Huge fire just south of me now in Thamesmead.

https://twitter.com/markhac56209533/status/1551226336093552640?s=21&t=vKMX3Epr9wmE6HIVoQKy8A

 

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local yobs are probably trying to start them on purpose, or chavs having BBQs or throwing fags

 

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Huge fire just south of me now in Thamesmead.

https://twitter.com/markhac56209533/status/1551226336093552640?s=21&t=vKMX3Epr9wmE6HIVoQKy8A

 

and....

Fire damages 33 hectares at Springwatch's Wild Ken Hill

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-62237798

Roger

 

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local yobs are probably trying to start them on purpose, or chavs having BBQs or throwing fags

 

Most grass fires are started by people, whether it's accidental or deliberate. I suspect with yobs though, it's the latter trying to show everyone how big an' 'ard they are.

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We're around 60-70mm off the average total for this time of year down here which isn't really an issue nor unusual. An average is based on multiple (usually 30) years, and some years are dryer whilst others are wetter.
Also averages can be misleading especially during the summer/ warmer months of May - September as often larger rain totals come in form of downpours from thunderstorms & thundery fronts. One such event could easily dump 20-50mm in a matter of hours.

 

Just 5.1mm here today, and that came in the form of sporadic drizzle spells rather than from anything remotely moderate or heavy, but the very humid conditions once again (DP 18c ) should ensure that that pitiful amount of rain can penetrate into the ground with a relative ease.  

Since posting that yesterday, a further 35mm of rain has fallen.

The earth is refreshed! 

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local yobs are probably trying to start them on purpose, or chavs having BBQs or throwing fags

And some are started through carelessness. A piece of glass will act as a magnifying glass on tinder dry grass.  My brother paid £400 for a patio set last weekend and ruined the table by leaving glasses on it in the sun, although they were on coasters. It now has several little melted patches. 

[edit] He’s just sent me a photo of plastic tables outside his local pub with exactly the same melt marks. The landlord thought someone had been stubbing cigarettes out on them and it does look like that.  Bro has put him right though!  So Beast, if there are little melt marks on plastic furniture outside your ‘Spoons, you can tell the landlord how to prevent it happening again.  

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Absolutely lashing it down here now , 6mm last couple of hours, plans ruined, not really forecast. Contrast to the SE and East Anglia, 31c in Norwich feels thousands of miles away.

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Absolutely lashing it down here now , 6mm last couple of hours, plans ruined, not really forecast. Contrast to the SE and East Anglia, 31c in Norwich feels thousands of miles away.

Been watching radar and hoping that band edges a bit north but been nothing here yet.
We had jut over 2mm after midnight tings look fresher but has barely damped earth and windy today so gone already.
Tomorrow looks quite showery with potential for 10mm or next to none if unlucky.

This happened yesterday suspect someone deliberately lit it and flames were racing up the slope as fast as you could run - but luckily spotted early and soon halted - but peat is alight underground it will burn until it rains seriously.

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Been watching radar and hoping that band edges a bit north but been nothing here yet.
We had jut over 2mm after midnight tings look fresher but has barely damped earth and windy today so gone already.
Tomorrow looks quite showery with potential for 10mm or next to none if unlucky.

This happened yesterday suspect someone deliberately lit it and flames were racing up the slope as fast as you could run - but luckily spotted early and soon halted - but peat is alight underground it will burn until it rains seriously.

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Do they not have regular controlled fires to create fire-breakers? I know they do it the new forest. 

That is part of the purpose of controlled burning small areas through winter when peat is wet but it is now bureaucratically all but impossible to do having been blocked by do-gooders - so destructive summer fires will soon run riot. About half a mile ahead of it was a stone road but it would have been straight across that some 10 metres wide with the wind yesterday.
The moors here are generally too rough and stony for mechanical fire break creation.

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I feel like I'm on a different continent hearing about drought and wildfires in England. Since Friday evening, we've had about 13mm. Judging from local weather stations, that's more or less the only significant rain here this month(I can't say exactly as one of my son kicked a football against my rain gauge, messing up the readings). But because we've had plenty rain before July, the landscape looks pretty much normal for the time of year. It's hard to believe how different it is just 300 or so miles away.

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Absolutely lashing it down here now , 6mm last couple of hours, plans ruined, not really forecast. Contrast to the SE and East Anglia, 31c in Norwich feels thousands of miles away.

That was forecast for us but it slipped by to our north and we’ve had nothing again!  iPhone app kept saying, rain will stop in X minutes, but in reality it hasn’t ever started.  It’s been warm but we haven’t had much sun, so it seems a waste of a cloudy day. 

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I feel like I'm on a different continent hearing about drought and wildfires in England. Since Friday evening, we've had about 13mm. Judging from local weather stations, that's more or less the only significant rain here this month(I can't say exactly as one of my son kicked a football against my rain gauge, messing up the readings). But because we've had plenty rain before July, the landscape looks pretty much normal for the time of year. It's hard to believe how different it is just 300 or so miles away.

  If it isn’t mating pigeons, it’s sons with footballs!  

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  If it isn’t mating pigeons, it’s sons with footballs!  

😁

The worst of it is, I haven't been able to find out which one of the two did it.. 

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Do they not have regular controlled fires to create fire-breakers? I know they do it the new forest. 

We were at Hook-with-Warsash nature reserve today. Lovely area of coastal gorse between a shingle shelf beach and tidal creeks. In the last two years we have enjoyed phalaropes, godwits, Dartford warblers and avocets here among dozens of other less common species.

Walked the dog here for the first time since May and horrified to see more than three quarters of the coastal gorse turned to charcoal.

Straw that broke was the carcified corpse of a slowworm. I feel really down about this.

Broken glass? Discarded cigarette? All possible. But in this nature reserve if they've 'managed' this area by burning I will terminate my subscription to the HIOW Wildlife Trust.

Don't think they did though.

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We were at Hook-with-Warsash nature reserve today. Lovely area of coastal gorse between a shingle shelf beach and tidal creeks. In the last two years we have enjoyed phalaropes, godwits, Dartford warblers and avocets here among dozens of other less common species.

Walked the dog here for the first time since May and horrified to see more than three quarters of the coastal gorse turned to charcoal.

Straw that broke was the carcified corpse of a slowworm. I feel really down about this.

Broken glass? Discarded cigarette? All possible. But in this nature reserve if they've 'managed' this area by burning I will terminate my subscription to the HIOW Wildlife Trust.

Don't think they did though.

They won't have attempted controlled burn in summer, the idea is to do small sections in very controlled way when it is only just dry enough to go.
On the moors a winter burn through fine top growth flashes by quickly and barely touches the ground you sometimes see bits of litter like cigarette packets almost untouched on the ground afterwards so very limited casualties to invertebrates etc.
Burning wildly now every last thing is gone including peat down to subsoil and likely as not over many acres not a small rectangular plot.

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😁

The worst of it is, I haven't been able to find out which one of the two did it.. 

  At least they’re sticking together!    

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They won't have attempted controlled burn in summer, the idea is to do small sections in very controlled way when it is only just dry enough to go.
On the moors a winter burn through fine top growth flashes by quickly and barely touches the ground you sometimes see bits of litter like cigarette packets almost untouched on the ground afterwards so very limited casualties to invertebrates etc.
Burning wildly now every last thing is gone including peat down to subsoil and likely as not over many acres not a small rectangular plot.

Also I would have thought they would have checked for reptiles, birds,  and the alike before burning, or I would at least like to think this the case. In the New forest it's mostly heather & gorse I've seen burnt with notices saying what has happened. 

We're around 60-70mm off the average total for this time of year down here which isn't really an issue nor unusual. An average is based on multiple (usually 30) years, and some years are dryer whilst others are wetter.
Also averages can be misleading especially during the summer/ warmer months of May - September as often larger rain totals come in form of downpours from thunderstorms & thundery fronts. One such event could easily dump 20-50mm in a matter of hours.

But how much evaporation has there been? Knowing that would improve the picture of how dry things are.

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