Article about a 'British super-drought'

[GloriaSmud]

In today's Guardian.

Ha! Ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha!

Sorry, just lauging at the picture of the Thirlmere Reservoir. I don't know when that was taken, but it has rained pretty solidly around here for the last 4 months. It did have a short break around the end of Sept, but rained the whole of last summer as well.

I've heard that there is hardly any rain down south. I was shocked when on a work trip, I saw reservoirs almost empty, but there is most definitely not a drought in Cumbria.

It rained solidly here (Wales-ish) from the end of October 'til Christmas! It was a fairly wet summer as well, but last spring was very dry.

We are very aware of water as we don't have a mains supply, we are on our own spring. It does run low most summers and almost stopped last year for a few days, but luckily we have good rainwater collection systems in place so that is used for washing machine and toilet flushing, leaving the spring for drinking and cooking.

Drought summit to be held today.

bbc article

down here it is getting pretty serious.

The thing is - what has made it exceedingly dry in the south and east has made the north and west even wetter than normal. You have got your own rain and ours too ! It is barely rained in Norfolk for about a year now - the odd day or two but nothing significant. The field drains near us are bone dry - in February ! Historically known as February fill dyke (dyke = ditch in this instance :)).

I want your dry so much.

Its fucking miserable up here. I used to live in the East and I can remember the days when a grey sky meant a grey sky, not oh fuck I'm getting soaked again.

absolutely throckenholt.

drought decleared

a good time (if you've not already got one or more) to buy rain butts - then see if they fill up.......

Handy thing we discovered a couple of years ago - a neighbour gave us their old pond pump. After a good clean, we can now use it to pump water out of our bath and into the water butt. Bath water doesnt keep well for long but can be handy for non veg stuff.

hose pipe bans for some SE/southern areas. tbh I'm surprised they didnt come in last summer,

I'm in a drought area and we have just seen high numbers of trees lobbed due to drought-damage. That really shocked me and made it rather real.

Anglian water were on our local news announcing a hosepipe ban in the east from 5th April.

Is hosepipe ban likely to last all spring and summer? Will they rescind it if it rains a lot? My poor veg plot.

it is very real, but not seen any actual effects. Tickety, that is a bit of a shock. Have measured ridiculously low amounts of rain this winter. Going to be a nightmare for gorse fires round here.

(wonders whether we'll get a 2007 type summer)

DH just ranting away about this - what is annoying is that 20% of treated water gets wasted due to water leaks before it actually reaches the end consumer.

Greed and failure to invest in the infrastructure by the water companies

Viva, unless we get floods I expect not.

quite interesting report
more reports

Viva they weren't specific on when it might end, only when its starting.

I'll get dh to get the bbq out - that usually ensures rain!

We had a hosepipe ban last summer & it rained the whole time.

At least you didnt need your hosepipe then HJ!

I'm not scientifically minded, but I can't see why in this day and age they can't somehow harness the fact we live on an island to help with dry conditions. Is there a scientific reason why?

Lol learningtofly so so true!

I think it is bit much to call it a British super drought as Scotland doesn't seem to be joining in.

viva you can safe the bath water for your veg plot.
and also for the trees in the roads. poor things are really suffering.

Come to the west of Scotland - plenty of water here!!

There's no British Super Drought.

I think they mean the English Super Drought, or even the South-East English Super Drought. According to the BBC it's affecting:

Lincolnshire
Cambridgeshire
Hampshire
West Sussex
East Sussex
Kent
London
Surrey
Berkshire
Hertfordshire
Buckinghamshire
Oxfordshire
parts of Bedfordshire
parts of Northamptonshire
west Norfolk
east Gloucestershire

Not Wales or Scotland.

Why do the BBC do this? I know the UK isn't massive, but there are events that are not British but are specific to a particular area within Britain and should be noted as such. They did the same with the 'British Riots' last summer.

There's no sign of a drought where I am in the West of Scotland. It never bloody stops raining here.

Those who have commented on the British aspect are spot on! Tis an England thing (you lot 'up there' seemed to have nicked all our rain!)

Would you like some water? We'll sell give you some when Scotland is independent mwa ha ha

vickety - I suspect that part of it is that our climate down here has become drier pretty rapidly, so infrastructure is not keeping up. heathrow data over a number of years. Not got time to put it into excel to see if I'm correct.

Plus also of course the huge increase in population down here has a massive impact.