I know it's non scientific to talk about the law of averages ,but it does
seem funny that the drought sricken areas of central and eastern England
seem to be making up the deficit in bucket loads now (north Essex over 2"in
3 days ) for instance .
Secondly,how long does it take for the 6" of water covering most of England
at the moment to seep down into the aquafers ?,all the ponds in this area
are full to the brim,and with very little evaporation going on now because
of the perishingly low temps,it must be going somewhere,oh yes ,the River
Lee is two miles away,and the drains are also overflowing. All the trees not
standing in water ,are in danger of hyponatremia (look it up) and all the
messages continuing to flow from the 'experts' urging us not to be
complacent,because next winter maybe dry quite frankly ****es me off !

Now that feels better.

RonB

ronbutton wrote:
I know it's non scientific to talk about the law of averages ,but it does
seem funny that the drought sricken areas of central and eastern England
seem to be making up the deficit in bucket loads now (north Essex over 2"in
3 days ) for instance .
Secondly,how long does it take for the 6" of water covering most of England
at the moment to seep down into the aquafers ?,all the ponds in this area
are full to the brim,and with very little evaporation going on now because
of the perishingly low temps,it must be going somewhere,oh yes ,the River
Lee is two miles away,and the drains are also overflowing. All the trees not
standing in water ,are in danger of hyponatremia (look it up) and all the
messages continuing to flow from the 'experts' urging us not to be
complacent,because next winter maybe dry quite frankly ****es me off !

Now that feels better.

RonB


----------------------------------------------
We do always seem to see Nature compensating or even over compensating.
I agree to some extent because water abstraction from rivers will soon
be able to top up resevoirs where this is their main source, But
underground aquifers work on much larger timescales as you know, so
there has to be an element of long term prudence.
My rainfall so far this year is only 200mm with half of that coming last
month. That would equate to a fairly low less than 500mm for the year.
Dave

On 03/05/12 12:58, Dave Cornwell wrote:
ronbutton wrote:
I know it's non scientific to talk about the law of averages ,but it
does seem funny that the drought sricken areas of central and eastern
England seem to be making up the deficit in bucket loads now (north
Essex over 2"in 3 days ) for instance .
Secondly,how long does it take for the 6" of water covering most of
England at the moment to seep down into the aquafers ?,all the ponds
in this area are full to the brim,and with very little evaporation
going on now because of the perishingly low temps,it must be going
somewhere,oh yes ,the River Lee is two miles away,and the drains are
also overflowing. All the trees not standing in water ,are in danger
of hyponatremia (look it up) and all the messages continuing to flow
from the 'experts' urging us not to be complacent,because next winter
maybe dry quite frankly ****es me off !

Now that feels better.

RonB

----------------------------------------------
We do always seem to see Nature compensating or even over compensating.
I agree to some extent because water abstraction from rivers will soon
be able to top up resevoirs where this is their main source, But
underground aquifers work on much larger timescales as you know, so
there has to be an element of long term prudence.
My rainfall so far this year is only 200mm with half of that coming last
month. That would equate to a fairly low less than 500mm for the year.
Dave

Plus it is primarily winter rainfall that recharges the aquifers.

It takes really wet months for anything significant to recharge aquifers
at this time of year.

On Thu, 03 May 2012 20:03:21 +0100
Adam Lea wrote:

On 03/05/12 12:58, Dave Cornwell wrote:
ronbutton wrote:
I know it's non scientific to talk about the law of averages ,but
it does seem funny that the drought sricken areas of central and
eastern England seem to be making up the deficit in bucket loads
now (north Essex over 2"in 3 days ) for instance .
Secondly,how long does it take for the 6" of water covering most of
England at the moment to seep down into the aquafers ?,all the
ponds in this area are full to the brim,and with very little
evaporation going on now because of the perishingly low temps,it
must be going somewhere,oh yes ,the River Lee is two miles
away,and the drains are also overflowing. All the trees not
standing in water ,are in danger of hyponatremia (look it up) and
all the messages continuing to flow from the 'experts' urging us
not to be complacent,because next winter maybe dry quite frankly
****es me off !

Now that feels better.

RonB

----------------------------------------------
We do always seem to see Nature compensating or even over
compensating. I agree to some extent because water abstraction from
rivers will soon be able to top up resevoirs where this is their
main source, But underground aquifers work on much larger
timescales as you know, so there has to be an element of long term
prudence. My rainfall so far this year is only 200mm with half of
that coming last month. That would equate to a fairly low less than
500mm for the year. Dave

Plus it is primarily winter rainfall that recharges the aquifers.

It takes really wet months for anything significant to recharge
aquifers at this time of year.

Apparently, we'll need twice as much rainfall as normal over the next
six months.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17875456

--
Graham Davis, Bracknell, Berks. E-mail: change 'boy' to 'man'
"A neighbour put his budgerigar in the mincing machine and invented
shredded tweet." - Chic Murray
openSUSE Linux: http://www.opensuse.org/en/

On some of our fields water runs through the field drains into dykes
which then run into swallow holes in a nearby wood.This water then
dissapears underground-i would imagine to recharge the aquifers-we
have a borehole very close by to the swallow holes..I have estimated
from the 150mm of rain we have had in the last 4 weeks -even if only
half of the water went down the swallow hole this could amount to 15
gigaliters going under ground and thats just from 20 hectares.I
dontknow the capacity of the aquifer-but it is a significant amount of
water going intoit.
I would guess that swallow holes are not just found in my neck of the
woods.
Also we have other fields over limestone and i imagine the limestone
acts like a sponge and wont release water till it is saturated.So far
springs running out of this limestone into the guash valley where. i
live have not really increased in flow yet so the limestone must still
be soaking it up.Im not an expert by the way -just a farmer and stand
to be corrected if im wrong-.

Nick

In article
,
nickname writes:
On some of our fields water runs through the field drains into dykes
which then run into swallow holes in a nearby wood.This water then
dissapears underground-i would imagine to recharge the aquifers-we
have a borehole very close by to the swallow holes..I have estimated
from the 150mm of rain we have had in the last 4 weeks -even if only
half of the water went down the swallow hole this could amount to 15
gigaliters going under ground and thats just from 20 hectares.I
dontknow the capacity of the aquifer-but it is a significant amount of
water going intoit.
I would guess that swallow holes are not just found in my neck of the
woods.
Also we have other fields over limestone and i imagine the limestone
acts like a sponge and wont release water till it is saturated.So far
springs running out of this limestone into the guash valley where. i
live have not really increased in flow yet so the limestone must still
be soaking it up.Im not an expert by the way -just a farmer and stand
to be corrected if im wrong-.

Nick


That 150mm of rain is maybe 75mm above normal for April, depending on
where you live. But in the SE rainfall has been deficient over the last
18 months or so. Even if the average monthly shortfall is only 10mm,
that's still a total deficit of 180mm, so there is still a shortfall of
105mm, maybe more if you allow for the increase in transpiration from
plants at this time of year.

Those figures are only very rough guestimates, of course, but I think
they demonstrate why one wet month isn't enough. It's a bit like running
up an overdraft of a couple of hundred pounds, and then paying off 50
quid of it and expecting the bank to be happy.
--
John Hall
Johnson: "Well, we had a good talk."
Boswell: "Yes, Sir, you tossed and gored several persons."
Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84); James Boswell (1740-95)

Adam Lea wrote:

Plus it is primarily winter rainfall that recharges the aquifers.

------------------------------
I thought it was still winter ;-)

On 03/05/12 22:46, Dave Cornwell wrote:
Adam Lea wrote:

Plus it is primarily winter rainfall that recharges the aquifers.

------------------------------
I thought it was still winter ;-)

Not in Scotland, apparently :-)

"ronbutton" wrote in message ...

I know it's non scientific to talk about the law of averages ,but it does
seem funny that the drought sricken areas of central and eastern England
seem to be making up the deficit in bucket loads now (north Essex over 2"in
3 days ) for instance .
Secondly,how long does it take for the 6" of water covering most of England
at the moment to seep down into the aquafers ?,all the ponds in this area
are full to the brim,and with very little evaporation going on now because
of the perishingly low temps,it must be going somewhere,oh yes ,the River
Lee is two miles away,and the drains are also overflowing. All the trees not
standing in water ,are in danger of hyponatremia (look it up) and all the
messages continuing to flow from the 'experts' urging us not to be
complacent,because next winter maybe dry quite frankly ****es me off !

Now that feels better.

RonB


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rule of thumb in this country. It will take at least as long to replenish an
aquifer as it took to drain it. So you'll be looking for at least 18 months.
That's why they say the drought will stay till at least the end of the year
and then some.

A lot of that 6" of water will be lost through evaporation at this time of
year, and most of the rest will drain back into the rivers through drainage
ditches, and what's left may seep down to the water table and drain out
wherever water tables drain out, and not necessarily down to the aquifers.
At the moment very little water is penetrating more than six inches into the
ground, because what is below the surface is bone dry and rock hard, and
just won't allow the water to pass through or be absorbed. It's going to
take a damn sight more than 8" of rain a month to allow that process to
start up again. Admit it, nature has damaged itself, and only nature can
repair that damage given time, lots of it.

jim, Northampton

---------------------------------------------------------------------------*-----

Rule of thumb in this country. It will take at least as long to replenish an
aquifer as it took to drain it. So you'll be looking for at least 18 months.
That's why they say the drought will stay till at least the end of the year
and then some.

A lot of that 6" of water will be lost through evaporation at this time of
year, and most of the rest will drain back into the rivers through drainage
ditches, and what's left may seep down to the water table and drain out
wherever water tables drain out, and not necessarily down to the aquifers..
At the moment very little water is penetrating more than six inches into the
ground, because what is below the surface is bone dry and rock hard, and
just won't allow the water to pass through or be absorbed. It's going to
take a damn sight more than 8" of rain a month to allow that process to
start up again. Admit it, nature has damaged itself, and only nature can
repair that damage given time, lots of it.

jim, Northampton

Hi Jim
Are you making those statements because you know its true are are you
just repeating what you hear else where.?
Have you been out into the fields..?I just dont believe you when you
say soils are dry 6 inches down.Even the ea are saying the smd has
virtually gone.
I quote
Elsewhere, soil moisture deficits are now 10mm or less in all our
regions with EA
Wales now close to zero
Herein Rutland our soils are waterlogged..Its impossible to tell if
there is a dry layer further down as if you dig it just fills with
water.What i can say is on our free draining soils the soil will be
wet right down to the underlying limestone.To say that at the moment
very little rain is penetrating less than six inches is just not
true.
And why or how could water run out into rivers but not recharge the
aquifers??-round here aquifer recharge has to happen before it can run
to the river as an underground spring.Even the EA say on there latest
update are saying that significant aquifer recharge has occured.
I quote
Groundwater levels in some aquifers have started to rise in response
to April’s rainfall. There
have been notable increases in levels in those indicator sites located
in the limestone and more
responsive chalk aquifers.
Also Aquifer recharge is not normally dependant on time but on
rainfall amount and time combined.
Im afraid most of what you say is not corect