Southeast and East Anglia weather discussion

[Badgers01]

It is important to reduce waste and water consumption- though many countries in Europe have higher per capita water consumption than England and Wales - Austria , France , The Netherlands & Spain all have Significatly higher water usage per person ....

[Ben Lewis]

5 hours ago, Jimmyh said:

Ben 90%of the time I agree with you. Unfortunately not this time. Balancing act doesn't seem to be happening st tje moment. Autumns was dry and I can confirm in my part of the world. It was nothing like 2013/2014 winter. Rain is a problem whether you like it or not

Hi Jimmy, 

Rain isn’t a problem for my neck of the woods though. Anglia water are confident of adequate water supplies, our resovoirs are normal and they were that confident they turned their pumps off last year. 

Until I get a letter through my door from my water supplier with concerns - I’m not concerned. 

I follow Anglia water on social media and there’s nothing to worry about. Resoviors are 15% lower than a decade average with no major concern. 

Please tell me why I should be worried about rainfall? 

[Blessed Weather]

1 hour ago, Ben Lewis said:

Hi Jimmy, 

Rain isn’t a problem for my neck of the woods though. Anglia water are confident of adequate water supplies, our resovoirs are normal and they were that confident they turned their pumps off last year. 

Until I get a letter through my door from my water supplier with concerns - I’m not concerned. 

I follow Anglia water on social media and there’s nothing to worry about. Resoviors are 15% lower than a decade average with no major concern. 

Please tell me why I should be worried about rainfall? 

How about this reason Ben? For farmers the situation up to March 2019 was already causing concerns, even before this exceptionally dry April (and disappointingly this weekend so far proving hopeless for meaningful rain). This from the East Anglian Daily Times on the 6th April 2019:

East Anglia's farmers are 'still dealing with effects of 2018 summer drought'

NFU National Water Resources Specialist Paul Hammett said East Anglian farmers had expressed their concerns when they met the Environment Agency in March.

“The past 10 months have been the second driest for the region since records began in 1910. In February, the region only received 28mm of rainfall, about three quarters of the long term average for the month,” he said. “A return to wet weather conditions could still turn the situation around, but time is running out to fill farm reservoirs and summer drought measures will be increasingly likely if the dry weather persists."

“We could be in a situation, as last year, where car owners can still wash their cars, gardeners can still water their lawns but farmers won’t have the water they need to grow our food.”

https://www.eadt.co.uk/business/farming/nfu-drought-survey-underlines-need-for-action-in-suffolk-and-norfolk-1-5980701

And this from a 22nd March 2019 Farmers Weekly article:

Drought measures increasingly likely, farmers warned

Summer drought measures are increasingly likely in 2019 if dry weather persists, the NFU has warned. This follows initial results from an NFU survey, which suggests that one-third of farmers who irrigate crops do not have enough water for the 2019 season. NFU national water resources specialist Paul Hammett said these survey results underlined concerns expressed by East Anglian farmers to the Environment Agency.

https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/crop-management/irrigation/drought-measures-increasingly-likely-farmers-warned

[chrisbell-nottheweatherman]

10 minutes ago, Blessed Weather said:

How about this reason Ben?

Indeed Malcolm.  It's a sign of how divorced from the reality of nature and farming most of the population is these days that most are utterly ignorant of the consequences of ongoing low rainfall and some react aggressively when the subject is mentioned. 

[Daniel*]

Talking about seeing both long periods of dry weather and wet weather with the latter, long periods of wet weather when was this? I cannot remember when we had weeks of rain it’s just often short and snappy, it seems in recent years more drier. Our climate in east may be changing? We can cope fine with warmer temps but deficit in rainfall is not good at all, in an already dry region, so an uncertain future for East Anglia farmers and in the southeast.

Edited April 27, 2019 by Daniel*

[chrisbell-nottheweatherman]

6 minutes ago, Daniel* said:

Talking about seeing both long periods of dry weather and wet weather with the latter, long periods of wet weather when was this? I cannot remember when we had weeks of rain it’s just often short and snappy, it seems in recent years more drier. Our climate in east may be changing? We can cope fine with warmer temps but deficit in rainfall is not good at all, in an already dry region, so an uncertain future for East Anglia farmers and in the southeast.

We had plenty of wet weather in late 2017 and early 2018 prior to the cold period, but, since then, we've had few wetter-than-average months.

[chrisbell-nottheweatherman]

Rain incoming from the north-west for East Anglia - it's weakened somewhat, but there's still a usable amount showing on radar.

Edited April 27, 2019 by chrisbell-nottheweatherman

[stainesbloke]

3 hours ago, Badgers01 said:

It is important to reduce waste and water consumption- though many countries in Europe have higher per capita water consumption than England and Wales - Austria , France , The Netherlands & Spain all have Significatly higher water usage per person ....

They do, but much of that is due to irrigation of agriculture, especially in Spain and Southern Europe. I’d have thought the Netherlands would use a lot of water for agricultural reasons, too.

In my opinion, it’s time this country looked at its use of water and considered and invested in ways of getting more water from the wetter NW to the drier, heavily populated SE. Millions of litres of water are still being lost daily due to leaks in the pipe network. This has been going on for years. Compulsory metering would help, too

Edited April 27, 2019 by stainesbloke

[Daniel*]

2 hours ago, chrisbell-nottheweatherman said:

We had plenty of wet weather in late 2017 and early 2018 prior to the cold period, but, since then, we've had few wetter-than-average months.

Right, the last very wet month in East Anglia was 12 months ago, last spring was wet, this spring has been quite dry and 2018 was year of drought scare! This is not normal to go so far without a much wetter month, clear to see a drying trend over time indeed it’s not a long period of time but it a reflection of a change question is whether it is temporary or a long term change, provided from our own @staplehurst this may be becoming the new normal?

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by Daniel*

[Ben Lewis]

A decent usable Sunday coming up for dog walking and footy. 

Have a good day folks. 

[Blessed Weather]

As storm Hannah moves into the North Sea and fizzles out, for the record a look back over the last 48 hours at the impact here in the East. As previously mentioned, disappointing amounts of rainfall with Writtle, Essex, doing best with 2.4mm on Saturday. Charts from the Met Off:

Friday Saturday

And whilst a windy Saturday, nothing too exceptional. Here's the maximum gusts:

• 54mph Weybourne
• 53mph Wittering
• 49mph Luton
• 48mph Bedford
• 45mph Lakenheath, Marham + Monks Wood
• 43mph Andrewsfield, Cranfield + Mildenhall
• 40mph Shoeburyness, Southend + Wattisham
• 39mph Cambridge
• 37mph Norwich Airport
• 36mph Stansted

Source: https://twitter.com/danholley_/status/1122223536196784130

[laddie]

12 hours ago, chrisbell-nottheweatherman said:

Rain incoming from the north-west for East Anglia - it's weakened somewhat, but there's still a usable amount showing on radar.

Went to bed all excited bright radar echoes approaching Peterborough rain starting to hit windows, woke this morning peered into my dry water tanks to be greeted by about 1mm of water and ground still parched. It must of all been a dream

[chrisbell-nottheweatherman]

1 hour ago, laddie said:

Went to bed all excited bright radar echoes approaching Peterborough rain starting to hit windows, woke this morning peered into my dry water tanks to be greeted by about 1mm of water and ground still parched. It must of all been a dream

We must have had some overnight, and we've had a couple of reasonable showers this morning, but it's as nothing compared to an average 180mm deficit since last summer!

Edited April 28, 2019 by chrisbell-nottheweatherman

[Ben Lewis]

Pleasant afternoon here after some rain moved through around midday 

Lovely to be playing football and walking dogs without getting caked in mud. 

Spoke to the farmer at the back of my house whilst walking today, everything seems hunky dory & whilst it’s been dry nothing of major concern at the moment.

He said, A week of heavy rain before June should bode well for summer.

[Zesyph]

Nothing significantly warm showing up on the models for the foreseeable future. 

[Flash bang flash bang etc]

19 hours ago, stainesbloke said:

They do, but much of that is due to irrigation of agriculture, especially in Spain and Southern Europe. I’d have thought the Netherlands would use a lot of water for agricultural reasons, too.

In my opinion, it’s time this country looked at its use of water and considered and invested in ways of getting more water from the wetter NW to the drier, heavily populated SE. Millions of litres of water are still being lost daily due to leaks in the pipe network. This has been going on for years. Compulsory metering would help, too

Malta has a real issue with unsustainable water use - there are many, many unregistered boreholes across the island and what small seasonal rainfall they get in the winter and spring months is vastly inadequate to meet their current demands.

It’s a problem across the world, but at least here and in Europe we get rain throughout the year so there’s a regular top-up

[shotski]

Took my boys to the local wildlife park today and was shocked to see 2 out of 3 wild life ponds completely dried up and the 3rd pond a tiny amount of water in. These are not small ponds but very large and normally this time of year would be full of wildlife. Anyone who says we’re not short of rainfall is frankly talking out their backside. 

[Badgers01]

Bluebells looking great today - sure sign of middle age going to see the bluebells !!

 

[Don]

11 minutes ago, shotski said:

Took my boys to the local wildlife park today and was shocked to see 2 out of 3 wild life ponds completely dried up and the 3rd pond a tiny amount of water in. These are not small ponds but very large and normally this time of year would be full of wildlife. Anyone who says we’re not short of rainfall is frankly talking out their backside. 

Definitely short of rainfall.  The ground is very dry and cracked around my neck of the woods and has been for a while!

[essexweather]

Surprised to see the 528 line on the Norfolk coast on the latest Fax chart. Some Northerly this coming weekend!

[laddie]

Amazing I've had more water collect in the water butt from last night's fog than the weekends very light showers

[Blessed Weather]

A pretty miserable day here in my locale under often threatening looking cloud cover. But this tweet from Simon Lee showing it was a little better for sunshine for folk nearer the coasts today.

"Inland penetration of sea breeze this afternoon along the southern and eastern coasts of England evident in the retreat of the cumulus field away from the coasts."

https://twitter.com/SimonLeeWx/status/1122895425231556608

[laddie]

Taken to 10.30 but sun finally broken through the crud, gone from chilly to warm in minutes

[Badgers01]

Out on a photo shoot in Oxfordshire today , at a beautiful property that was once home to one of last centuries Prime Ministers - weather wise cool out the sun but high UV levels sun burnt again !! 

[laddie]

Another warm even feeling hot at times day lots of hazy sunshine in the Boro hope this bodes well for summer ( but we do need some rain a hefty thunderstorm would help)