Philip Eden wrote:
"Jonathan Stott" wrote in message
Graham Jones wrote:
Jonathan Stott wrote:
Graham Jones wrote:

I didn't realise how little rain the SE had recieved until I saw this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4744862.stm
Showing a graph of the England and Wales rainfall is pointless if you
are trying to illustrate the lack of rainfall in the south east!
I was refering more to the map showing reservoir levels.
Fair enough. My point still stands!

Not only that Jonathan, but (without gainsaying the seriousness
of the situation) it is just a tiny bit suspicious that the Environment
Agency and the Met Office are co-ordinating their press releases
four days *before* the end of a month during which, for the
southeastern corner at least, rainfall has been *above* average.

Habitually, over the last year or so, the cherry-picked statistics
have been issued during the first week of a new month ... that
is, when the data for another *dry* month have been collated.

When the February figures are added, neither the rainfall
statistics nor the reservoir levels will look quite as serious.
East Sussex, for instance, is approaching 160% of normal
rainfall this month.

Moreover, the MO continue to exclude October 2004 from
their analysis ... reasonable enough if you are looking at a
climatological event, but unacceptable if you are discussing
a hydrological one. (October is the first month of the
hydrological year).

Philip
(PS: And the colours are still wrong)



Thanks for putting some sense to it all Philip.

--
Keith (Southend)
http://www.southendweather.net

nguk wrote:

*Cough* National Grid.... all that water surelly we could transport it by
big water piping

Sadly that requires a lot of digging.

--
Jonathan Stott
Canterbury Weather: http://www.canterburyweather.co.uk/
Reverse my e-mail address to reply by e-mail

Jonathan Stott wrote:
nguk wrote:

*Cough* National Grid.... all that water surelly we could transport it
by big water piping


Sadly that requires a lot of digging.


Isn't there an underused canal network between 'Oop North and the South?
High evaporation rates in summer, granted - but could be used to
transfer water top to bottom in wintertime I would have thought.
Then just use piping between a suitable takeoff point and
reservoirs/distribution points.

On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 17:26:39 +0000, Chris wrote:

Isn't there an underused canal network between 'Oop North and the South?
High evaporation rates in summer, granted - but could be used to
transfer water top to bottom in wintertime I would have thought.
Then just use piping between a suitable takeoff point and
reservoirs/distribution points.

I have not seen a recent appraisal of the canal network being utilised
in this way but as I said about 14 days ago on an old thread, there
was once talk of piping Severn to the Thames.
However, the canal network from north to south feeds southward from
the Chilterns (Grand Union), the Lea Navigation is a river and
probably has a lot of abstraction methinks. Then moving westwards is
the Oxford, from its summit adjacent to Fenny Compton (and currently
low reservoir levels). That is it. The problem with canals is that
there are a lot of ups and downs between the North West and the South
East and the volumn of water required would be,I suspect, far more
than could be delivered. One canal is well used as a feeder - the
Llangollen from North Wales which feeds Hurleston Reservoir and that,I
suspect, feeds Chester(?), Nantwich area. It has a considerable flow.
There are probably figures of what it carries.
At the end of the day, I think that piping is the answer, but I hasten
to say that I have no real knowledge of what could or could not be
done.
The Basingstoke Canal is pretty notorious for water issues fed by
springs I believe Greywell area. There is a big restoration programme
just started to restore some of the Cotswold canals - the one that
runs up the Golden Valley to sapperton Tunnel. IIRC when that cut
operated the thing leaked like a sieve.
The west east Kennet & Avon rises from Bath, with a massive rise at
devizes. Here (I think!) there is a back pumping scheme as the long
pound through Pewsey is usually on the low side- the Devizes locks
really do use a lot of water
R