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Drought again this summer?

It's not looking good tbh, although it does seem like March has been a fairly wet month. We need April to be the same.
 

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Definitely going to be a water shortage this Summer; especially down South.

If we hadn’t had a wet November we would have a drought already.
 
All that water that came down in late December and January all gone out to sea largely.
The 12 months prior to that was incredibly dry, so any hope for our rivers being in a healthy state during the year is hanging on quite a bit more of the wet stuff coming.
I do wish we were better at retaining the water we get!!
 
Damian Kimmins said:
All that water that came down in late December and January all gone out to sea largely.
The 12 months prior to that was incredibly dry, so any hope for our rivers being in a healthy state during the year is hanging on quite a bit more of the wet stuff coming.
I do wish we were better at retaining the water we get!!
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Or perhaps moving it around from one part of the country to another….🙁 They seem to get far too much in the north and Scotland while we, in the south and east suffer regular drought conditions. Perhaps that’s Scotland‘s plan for independence, sell their excess water to us…..😜


Dave
 
I wonder how many new reservoirs could be built with the £98 billion that is being wasted on HS2? Enough to sort the problem out I'm sure...and you could probably build a few canals from Wales and Northern England to move water across to the east and south east. And if the thinking was properly joined up...maybe, just maybe some of those canals could be used to transport nutrients from catchments like the Upper Wye across to the east where the farmland can utilise them, in a low carbon way.

I have yet to meet anyone who thinks HS2 is a good idea. It's a just a cash cow for a select few to profit from.
 
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Just like the Sun saying its going to snow this Winter.... We just dont know...
 
I think it's a given for the weather pattern to continue this trend. Wet winters dry & hot summers.
And the government not being concerned with creating reservoirs, or protecting our beloved riverine environments, rather instead preferring to build more blinking housing estates.

In light of these horrendous hot summers, one of my syndicates openly closed their waters at critical moments to protect the fish. We voted collectively on this subject and felt better for doing so, keeping the interests of the fish high on our agenda... Wonder how many other clubs would do this?

It was quite refreshing to be part of the decision making, and it no doubt cut any losses due to mishandling of barbel chub etc
 
Julian Griffiths said:
I think it's a given for the weather pattern to continue this trend. Wet winters dry & hot summers.
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Absolutely. 15-years ago I was running workshops and events for farmers on climate change adaptation. The industry was being urged to prepare ahead and plan for climate change. It's utter surreal that the water companies appear not to have done anything. It is as though these droughty summers catch them by surprise. No new reservoirs built since 1991!?
 
Joe Winstanley said:
Absolutely. 15-years ago I was running workshops and events for farmers on climate change adaptation. The industry was being urged to prepare ahead and plan for climate change. It's utter surreal that the water companies appear not to have done anything. It is as though these droughty summers catch them by surprise. No new reservoirs built since 1991!
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Why is it that this country is ALWAYS behind the times/curve on everything progressive? Always excuses on money, yet plucks it out of thin air for pointless projects like HS2 (Ironically continuing the trend of destruction of wildlife habitats) That money should of gone towards sewer upgrades and reservoirs. But I guess the real reason is, is that a big rail project attracts nice big back handers and dodgy contract awarding🤣
 
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Its not like its cheap either... just looked up a single for tomorrow from my home village, 2 stops from Sheffield to Birmingham new st. £65 for 1hr 45 mins on the train. I bet people only use this service as a last gasp measure.
 
I can jump on a train at Wilmslow and be at London Euston in 1hr 40. 5min drive to the station.

With HS2 I'd have to drive 20 mins to the airport, 5 min walk from car park to the Airport station...then it would take 1 hr 11mins.

So 9 mins saved...but I've driven on the roads for 4 times the usual distance.

I know so many families who farms are being devastated by it. Land they have farmed for generations cut in half by a concrete monstrosity.

Who actually wants it? Or needs it?
 
HS2 is like a lot of things really - no one wants them until they're constructed and most then are pleased for their construction.
I think we need to decide in this society what it is we want. Do we want to protect the environment or do we want the capitalist economic model to continue it's controlling dance? If it's the former we need to be aware that we will have to do without certain things.
 
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Julian Griffiths said:
I think it's a given for the weather pattern to continue this trend. Wet winters dry & hot summers.
And the government not being concerned with creating reservoirs, or protecting our beloved riverine environments, rather instead preferring to build more blinking housing estates.

In light of these horrendous hot summers, one of my syndicates openly closed their waters at critical moments to protect the fish. We voted collectively on this subject and felt better for doing so, keeping the interests of the fish high on our agenda... Wonder how many other clubs would do this?

It was quite refreshing to be part of the decision making, and it no doubt cut any losses due to mishandling of barbel chub etc
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Not necessarily the case though is it? This Winter and last Winter will be shown to be very dry! Certainly milder they are though.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
That's because it's a trend. So obviously there will be exceptions.
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My point was really that aside from the issue of winter flooding, the wetter winters that we'd had up until the last couple of years gave groundwater levels the ability to be replenished and thus a positive. There was still a need for an increased ability to retain freshwater, but that need now has increased markedly on the strength of two drier winters. If winter this year reverted to those we have become used ie. milder and wetter I fear we'd still require quite a few of them to recover from the last 24 months.
 
Really won't make much difference, if we do get a reasonable amount of rain, especially in the east, where I am. Abstraction is killing our local rivers, along with pollution and predation.
 
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