More water compaines are lifting their drought restrictions;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18419163
Thought some peeps might want to see a quick re-cap of my video forecast on April 5th when I speculated we might be seeing the beginning of the end of the drought;
http://www.gavsweathervids.com/events.html
Looking like a lucky call.
No more hospipe ban for my area, not that I use a hospipe very much but at least my neigbour can water my pots now while I am away
Can we now see an investigation into why water companies are charging us high prices and why they are wasting millions of gallons of water every day?
I am not regretting it, we needed it badly .
To add insult to injury we had a burst water main here last Saturday
Usually when the media start worrying about drought the rain comes back with a vengence. I strongly suspect that sometime during 2012 we'll have a very wet period.
Question is, will it start before, during or after summer?
Before and during so far!
Nah, I love rain ,but I'm just a sociopathic weirdo
Must be more than just the 2 of us on here
No offence meant, but...
Of course (!?) it was sensible to hope for a higher than average rainfall from March on the back of around two years of substantially lower than average rainfall which leaad to drought conditions and imposition of regulations by water companies which at the very least were open to challenge from the perspective of their poor stewardship of existing resources and questionable charging for the resources they could provide.
So there were indeed people hoping the situation might right itself. That seems perfectly sensible to me. Does it not to you?
Indeed the ideal scenario might have been that we had not had such a dry autumn and winter and hence avoided the problem in the first place.
Did that mean that those that wanted a shift to wetter conditions as we approached spring wanted exceptional wet and cold conditions? There is surely a differnce between wanting a change from one exceptional set of circumstances to necessarily insisting the boat rock to the other extreme.
Or were you wishing for an extension of parched, drought conditions, water restrictions, higher bills, dead gardends for the next few years?
The rains have come. Great. Let's hope the rest of summer will fly the flag and introduce some sun. Then I'll fancy a cool and snowy winter.
"Be careful what you wish for" is the most pointless statement anyone can make wrt weather. Unless I'm missing something, we have no control over weather and cannot influence it. What happens will happen anyway.
As for the drought, I see SE Water(which covers me) still have their hosepipe ban. I wonder how much water has been saved by this ban since its implementation on the 5th April?
From what I read, the area's like yours who still maintain a hosepipe ban is that they rely more on ground water than reservoirs which is still low at the moment.
Thames Water say imposing the temporary hosepipe ban saved 100 million litres a day during the May hot spell.
Edited by user 14 June 2012 10:17:19(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
From what I read, the area's like yours who still maintain a hosepipe ban is that they rely more on ground water than reservioirs, which is still low at the moment.
Thames Water say imposing the temporary hosepipe ban saved them 100 million litres a day during the May hot spell.
Good point. I think that good spell is getting lost amongst the rubbish being served up since early April
As with all area based companies, I suspect that some parts of the SE Water area could be free from a ban but others should not and hence the whole ban has to remain
I realised today that where I live in Arborfield is in the extreme South-Eastern corner of Thames Water's coverage area. So our hosepipe ban has been lifted, whilst just a mile away to the east in Barkham, or to the south and east in Finchampstead and Eversley, they still have a ban.
I used to think that the Thames Water area covered everywhere that is drained by the river Thames, but that is clearly not true as those areas to the south and east of me in South East Water are drained by tributaries of the Thames. I assume the means of obtaining water is much the same just down the road as it is at home, so it must just be bad luck for those nearby with a ban, because elsewhere in the same area has lower water reserves.
Edited by user 14 June 2012 10:22:58(UTC) | Reason: Not specified
Well the boundary will be drawn somewhere but that's the joy of so many water companies LOL
Darren we pay for fresh water from SE water, and for drainage to Thames Water, I recall that my mum always told me our water came from natural reservoirs beneath the South Downs, wether that is still true I have no idea. Seems incredibly daft to me that given the increase in homes in this region there haven't been any projects to build new reservoirs for the area.
Just did a bit of adding up, and it turns out that I have picked up 6.6 mm of rain since last Friday. Yes, that's a week ago (although that doesn't include the 6.2 mm that fell last Thursday). So, we are still struggling in terms of rainfall - albeit on a very localised scale. All part of us living under a rain deflector.