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Drought - Summer - 2018?


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Posted
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet
  • Location: Leeds/Bradford border, 185 metres above sea level, around 600 feet
12 minutes ago, seaside 60 said:

Yes but the water companies scream drought very early these days.
The main reason I recon is that its the same amount of water feeding hundreds of thousands more homes and businesses than say the 70/80s and as such there it is used up far quicker.

The reason is much the same as was the case in 95, namely that a lot of water pipes are still at least part Victorian and leak heavily. 

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Posted
  • Location: Cambridge, UK
  • Weather Preferences: Summer > Spring > Winter > Autumn :-)
  • Location: Cambridge, UK
32 minutes ago, seaside 60 said:

Yes but the water companies scream drought very early these days.
The main reason I recon is that its the same amount of water feeding hundreds of thousands more homes and businesses than say the 70/80s and as such there it is used up far quicker.

For sure, I see my quote at the end of may has been an epic fail too! :D

Who'd have thought all of June would be bone dry, and now what looks like the first half of July too. It wasn't really an issue when I posted that back in May, but another 6 weeks down the line it sure as hell is. Drought conditions for certain, and not just restricted to the usual spots.

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Guest Delete Me

We've had extremely low pressure in Cheshire East since Monday and as of yesterday no water at all.

United Utilities simply cannot treat the water quick enough to supply their customers, so we've got water tankers feeding a village of 300 currently.

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Posted
  • Location: Shoeburyness, SE Essex
  • Weather Preferences: Cool clear sunny weather all year.
  • Location: Shoeburyness, SE Essex
52 minutes ago, summer blizzard said:

The reason is much the same as was the case in 95, namely that a lot of water pipes are still at least part Victorian and leak heavily. 

Hadn't a lot of that been sorted after the 2010-12 drought.

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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
2 hours ago, Paul Faulkner said:

We've had extremely low pressure in Cheshire East since Monday and as of yesterday no water at all.

United Utilities simply cannot treat the water quick enough to supply their customers, so we've got water tankers feeding a village of 300 currently.

What is a shocking lack of investment in the water supply.

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Posted
  • Location: halifax 125m
  • Weather Preferences: extremes the unusual and interesting facts
  • Location: halifax 125m
3 hours ago, The PIT said:

What is a shocking lack of investment in the water supply.

Not sure where you get that statement from?

 

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Posted
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
  • Weather Preferences: Any Extreme
  • Location: Sheffield South Yorkshire 160M Powering the Sheffield Shield
59 minutes ago, hillbilly said:

Not sure where you get that statement from?

 

Pretty simple really. The damns are full however the issue is that cannot treat the water quickly enough. This which shows that they haven't catered for the increase of demand due to increase in population and development. It's also doubtful if the leakage problem has been addressed very much if at all.

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Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
1 hour ago, The PIT said:

Pretty simple really. The damns are full however the issue is that cannot treat the water quickly enough. This which shows that they haven't catered for the increase of demand due to increase in population and development. It's also doubtful if the leakage problem has been addressed very much if at all.

But will bill payers get a refund? Of course not. Any other service, if you were getting a shoddy product you'd be entitled to your money back.

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Posted
  • Location: Aviemore
  • Location: Aviemore
7 minutes ago, Nick L said:

But will bill payers get a refund? Of course not. Any other service, if you were getting a shoddy product you'd be entitled to your money back.

That's not really true tbh, do you get a refund when your broadband runs slow? In most instances no. Water is a finite resource.

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Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
8 minutes ago, Paul said:

That's not really true tbh, do you get a refund when your broadband runs slow? In most instances no. Water is a finite resource.

I've had an instance of "free" upgrades when I've complained of slow broadband and threatened to leave. But can you do similar bargaining with water companies? Nope, because they have a monopoly on the area they operate in.

Edited by Nick L
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Posted
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.
  • Weather Preferences: Thunder, snow, heat, sunshine...
  • Location: Beccles, Suffolk.

IMO, there's only one thing that's worse than a state-run monopoly; a privately-owned monopoly...?

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

But anyway, what is the official definition of a drought in this country? I could have sworn I saw that the Met Office definition is 2 weeks without rain? @johnholmes perhaps you could enlighten us?

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Posted
  • Location: Irlam
  • Location: Irlam
14 minutes ago, Nick L said:

But anyway, what is the official definition of a drought in this country? I could have sworn I saw that the Met Office definition is 2 weeks without rain? @johnholmes perhaps you could enlighten us?

Absolute drought is at least 15 consecutive days of negligible rainfall. 

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Posted
  • Location: Leeds
  • Weather Preferences: snow, heat, thunderstorms
  • Location: Leeds
18 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

Absolute drought is at least 15 consecutive days of negligible rainfall. 

What is negligible? Below 1mm? Below 0.5mm?

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Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
1 hour ago, Weather-history said:

Absolute drought is at least 15 consecutive days of negligible rainfall. 

Well we've battered that across many areas then. Certainly the most parched period I can remember for a number of years.

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Posted
  • Location: Dorset
  • Weather Preferences: warehamwx.co.uk
  • Location: Dorset

Ground water is low, that can't be denied. If you  get a decent Summer, it's guaranteed that some rivers/streams will run dry - it's normal. Ground water here, is always low, but doesn't raise any concerns. I checked out a reservoir website for the South for instance, the majority of them are all running above average, so Pit is probably correct, they cannot treat the water fast enough to supply it.

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Posted
  • Location: Powys Mid Wales borders.
  • Location: Powys Mid Wales borders.

Lucky we had all that torrential thunderstorms end of may,it was floods then crazy,june has given early in the month 38mm.

Now the strong wall to wall sun is melting the roads,and fields are now browning,water is fine.... but some places were bone dry in may.

Edited by Snowyowl9
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Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
16 minutes ago, Mapantz said:

Ground water is low, that can't be denied. If you  get a decent Summer, it's guaranteed that some rivers/streams will run dry - it's normal. Ground water here, is always low, but doesn't raise any concerns. I checked out a reservoir website for the South for instance, the majority of them are all running above average, so Pit is probably correct, they cannot treat the water fast enough to supply it.

Yep. There's a different between a drought and a water shortage. We're in drought, but far from having a problem with water shortages. It's when you get a dry summer sandwiched between dry winters that you have to worry.

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Posted
  • Location: Leeds
  • Weather Preferences: snow, heat, thunderstorms
  • Location: Leeds

The landscape is certainly taking on a very parched appearance in Leeds. This was taken at Roundhay Park earlier today.

lNzUG5OvSAmc1lnDkEPRtw.png

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Posted
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
  • Weather Preferences: Winter: Cold & Snowy, Summer: Just not hot
  • Location: Cheddington, Buckinghamshire
3 minutes ago, cheese said:

The landscape is certainly taking on a very parched appearance in Leeds. This was taken at Roundhay Park earlier today.

lNzUG5OvSAmc1lnDkEPRtw.png

I noticed some trees losing leaves in the breeze today. Are they starting to feel it too?

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Posted
  • Location: Leeds
  • Weather Preferences: snow, heat, thunderstorms
  • Location: Leeds
2 minutes ago, Nick L said:

I noticed some trees losing leaves in the breeze today. Are they starting to feel it too?

I haven't paid much attention to the trees actually but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out now that you've mentioned it. The leaves have taken on their dull green colour earlier than usual this year so it wouldn't surprise me.

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Locally 10mm of rain in June and 28mm of rain in May, with no rain at all in the past 10 days, before that we had coastal drizzle enough to classify as rain (so no classified drought) but overall a very dry couple of months.

However so far this year rainfall only slightly below normal (around 400mm) due to Jan, March and April being much wetter than normal.

Edited by J10
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