In uk.sci.weather on Fri, 7 Nov 2003 at 23:52:42, Philip Eden wrote :
The river Lea runs past the bottom of my hill north of Luton town centre,
about 4 or 5 km (or 10km depending on which stream you follow) from
its source. So it's not very big, but it carries an awful lot of urban water
away when it rains and usually floods the A6 after a 30mm downpour.

It first dried out in mid-August, ran for three days after 11mm fell on
22nd August, and for a week after the recent rains which totalled
about 30mm. But it's gone again now. I remember the river being
dry briefly in 1997, 1976, 1964, and I'm told it was in 1959 too.
But never in mid-November.

This is a good indicator of how far the water table in the chalk of the
Chiltern Hills must have dropped ... especially notable because it
follows the unprecedentedly high water table of 2001, and also
bearing in mind that much less water is extracted from the chalk via
artesian wells these days compared with 30 or 40 years ago.

Tiny though it is, the river Chelt never seems to completely dry up, not
even in 1976.
--
Paul Hyett, Cheltenham

Email to pahyett[AT]activist[DOT]demon[DOT]co[DOT]uk