Stormy Weather II

[Serial_Apologist]

With all the problems that can bring...A combination of modern agricultural practice and inadequate planning controls means that however much the rain is needed(and it is) any significant precipitation becomes a threat rather than an opportunity.
So relieved that Open Farm Sunday was blessed with good weather(sunshine and no scattered showers, although the wind was cold in the shade) as managing 3500 visitors is so much easier when they can stay outside and when the grass parking areas are able to continue drying rather than turning into quagmires(although at least equipment was to hand to deal with stuck vehicles!) Today's heavy rain will make pulldown and clearing up difficult and unpleasant, not least wrestling wet gazebo sidings into storage.

Yes, of course, you're right. That said, most of the rainfall, which has now been falling since early this morning here, is of the moderate kind that does penetrate to groundwater levels and replenish aquifers, especially at the current low temperatures. At the moment the temperature right here has actually dropped to 10 degrees celsius, not having exceeded 11 C - which must be as low a June maximum as I have ever recorded in my diaries, which go back (admittedly intermittently, there being some gaps!) to 1959, and would not feel especially mild even for January!!! The really heavy stuff, for which a rare amber warning has now been issued, is forecast to arrive here from the east, on the back of the front (!) between 4 pm and 9 pm; thunderstorms are lining themselves up along the D Day landing coasts and up into Belgium as I write, looking for all the world like some threatening army of invasion!!!!

[oddoneout]

the moderate kind that does penetrate to groundwater levels and replenish aquifers

I agree that it's better than torrential downpours, but unfortunately agricultural mistreatment of the soil limits the ability to absorb. Round here the soil is not very tolerant of compaction or lack of organic content - the silt and/or clay content makes the sand into concrete, and pans develop quite quickly. I had an allotment for a couple of seasons which, unknown to me when taking it on, had an impressive iron pan thanks to the previous tenant's use of a powered cultivator. The most telling sight is a field adjacent to the allotment site which has been uncultivated now for more than 10 years(tenancy terminated awaiting a decision on development). Apart from the very limited variety of plant species growing on it and the lack of worm activity(the moles all avoid it, preferring the allotments), it is noticeable how the water stays on the surface. The allotment that runs parallel to the field edge a few feet away never has standing water except occasionally on path/trodden areas, and during periods of neglect only takes a few weeks to grow a thick and varied crop of weeds. What is worrying is that when planning applications refer to soil maps for matters relating to flood risk and percolation rates etc I'm certain the information doesn't relate to the characteristics of the soils as abused by decades of industrial agriculture. That means that calculations for such things as swales and attenuation ponds are adrift before they start in my opinion, as is the case for the field adjacent to the bottom of my garden, which regularly shoots water off one corner onto the road even after quite modest rain. How the capacity of already compromised soil will be improved by machinery involved in the proposed sizable housing development churning and compacting the ground is a puzzle.

[Serial_Apologist]

I agree that it's better than torrential downpours, but unfortunately agricultural mistreatment of the soil limits the ability to absorb. Round here the soil is not very tolerant of compaction or lack of organic content - the silt and/or clay content makes the sand into concrete, and pans develop quite quickly. I had an allotment for a couple of seasons which, unknown to me when taking it on, had an impressive iron pan thanks to the previous tenant's use of a powered cultivator. The most telling sight is a field adjacent to the allotment site which has been uncultivated now for more than 10 years(tenancy terminated awaiting a decision on development). Apart from the very limited variety of plant species growing on it and the lack of worm activity(the moles all avoid it, preferring the allotments), it is noticeable how the water stays on the surface. The allotment that runs parallel to the field edge a few feet away never has standing water except occasionally on path/trodden areas, and during periods of neglect only takes a few weeks to grow a thick and varied crop of weeds. What is worrying is that when planning applications refer to soil maps for matters relating to flood risk and percolation rates etc I'm certain the information doesn't relate to the characteristics of the soils as abused by decades of industrial agriculture. That means that calculations for such things as swales and attenuation ponds are adrift before they start in my opinion, as is the case for the field adjacent to the bottom of my garden, which regularly shoots water off one corner onto the road even after quite modest rain. How the capacity of already compromised soil will be improved by machinery involved in the proposed sizable housing development churning and compacting the ground is a puzzle.

I'm with you now. Yes, the soils around here are somewhat similar to yours: Claygate sand and gravel beds overlying the London Clay.

[Petrushka]

Already raining heavily here and daytime temperatures are forecast to barely make it into double figures. Coldest June day ever?

[oddoneout]

Hasn't stopped raining here other than for very brief periods since late morning yesterday. And yes cold with it, not helped by the NE wind. I fear there will be more tree losses as the very strong gusts push at roots in soggy ground.

[DracoM]

Big, cold, yes, cold NE wind, but no rain at all for 36 hrs.
www.yr.no predicts rain here this afternoon and evening.

[Bryn]

Big, cold, yes, cold NE wind, but no rain at all for 36 hrs.
www.yr.no predicts rain here this afternoon and evening.

My hornbeam looks more like a weeping willow this morning. Last night's rain was pretty heavy.

[BBMmk2]

Now after yesterday’s downpour, hopefully today’s will be better? Ssshhhhhh, I didn’t say that, did I?!?!?

[Joseph K]

Absolutely ghastly.

[cloughie]

A wet windy day here today and not very warm. Hope it improves for singing outside at the Falmouth Shanty Festival at the weekend!

[Serial_Apologist]

A wet windy day here today and not very warm. Hope it improves for singing outside at the Falmouth Shanty Festival at the weekend!

While here - right in the middle of the low that's been causing all this, ironically - it's been calm, warm, and fairly sunny all morning, albeit that now the cumulus has begun to pile up all around, some dark bases indicating rain to come, for some, if not for us. Last night, just before midnight, we caught the tail end of the 5 cm in an hour deluge that flooded parts of north Kent in the vicinity of Dartford - a very sudden roaring cataract that lasted half an hour. Earlier some neighbours were desperately clearing accumulated debris from two of the drains alongside our row of garages, which were in imminent threat of flooding; today others are wading through six inches of floodwater in our clothes drying compound, which, for the first time since I moved here 15 years ago, has been turned into a paddling pool. Apparently more rain fell here yesterday than in the entire year thus far!

We have a bit more of this to come for the remainder of the week, before things settle down and warm up at the start of next week.

[jayne lee wilson]

Very SAD in June....!! Which is very sad indeed....like Dusty, "just don't know what to do with myself...."

At least I got out of bed....Try to find the will to get the big coat and wellies on and march around the overgrown shrubberies topping up dispensers...

Another grey day like this....? Oh God, no, please........
When it brightened last evening I did get to the woods....and sunset through the trees, and.... things seemed different, and possible again...

Tortie Stray Cat Shelley will come for his dinner soon. That will help. He's asleep in the old greenhouse now.

[DracoM]

Really seriously cold up here. Northerly is strong, temp here is a mere 8C as I write.

................and now, rain, rain.................

[Joseph K]

9C here, according to my phone.

I picked a good time to walk - between 1:30 and 3 there was more or less no rain - not long after I got home it was pouring down again.

[BBMmk2]

Not great down here either!