Ian Currie wrote:
Extremely worrying. I have been commissioned recently by water companies to
explain to the public just how dry things are and will be talking about this
on BBC locl radio this afternoon. I for one have stored hundreds of gallons
of rain water in my garden for summer use from rain falling on to sheds and
roofs.It is amazing how much you can obtain this way even in low rainfall.
I calculated that just for a park in Reigate the current water deficit from
November 2004 if put into 10 litre or two gallon watering cans and laid end
to end would stretch from Surrey appropriately to the middle of the Sahara
desert, thousands of tonnes short.
Many really dry years are ended by a fairly wet spell like 1976 or 1714. To
have two back to back years like last year in the Southeast, the second
driest for a century or so, would be calamitous in an age of high water use.
Various reservoirs I have been monitoring are currently 35 per cent full and
the clock is ticking down fast to the time when the leaves come out,
conditions warm up and evapotranspiration draws up the already depleted
ground water which for some companies have now reached their lowest ever
levels in 100 years of operation.
Lets hope "be it dry or be it wet Nature always pays it debt" and heavy
rain occurs like Easter 1998.

Ian Currie-Coulsdon where there was a light snow cover this morning.
www.Frostedearth.com


It is certainly dry in the SE, though not unprecedentedly so in
my records. My 12-month running total is 560 mm (annual mean 820) .
It has been lower than this 3 times before in the last 23 years, in
May 1997 (525 mm), July 1992 (540 mm) and September 1989 (555 mm).
(Top whack was 1315 mm in Apr 2001). It's time for compulsory
universal water metering and those who want to lay water out to dry on
their gardens or on golf courses should pay handsomely and be
prohibited from doing so any way in times of drought. This kind of
usage is hardly one of life's essentials.
I can't see any rain in the next week at the very least. The
GFS charts give the impression of the circulation slowly going to
sleep.
Just about a snow cover here this morning. None had fallen at
nearby lower levels, eg Purley, Wallington.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, NE Surrey 556 ft.