Yes, I do realise really that a few days' heavy rain won't sort it all out. And that summer thundershowers actually pretty much are the wrong sort of rain.
Drought is a serious thing, and even if the current weather won't "fix" it, I assume it will at least help - the ground near my office that was all cracked and crispy and starting to form fissures a fortnight ago is looking considerably healthier. So it is a good thing that it's raining at the moment.
It's just particularly galling to have to get completely changed due to drenching when there's a hosepipe ban :) I await the day that one of those buses with a "We are in drought" advert on the side will spatter me with puddle-water!
Oh, I actually thought the problem was the other way round - heavy, hard rain on dry ground runs straight off into rivers/reservoirs, instead of being soaked into the ground where it will help boost the groundwater levels.
Maybe sammason will set us straight if she comes back, it sounds like she knows about these things...
Mum said last week that when digging in the garden it was dry a few inches down. So anything landing on it I thought would go to rehydrating the soil and it taking a substantial amount more to get through the dry soil and into the water table.
Of course I could be very wrong on the whole subject, here is hoping sammason gets back to us.
I remember from being a kid hearing about flooding in drought-ridden Ethiopia, and being confused about it. Apparently the earth's surface was baked hard enough that the water from a torrential downpour just ran straight off - you need lots of steady, light drizzle to soften it up before water gets absorbed properly into the ground.
I don't think we were quite at that level of drought, though, so it may not be relevant at all.
(Also, holy crap, the weather in West London is positively biblical at present...)
Hmmmm, I think it has just reached us, just as I was planning on escaping the office. I think I'll pass on the 4 mile walk I was going to do this evening!
A spokesman there is saying that all the rain is going to be absorbed into dry soil or run off the surface... but either way it doesn't get down far enough to top up groundwater levels.
I think the big difference is in this weather people don't water their gardens, and water butts get replenished, which means a marked reduction in present water use that continues for a while later.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 02:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 02:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 02:40 pm (UTC)Drought is a serious thing, and even if the current weather won't "fix" it, I assume it will at least help - the ground near my office that was all cracked and crispy and starting to form fissures a fortnight ago is looking considerably healthier. So it is a good thing that it's raining at the moment.
It's just particularly galling to have to get completely changed due to drenching when there's a hosepipe ban :) I await the day that one of those buses with a "We are in drought" advert on the side will spatter me with puddle-water!
no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 03:42 pm (UTC)Maybe
no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 03:52 pm (UTC)Of course I could be very wrong on the whole subject, here is hoping sammason gets back to us.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 04:03 pm (UTC)I remember from being a kid hearing about flooding in drought-ridden Ethiopia, and being confused about it. Apparently the earth's surface was baked hard enough that the water from a torrential downpour just ran straight off - you need lots of steady, light drizzle to soften it up before water gets absorbed properly into the ground.
I don't think we were quite at that level of drought, though, so it may not be relevant at all.
(Also, holy crap, the weather in West London is positively biblical at present...)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 04:08 pm (UTC)Well watch out for a plague of frogs!
We had the biblical rain at lunch time today in the west end.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 04:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-25 10:13 am (UTC)http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17836246
A spokesman there is saying that all the rain is going to be absorbed into dry soil or run off the surface... but either way it doesn't get down far enough to top up groundwater levels.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 03:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 03:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-19 04:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-01 01:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-20 03:38 pm (UTC)Meanwhile, Look North has spent the week congratulating itself that it has rain and is not in 'The South', which IIRC lies just beyond Durham.