Tuesday 11 February 2014

It never rains, but it pours...



I do hope our regular commenter Timbo is not yet planing to spend Valentines day with his canoe. Struggling to work today on trains that don't work for the nth day in a row has not been much of a joy. Worse still for some close friends of mine who live on an island in the the River Thames at Shepperton - well, it used to be an Island; now it is just part of the River.

Business wise the unending storms are very bad for our economy, confidence and happiness are so important and with constant terrible Weather these things can be affected. It does not help with the politicians all playing the lets-point-at-one-another and pull silly faces game. Still, I guess that is what they pay them for.

So the bit question...just how wet is it? I am 38 and cannot remember a Winter like this, of course there have been far colder and such; but I don't remember one that is just so wet? Am I wrong and if so how bad can it get?

19 comments:

Electro-Kevin said...

I'm 48 and have never seen it this bad.

They say we should give up much of the land to the sea and the rivers because there isn't the money - but there is the money. It's just not being spent in the right way.

Loss of land is most keenly felt in a country with a growing population.

Sebastian Weetabix said...

My old dad says 1947 was much worse. All the snow melting after a heavy winter together with a lot of rain gave huge floods all over the place, but back then we weren't run by Greenshirts so the flood defences were maintained properly and ditches/culverts/drains/swales etc were working properly.

Kilgore Trout said...

The deliberate flooding of certain areas of England is EU and therefore UK government policy. The politicians pointing at each other either don't know or don't want the rest of the public to know that this mess was created by the Brussels-Whitehall-Quango nexus that has replaced democratic government and Cabinet/Ministerial responsibility.

Nick Drew said...

I'm, *ahem*, even older than 48 - and I believe summer 2007 was worse!

only a few days ago the insurance people were saying we haven't hit 2007 levels of damage yet (yet!)

certainly I got caught twice in that summer: once near Witney - my 4WD only just got us through a flash flood, with other cars conking out left right & centre

and once near Coventry / Kenilworth, where another flash flood was causing a mighty flow of muddy water off a sloping field & through the gate (between strong walls) into the road, which hit us broadside on as we passed and swept the (2-ton, 4WD, big tyres) motor sideways

and I have friends & relatives in S.Yorks (Beverley / Hull) who were drying out for many months afterwards (same 2007 period), & quite bitter about lack of assistance

we may be a bit south-of-England centric? or maybe this one will turn out to be worse in the end

Bill Quango MP said...

1997 in the south east was terrible. East Sussex and west Sussex mostly. Almost impossible to travel from Brighton to Eastbound.
Not the flooding of villages but many, many acres and roads underwater.

It was so bad I went to one of those emigration shows. So bad was the 'summer' that I thought it MUST be better to live anywhere else.
That was the worst but a year later there was a hosepipe ban in the same region. That ban extended pretty much until about two years ago.

And , as someone who can almost see the flooding on the levels from BQ Mansions, there is very little flooding elsewhere.
We had actual flooding two years ago that knocked out the high street. this year - nothing. Some of the link roads were out to all but 4x4 and tractors. But I was on some earlier and they have surface water running along them but the river levels are don And that is the parrot river.

i suspect its just where you live.

AND - bloke on TV complaining in a weird way that the flooding in Windsor was in poorer areas.
Even God protects the rich it seems.

{but for his information I was house sitting a seriously expensive, multimillion £ house in 2007 - and the flood waters came right inside.
And this was a house at the very top of a hill! That much localised rain in such a short space of time overwhelmed the drains.
"Happens fairly often" the owner told me," Just open the cellar door and switch the pump on."
The pump didn't work. But the water filled the cellar and not much more.

Timbo614 said...

Well at 60 I don't remember any winter so wet.

Timbo's Shop is closed again - I think (with redecorating dehumidifying etc) we have only actually been open for 5 days since Christmas eve :(


Co-incidentally because I needed to cheer myself up a bit (and KNOW I don't have time for frivolity) but I published this earlier today:

If we don't laugh we'll just cry instead

Elby the Beserk said...

Worst in all our lifetimes, but Met Office records show that to Jan, 1929 was quite a lot worse.

http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/did-they-have-global-warming-in-1929-as-well-julia/

The Met Office, however, are NOT telling us this, as it would contradict their main agenda.

Weather watch said...

I wonder how war related the weather is. If carbon is the main driver then weather in the 1914-1919 era and 1935-1945 era must be super extreme.

Was the winter of 1919 the worst on record. 1947 is definitely a candidate.

dearieme said...

January was the wettest in England and Wales since 1948. (At least, that's my memory of what the weatherman Philip Eden said in the Tel).

Steven_L said...

Been a pretty good winter up here in Aberdeenshire. So far I've only had to scrape the windscreen 3 or 4 times in the morning.

It has rained, but not all that much. I think we've had the pick of the weather this winter. I'm sure that won't last

Thud said...

2012 was worse up north but this year just grey and miserable as usual.

Blue Eyes said...

The internet is the place to ask stupid boy questions, I reckon. If the Thames is so full of water out west, why is the Thames in London so normal? Surely the water would tend to flow downhill towards the sea? Or did someone build a second Thames Barrier secretly?

Weekend Yachtsman said...

Have a look here:

http://annaraccoon.com/2014/02/11/and-before-we-had-global-warming/

It's just weather, folks.

Bill Quango MP said...

Annaraccoon is always good value.

I'm sticking with Quango Jnr's response to "Why is their so much rain?"

Considers for a moment, then..
"God took the plug out of the bath? "

Anonymous said...

Summer 2007 floods were damaging because a lot of water fell in a very short time. Houses were flooded by small streams suddenly rising, field runoff etc. This winter has seen more rain, but over a much longer period, so the flooding is almost 100% river and/or tide related.

CityUnslicker said...

It will get here BE, also depends on height of surounding river banks, London is tidal so they are huge to cope with that. berkshire and surrey, not so much.

K said...

@Blue Eyes

The BBC explained it yesterday: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26133660

Anonymous said...

For what seems to be an extremely educated view on the Environment Agency water management, flooding etc etc I would recommend www.eureferendum.com

Nick Drew said...

for an even *closer* view, try this:

http://insidetheenvironmentagency.co.uk/

"Find out what really goes on inside the Environment Agency, how your tax payer funds are abused, how Environment Officers harass and victimise operators ..."