B
Edited by user 28 March 2012 17:35:56(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
8.85mm this month
The driest month i have ever recorded since 1988
Last March almost as dry at 13.75mm
Dry spring = wet summer??
Edited by user 29 March 2012 07:49:15(UTC) | Reason: Not specified