A nearby station to me at Coulsdon, Surrey, a few miles to the south at
Merstham, recorded 248.4mm from Nov 1st 1975 to May 31st 1976. My station
during the same period Nov 04 to May 05 inclusive recorded 284.3mm. Although
not quite as dry as 1976 in view of the increasing demands on water supplies
in 2005 this is a very worrying situation and I am very concerned. In fact
water restrictions should have begun at the end of January and I was
mentioning this in my articles both local and national. I for one took great
strides to store as much water as possible at the time and urged the public
to do likewise due to what I thought would be a difficult time ahead.
October 2004 was to be fair far wetter than October 1975 as Philip has
hinted BUT what should be pointed out is that September 1975 was very wet,
some 146.8mm falling as opposed to just 24.2mm in September 2004.
Will's 321mm of rain last October on Dartmoor to me is a ringing endorsement
of the need for a national grid for water resources. Surely sending water to
the Southeast over relatively short distances cannot be more difficult than
transporting oil through very inhospitable terrain and vast distances such
as the North Slope of Alaska or across the Russian wilderness.
Fortunately Nature has a way of balancing things out but even so things
could get quite serious this summer. My area has only received 5mm since
21st May with high pressure building and it would take one heatwave to
really dry things up. May this year was windier than average at my station
aiding evaporation.
On a different point with the dry ground , the sky now clearing and the
wind dying down winter could return to the Chipstead Valley tonight with a
very low minimum.

Ian Currie-Coulsdon and Chipstead Valley,Surrey.
www.Frostedearth.com




"Gavin Staples" wrote in message
. ..
No this is not a quote from TWO:-) I saw this on ceefax news tonight.
According to the Met office this past 8 months has been the driest for
30 years. Can anyone here vouch for that from their records.

Gavin.


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Gavin Staples.

Horseheath. Cambridge, UK. 93m ASL.
www.gavinstaples.com
site regularly updated

"Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between
the disastrous and the unpalatable". ~ John Kenneth Galbraith. American
economist.


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