to get irritated with people complaining that there can't be a drought because it's rained for a week?

[madmouse]

We will need a lot more rain than this to replenish our reservoirs. The main reservoir near here is very low and some flights of canal locks will be closed this summer unless it keeps pouring. It's been too dry since before last summer! And we've had far too dry a winter (It's true, I cycle to work and didn't get wet nearly as often as usual)

well id idn't notice the winters being particularly dry, and certainly not last summer when it pissed it down every day.
Run out of water in England? what bollocks!! Some people are so gullible they believe everything they are told! As for climate change scientists, I scarcely know where to begin on them!!

Oops I, interested to know what your qualifications are in the subject.

oopsi keep those eyes firmly shut and you won't see a thing. You could aways join the Flat Earth Society?

posessing common sense!

aaaaaah common sense, of course, and no one except you has it. That explains it all.

"We know somebody who worked for the water board all their life. They told us there is not a water shortage. There is more than adequate supplies to last us. In addition to this, they have reserve supplies.

Fascinating. Where do they hide all this water then? Only round here the levels in the reservoirs are desperately low and extremely visible. Are you seriously suggesting that the water companies have siphoned it off into jerry cans?

YANBU, OP. I may well have to block the next fuckwit on Facebook who whinges about the rain and claims that a couple of days precipitation is evidence that we have no shortage of water.

Just marking my place, DH has a 6 hour car journey, he's been working at a waste water treatment works. Some of the comments on here are going to make his journey seem a lot shorter (smile)

As I said, I just got sent that ! Made me too...

Quite Nickel

"We know somebody who worked for the water board all their life. They told us there is not a water shortage. There is more than adequate supplies to last us. In addition to this, they have reserve supplies.

Well, yes, SOME reservoirs are full, or near full. But OTHERS are at around 50% or even lower.....

A very wise person told me that what is common sense to one person isn't common sense to another.

This "Drought Order" is as much about Water Company profiteering as any actual drought risk.

weather anomaly maps in the pull down menus look at the winter and annual rainfall maps over the past couple of years. It's quite interesting to see where the low rainfall areas have been.

Maybe it is because some of us don't live in areas affected by the drought. We have had plenty of rain all winter and are fed up with it.

water situation report from the environment agency makes fascinating reading. One point it says is that "Over half of all indicator sites were
exceptionally low for the time of year. " the drought is rather more widespread than some give it credit for. Seems to really be just the poor soggy nw who has escaped it fully.

oopsi - you are wrong. There is no more tactful way to say it!

I've met a fair few climate scientists and they do know their beans.

Having said that, one of them was once slated on an online forum as having 'a PhD in the Blindingly Obvious'. He was rather amused by that

"The water industry in England and Wales loses 3.36 billion litres of water a day in leaks." says BBC. Might help if the leaks were fixed, then.

Hi madmouse, twitches my whiskers,

I think I might start building an ark and arvertising for pairs of like minded persons who are fed up of feeling permanently damp about my faux-fur.

Anyway, to be serious, I drive over the Woodhead Pass a lot and wonder if it would help if they got rid of all the silt in the bottom of the reservoir when its empty, could they store more during the rainy season?

I'm genuinely asking the question, not sure if its works like that or not? Any reservoir experts?

YANBU OP, but it is funny to talk about a hosepipe ban when there is a torrent of water running down the road outside my house. Oh, and I had to drive through a lake today to collect my children.