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Drought Across The East Anglia


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Posted
  • Location: Great Yeldham, North Essex
  • Location: Great Yeldham, North Essex

As you guys may have heard the past 7 months have been very dry here in East Anglia. Since May 1st we have recieved just 101mm of rainfall in Great Yeldham, north Eseex. I appreciate that the dry weather has been localised with areas just 20 miles further south receiving much more rainfall (although still way below average) Many areas of East Anglia missed the rainfall in July due to the convective nature of the showers, with areas adjacent to the coast receiving the least and the result has been a siginificant period of drought locally. Throughout north Essex rivers are currently at there lowest levels for several years. The river Chelmer has completely dried up in its upper reaches as has the river which runs through Finchingfield. As a result, the famous pond which runs through Finchingfield has dried up for the first time in 108 years. These photos were taken today but I have also included a photo of how the pond should look.

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Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire

Wow those are striking images. Thankfully though it is only a fairly localised drough/extended dry spell and not a national one.

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Posted
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)
  • Location: Caterham-on-the-hill, Surrey, 190m asl (home), Heathrow (work)

Too much water extraction lowering the water table maybe?

I imagine the pressures of extra housing/population influx in Essex as to some parts of Kent are putting a real strain on water resources in the SE, being the driest area of the UK and the most densely populated.

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Posted
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)

I think I can include other parts of the South East here as the water level in the dew ponds on the downs is the lowest I've seen it for some time.

Our paved path to the front door at home has started to drop in places and when we lifted a few to check what was going on, the concrete was fine but the ground beneath it was drying out and sinking - first time that's happened in the 11 years since it was laid.

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Posted
  • Location: Bexley (home), C London (work)
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms
  • Location: Bexley (home), C London (work)

I think I can include other parts of the South East here as the water level in the dew ponds on the downs is the lowest I've seen it for some time.

Our paved path to the front door at home has started to drop in places and when we lifted a few to check what was going on, the concrete was fine but the ground beneath it was drying out and sinking - first time that's happened in the 11 years since it was laid.

Ditto - it has been so dry here too, the lawns are cracking and the ground is dusty. Granted, we might not be THE driest, but nevertheless, the lack of rainfall is actually rather concerning IMO. MW has all the stats for our general area :) but I think the only thing keeping the grass slightly green is the substantial dew we are getting in the evening now.

As Nick F said, we are the most densely populated region of the UK, however receive the least rainfall. The last rain we have had of note, was the rain which fell last Tuesday. The ground is so hard and dry that most of it sat on the surface, 'ran off' or evaporated. Both before and since there has been virtually no rainfall. Yes there was a scattering of thunderstorms Sat night, but they were very localised and didn't in fact produce any rain where I was.

There is meant to be a couple of quite vigorous depressions trying to head our way later this week, however in the mean time it is High pressure continuing to dominate. At the present stage, the rainfall (as ever) is forecast to run into the NW with the SE getting at the very most a scattered shower (if that) along with temperatures into the low 20s. GFS is suggesting the rapidly weakening weather front may give some patchy rain for the SE on Thursday, with the equally light rain not expected until the Thursday after that!!

The government want to the develop the SE and provide more and more housing - when will they learn that it is simply not viable. "I don't think the UK is over-populated" a lot of the wise crack politicians say...maybe not. But the South East IS, and unless more provisions are made for the supply of water, a 'HOT and DRY' summer would not be something we'd want, but could cost many lives! This summer has been warmer and drier, but another summer like 2006, 1995/6 (can't remember which was the bad one) and the mortality rate could indeed soar!

I digress....Autumn hose pipe ban anyone?

Edited by Harry
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Posted
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley
  • Location: Leigh On Sea - Essex & Tornado Alley

Not much better here in SE Essex with only 112mm since June 1st which is just below normal, parts of my garden now look like the 1976 Drought Pictures of dried up and cracked river beds, very dusty and the grass is still a yellowy brown colour. Thank god we got some of the bigger Convective Showers in July or we would be in serious trouble.

June 31.2mm

July 62.4mm

Aug 9.7mm

Sep 8.7mm Up to 21st September!

Grim Reading

Paul S

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Posted
  • Location: Home near Sellindge, 80m/250feet, 5miles from Coast
  • Weather Preferences: Severe Storms and Snow
  • Location: Home near Sellindge, 80m/250feet, 5miles from Coast

There is a pond here thats nearly dried up , first time i've seen it like that in awhile...

However i'm not concerned it will return to normal at some point , then people will start complaining it's raining too much!. :)

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Posted
  • Location: Nr Appleby in Westmorland
  • Location: Nr Appleby in Westmorland

Ahhhh....Finchingfield. Some of Lovejoy's finest moments came sitting having a drink near that pond...and Eric's. I remember when he copped off with Sarah Alexander who was playing a tourist information receptionist in eipsode 3, series 3, right where those photos were taken.

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Posted
  • Location: Bexley (home), C London (work)
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms
  • Location: Bexley (home), C London (work)

There is a pond here thats nearly dried up , first time i've seen it like that in awhile...

However i'm not concerned it will return to normal at some point , then people will start complaining it's raining too much!. :aggressive:

Yeah I thought that - queue rain and we'll be miserable, lol

Problem is, when it rains, it will probably really rain. Combined with the hard ground and increasing autumn leaf fall, I suspect a risk of flooding will rapidly increase, particularly if the depressions and associated fronts pack some punch! Judging by GFS we still have another good fortnight of predominately dry weather (increasing ground hardness and leaf fall) before anything in the way of 'decent rainfall' arrives.

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Posted
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)
Suffolk has been warm and sunny with little rain, leaving gardens and nature reserves brown, fields and heaths tinder dry, and everyone enjoying some wonderful weather. In fact, East Anglia has been as dry as Jerusalem, more like the dusty Middle East than the green and pleasant land that is usually England.

www.eveningstar.co.uk/

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

I was at Exeter rather than UEA between March and June, so I cannot be entirely sure of what happened in Norwich, but my impression is that March and April were very dry, and that May and June were quite dry in spite of a big thunderstorm on the 15th June.

I returned to UEA in July which was a month dominated by sunshine and showers and frequent thunder (thunder on 7 days in total). As per usual with sunshine and showers, some days saw one shower after another while others stayed largely or entirely dry. It was not as wet as over most other parts of the country which as well as having a lot of showers also saw a fair amount of frontal rain at times, e.g. 40-50mm of frontal rain in north-east England on the 17th. It is also worth noting that the short, sharp rainfall that is characteristic of convective storms (like Norwich's deluges on 15 June and repeatedly during July) does not infiltrate as effectively into the soils as steady frontal rain.

August here was very dry. The first third was mainly dry and cloudy with the odd bit of drizzle, but the middle third turned progressively warmer and sunnier and the third week was sunny and warm almost throughout with 27C reached on two of the days. A couple of showers occurred on the 20th and 21st, accompanied by thunder early on the 20th. The last third continued dry (also 28.2C on the 24th at Norwich Airport) and Septemmber has also been very dry. Since July I'd be surprised if we had over 1mm rain on more than a few days.

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Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire

It is dry here but not like in East Anglia by the sounds of it. The ground is like concrete but the grass is still a healthy green, no signs of it dying off just yet. The only brown in sight are the leaves on some trees.

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Posted
  • Location: Heswall, Wirral
  • Weather Preferences: Summer: warm, humid, thundery. Winter: mild, stormy, some snow.
  • Location: Heswall, Wirral

During the summer we mustered up 116mm of rain between Beginning of June to end of August, but the rain that fell was small amounts and evenly distributed. Because of the fairly humid summer conditions, the top layer of soil stayed fairly moist through most of summer. Now the weather has been dry for more than 7 days, whetever moisture was there has completely gone leaving it bone dry to about 15cm down which is not surprising given how little rainfall had fallen locally around here!

Impressive photos by the way, that river has definitely seen the affects of the drought there!

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Posted
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)
  • Location: Eastbourne, East Sussex (work in Mid Sussex)

Well someone is doing alright out of it!

But as an old saying goes, “September dries up wells or breaks down bridges”. In southeast England and East Anglia rainfall has been so meagre that rivers are starting to run low. Kent was the driest area in Britain, with 114mm (4.5in) of rain, a quarter below its average, resulting in bumper fruit crops.

In fact, hardly a drop of rain has fallen for weeks over the southeast corner of England, from Suffolk to West Sussex. The seaside resort of Clacton has basked in six weeks of dry conditions, which helped to bring more than 800,000 visitors to the famous pier.

www.timesonline.co.uk

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Posted
  • Location: Lakenham, Norwich, Norfolk 23m asl
  • Location: Lakenham, Norwich, Norfolk 23m asl

Back at home we've had 44.0% of the average rainfall for August, and so far September has seen 40.8%.

So far the September and August rainfall lies at 44.1mm

I'd put it lower than that for Norwich- I recorded 9.9 mm for August and 13.2 mm for September to date,

not sure how that figures as percentiles but I'm guessing less than 40% for each...

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Posted
  • Location: Near Matlock, Derbyshire
  • Location: Near Matlock, Derbyshire

I'm glad this thread has been started, I don't think people realise how dry it has been this summer. Apart from July, when we had 221% of our average rainfall, 6 of the last 7 months have been drier than normal, including:

June: 46% of average rainfall

August: 37%

September so far: 4%

Everything is dying out there, grass (I know it will come back eventually), trees and plants. Its like being in the Middle East with dust and dirt everywhere and a very dry, barren landscape.

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Posted
  • Location: Bexley (home), C London (work)
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms
  • Location: Bexley (home), C London (work)

I'm glad this thread has been started, I don't think people realise how dry it has been this summer. Apart from July, when we had 221% of our average rainfall, 6 of the last 7 months have been drier than normal, including:

June: 46% of average rainfall

August: 37%

September so far: 4%

Everything is dying out there, grass (I know it will come back eventually), trees and plants. Its like being in the Middle East with dust and dirt everywhere and a very dry, barren landscape.

221% in July! :blink: :shok: I know there was some fairly frequent thunderstorms in July, but still!! I think Kent bagged above average rainfall in July also, but like you, since the snowfall in February...significantly below average.

Dry dry dry! The dust I kick across the grass now as I walk is getting more and more prevalent...

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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

I'd put it lower than that for Norwich- I recorded 9.9 mm for August and 13.2 mm for September to date,

not sure how that figures as percentiles but I'm guessing less than 40% for each...

9.9mm for August is just under 20% of the average. 13.2mm for 1-22 September would be about 30% of average.

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Posted
  • Location: Aldborough, North Norfolk
  • Location: Aldborough, North Norfolk

Well, North Norfolk is a microcosm of East Anglia, we had one storm in August that delivered a stonking 1.6 inches in about 2 hours, other than that August was pretty much dry apart from some drizzle. I live just on the south side of the Cromer ridge, the Terminal moraine of the ice sheet from the last Ice Age, thankfully the underground water is holding up well, and even in real drought years we've rarely had a hosepipe ban here. But the grass is, as others have commented, pretty brown, but our sunflowers are between 10 and 12 ft high, will post the photo when I get chance

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Posted
  • Location: Great Yeldham, North Essex
  • Location: Great Yeldham, North Essex

Thanks guys for all the interest in this thread. Today was another day of mostly wall to wall sunshine and another evening of watering the vegetables. Ofcourse as many have mentioned, when it does finally change it will problably end up being too wet!

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Posted
  • Location: Heswall, Wirral
  • Weather Preferences: Summer: warm, humid, thundery. Winter: mild, stormy, some snow.
  • Location: Heswall, Wirral

Still not a drop of rain here since the dry spell began, I had to hose the garden yesterday because it's so dry. A fair few places up this way around Lancashire in particular have reported drizzle though I think

Edited by SPWirral
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