Cracked Earth and Broken Spades

theartist · Apr 18, 2017

Spent most the weekend helping out my sister and dad in their gardens and managed to break both a trowel and spade that was older than I am on the hard ground. Any rain that's been forecast just hasn't showed or has been the type that barely wets the ground, leaving just dusty spots on the car. Had to give up weeding in the end as the ground was just too hard. Is this unprecidented for this time of year? Also my club lake, which relies on the nearby river for water levels is painfully low, How are yours holding up and are you worrying about the potential for really low river levels yet?

peterjg · Apr 18, 2017

Totally agree, we have had very little rain this year. I can't remember such a long dry start to a year. I am sure that this weather has adversely effected the fish.

mikench · Apr 18, 2017

You are most welcome to some of ours, indeed all of ours! It was wonderful last week to plant the mud feet of my chair on solid ground rather than deep mud!

seth49 · Apr 18, 2017

Plenty of rain here in Lancashire, the ground is only just starting to dry out, been a fairly wet winter here, had lots of rain, but thankfully no bad floods.

binka · Apr 18, 2017

I've been working in the garden for the past couple of days and it was already in my mind how dry it had been but the soil really confirmed it, had it not been for the forecast for frost I would be watering up.

tigger · Apr 18, 2017

The reason things seem to dry out at this time of year is because everything's growing and sucking up the water.
It's put lots of water down round these parts, it amazes me how people moan when it rains and moan when it doesn't

mg:.

flightliner · Apr 18, 2017

I cleaned out my mega waterbutt the other day then reconnected to the guttering, two days later it was half full but I never saw any rain. The borders, lawns, veg plot were all dry 'cept the path that looked a little less than dry one mrning.

robtherake · Apr 18, 2017

We got a few hours of rain on Monday, which softened the topsoil nicely. Two days later it's back to dryness. Being right on the coast we aren't seeing the frosts, but every bit of land needs to be watered the day before to leave it friable enough to work on. Not so much global warming as global drying.

Philip · Apr 18, 2017

Took a walk down the river the other day and it was already static in the margins and looked like late summer levels.

steve2 · Apr 19, 2017

Essex being one of the driest places in the country hasn’t had much rain all winter. Most of our reservoirs are topped up from the Great Ouse catchment area. This part of the country is also one of the most densely populated areas with 1000’s more houses in the planning. Where the water will come who knows.

tigger · Apr 19, 2017

As far as I can remember the rivers are always quite low at this time of year so imo it's about normal....round here anyhow. It wouldn't be good for spawning fish and hatching fry if the rivers where crashing through. It always makes me cringe when there's any heavy rainfall during the spawning period and I would imagine the better years for fry survival will be when the rivers are low and stable. I feel sorry for the fry when there's a sudden rise in the river levels and then when the levels recede again the hollows along the bank are left containing water and millions of fry which usually dry up before the next batch of rain. This can happen many times some years and the cost to fish recruitment must be seriously affected.

theartist · Apr 19, 2017

Did a quick search to see if us down south are moaning about nothing and water levels are 'normal' found this recent article but would expect more in the coming weeks unless we get some proper rain. The stats quoted indicate it's been a dry winter/spring down here which we all knew anyway. Looks like a north/south divide as usual regarding the rain.

Water companies warn parts of UK could see drought this summer after the driest winter in more than 20 years

Steve2 You're right to bring the population issue into things as a city the size of Liverpool needs to be built each year just to cope with immigration. With the new Thames crossing at Dartford getting the go ahead, and the green belt restrictions likely to be lifted that whole area of Essex will be built on big time.

tigger · Apr 19, 2017

theartist said:
Did a quick search to see if us down south are moaning about nothing and water levels are 'normal' found this recent article but would expect more in the coming weeks unless we get some proper rain. The stats quoted indicate it's been a dry winter/spring down here which we all knew anyway. Looks like a north/south divide as usual regarding the rain.

Water companies warn parts of UK could see drought this summer after the driest winter in more than 20 years

Steve2 You're right to bring the population issue into things as a city the size of Liverpool needs to be built each year just to cope with immigration. With the new Thames crossing at Dartford getting the go ahead, and the green belt restrictions likely to be lifted that whole area of Essex will be built on big time.

Terrible in'it

mg:.

maurice walsh · Apr 19, 2017

here in the land of eternal wind n rain theres been a slight lack of rain to say the least

usually my home town of obriens bridge would have had 4 n maybe up to 8 foot of extra water on the river from november to around about this time of year, but (thankfully ) an ebb n flow of about a foot was as much as we saw at any given time

given the extreme flooding of the last few years in the area it a godsend to have such a lack of rain

theartist · Apr 25, 2017

So hoped I wouldn't be bumping this thread but the London news has just shown the upper Colne and Chess both dry, Had a chap fromm the Wildlife Trust who mentioned chub dace and roach amongst the other wildlife which are affected, another quote said it has to rain every day till July to get back to normal

Not good

peter crabtree · Apr 25, 2017

Rob, the upper Colne in London Colney is regularly dry and has been for many years at certain times of year. Same for the Chess. Nothing new...

theartist · Apr 26, 2017

In April though Simon?

Cracked Earth and Broken Spades

theartist

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peterjg

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mikench

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seth49

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binka

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tigger

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flightliner

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robtherake

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Philip

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theartist

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tigger

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peter crabtree

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theartist

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