If you go back to the early part of this spring, the concept of me starting this thread just now would have been unthinkable due to the amount of rain which we had then. However, the rest of this spring has since been so dry that there now hasn't been any measurable rainfall at either Edinburgh Gogarbank or the botanic gardens in Edinburgh since 13 May 2018 and so according to what I have read, we are now just now two days away from an official absolute drought being recorded at both of those stations with no still no signs according to the latest model output, of any appreciable rainfall during the foreseeable future.
It might seem as though there was enough rain during the early part of this spring to see us through, but that doesn't tell us the full story. At the botanic gardens in Edinburgh, there was enough rain during that period for this spring to be wetter than average overall but for Edinburgh Gogarbank, it is a completely different story as the amounts of rain during this second half of the spring have been so small, that the total spring rainfall at that station now looks set to fall short of the 1981-2010 average (albeit though, by just a few millimeters).
If we go back a bit further, we had a wet summer last year, but that was then followed by a dry autumn and a slightly drier than average winter overall. This means that as far as Edinburgh Gogarbank is concerned, there hasn't been a wetter than average season there since last summer and even that turned out to be just a temporary interruption to what had been a very dry year until then with a lot of drought talk going on, on this forum at that time.
Looking back over the various posts at that time, I discovered lots of talk about severely depleted groundwater levels which are never going to be replenished overnight. Now, I know that there are parts of the country down south which are seeing anything but a drought just now with the thundery activity which has been going on there just recently. However, that type of rainfall is always very localised and because of that, it is still possible that some places even down there will also be drier than average as a result of them missing out on those thundery downpours.
In addition to that, I have seen a number of posts recently from members who have suggested that whilst this is a good time be making the most of this dry weather after all of the miserable weather of the earlier part of this spring, these members do see any rainfall as being very welcome for those gardens which could probably do with that. In addition to that, there has already been at least wildfire including here in Edinburgh, which has been caused by those very dry conditions. That is a risk which is only going to get worse as this dry weather goes on, as well as the fact that groundwater levels are bound to be further depleted over time, with those gardens also becoming even more desperate to see that increasingly welcome bit of rain.
According to a Scottish Youtuber who does a lot of weather-related stuff and who goes into the model output quite a lot, this really dry spell looks like continuing in this part of the world, well into the month of June and the start of the actual meteorological summer itself. With that in mind and bearing in mind those impacts and potential impacts which I have already mentioned, I thought that this would be a good time to start this thread off so that other forum members can also have their say on all of that.
Edited by user
19 June 2018 07:58:42
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Reason: Not specified
The north of Edinburgh, usually always missing out on snow events which occur not just within the rest of Scotland or the UK, but also within the rest of Edinburgh.