[Closed] We need rain.

Same here but I rather it stayed dry.

But fire makes the trails come alive!

I thought a good burning was good for moorland. They call it swaling on dartmoor.

I thought a good burning was good for moorland. They call it swaling on dartmoor.

Depends what you define as 'good'. If you didn't burn it you'd have a forest.
Which is really shit if you're a member of the aristocracy with a 'grouse moor'.

Ditto sheep farming in the Lake District (and most of upland Britain), if it stopped then most of it would revert to woodland.

Most of what you'd think of as 'natural' countryside in this country is actually really heavily managed.

Very true is there a natural countryside in this country?? Lovely and dry in Forest Of Dean/Cotswolds/Wilts hope it lasts for a while all those monster puddles of the Ridgeway few months back are well and truly gone makes a change 🙂

George Monbiot has a great book on it all. Basically everything has been wrecked for agriculture

Drier than a temperance knees up over my way. River is a good foot or two down from where it should be, and even some of the perma-puddles so typical of chalklands are dry.

The Mayflies are teeming, the trout are rising, but the fields are bone dry. Going to be hard on the arable farmers.

Hardly any rain this year over in the east. Lawn is already looking pale and withered.Can only remember one wet ride.

Dundee and surrounds are bone dry and have been for a month. Getting a bit worried. Nice riding but everything looks a bit withered....

some of the local farmers have moved away from winter wheat to spring wheat because of the wet winters and the crop rotting in standing puddles. The field behind the house is really struggling.

I wouldn't worry, I've taken the mud guard off my forks - I expect to see Noah sailing by any time now.

could actualy do with it being a bit warmer 😕

River is a good foot or two down from where it should be.

All the reservoirs were looking low too, drought orders could be on the way this summer at some point I reckon.

I thought a good burning was good for moorland.

When it's controlled, yes. Some plant species rely on it!

Lovely and dry in Forest Of Dean...

As long as that holds on for the Wild Boar on Sunday 😀

At last it seems to be nationwide, a day's light rain to dampen everything down would be lovely. Should only take a day for the trails to dry up again but all the plants will be a lot better for it.

but all the plants will be a lot better for it.

yeah 6 foot nettles 🙂

ive put the waterproof winter boots away (sunday)
rain is now forecast

I've just spent the last 2 weekends turfing my garden. So no rain until october knowing my luck 🙄

loving the dry in Surrey. Best May riding for ages! I'm sure June will be a wash out as per the last few years!

Milky, re the water level, I'm very close to the source of a river, and for it to be that bad up here doesn't bode well at all.

*Double post oddity*

The Peak District is bone dry too. Maybe just my faulty memory, but this seems to have become the new normal for spring...?

The South East will have drought orders in the next few weeks. It's not good,

All the hills and moorland are drained, so it will be dry.
And then when there's a bit of rain, people wonder why their town's flooded.

Been very dry here too. Think i saw on the news this morning that fife only had 15% of its normal rainfall last month.
Wierd weather all year really. Winter was tame, and spring so far has been dry but feeling like winter due strong (and cold!) winds.

It's bloody magic. Been riding loads of trails that are normally too muddy to be fun. Even a section on Rudry Common that is a nice trail with a clay pit in the middle. It's all baked like concrete.

It's been properly uplifting. I love it more than I can express.

However, the water table's still reasonably high here. A few seeps are still pretty productive.

We wrote Happy Birthday on the pavement in chalk for my daughter right at the beginning of April, and it didn't wash off until May. Don't think it rained at all that whole month.

Several spot fires kicked off round here over the last 7-10 days...

South Downs are rock hard dry at present, some of the forest trails are turning to talcum powder and bobbles which means straying off the polished line usually involves a trip into the undergrowth. Following anyone is like riding through a dust storm and at night it's hilarious.

I suspect in June it'll turn into a complete bog fest like it did last year as Feb/mar/Apr/Mays rain arrives in two weeks.

Very dry; already we've had several fires on the military lands and common lands around Ash and Pirbright area. There's a suspicion these were started* but the area's so dry with a wind they could spread very quickly.

A couple of days of proper rain would also help my garden.

* kids - what goes through someone's mind?

Calder valley dry as a stone. Great for walking and riding never known the moor so dry.

Not good for houses on a spring water supply. Ours ran out yesterday. Normally happens every few years but at the end of a long dry summer not in May.

Going to add an interesting element to the daily grind.

I blame the lack of cold and hard frosts in winter. Lack of freezing means what water we had on the moor puddled rather than sank to the freezing level and has since evaporated (primarily via the wind rather than the sun one assumes). It takes a good few days of cold weather to get the ground frozen beyond the first inch or so.

Fire also a risk there's been a few isolated ones already, seen the fire brigade on ogden moor a few times already.

Calder valley dry as a stone. Great for walking and riding never known the moor so dry.

Not good for houses on a spring water supply. Ours ran out yesterday. Normally happens every few years but at the end of a long dry summer not in May.

Going to add an interesting element to the daily grind.

I blame the lack of cold and hard frosts in winter. Lack of freezing means what water we had on the moor puddled rather than sank to the freezing level and has since evaporated (primarily via the wind rather than the sun one assumes). It takes a good few days of cold weather to get the ground frozen beyond the first inch or so.

Fire also a risk there's been a few isolated ones already, seen the fire brigade on ogden moor a few times already.

It's supposed to p!ss it down Friday.

That'll keep the moaners happy.

Personally, it's brilliant. Long may it stay dry and firm.

I blame the lack of cold and hard frosts in winter. Lack of freezing means what water we had on the moor puddled rather than sank to the freezing level and has since evaporated (primarily via the wind rather than the sun one assumes). It takes a good few days of cold weather to get the ground frozen beyond the first inch or so.

Doesn't make any difference. It's just lack of water falling from the sky, simple.

'Moaners'?

We do need rain, bike riding is absolutely glorious at the moment. Trails SO fast but not overgrown.

However, we also need to eat so a bit of balance will be welcome. I'll stick the gauge data up later, I'm not at work,it's very dry at the mo. I'm in bed with a bug. So much for dry trails. 🙄

Why not do a hosepipe ban now?

Daily mail. You shouldn't be using a hosepipe in the South East much anytime really.

Looking at the [url= http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/anomalygraphs ]Met Office data[/url] it seems to be mainly an England and Wales issue and only really in the last month. Rainfall totals for February and March were pretty much in line with the long term averages for the whole UK (with February being wetter than normal in Scotland). For April Wales only got 32% of normal rainfall, England 34% and Scotland 79%. Totals were low for January as well though.

Interestingly I thought it had been cold this year with lots of north winds, but average temperatures are 1-2 degrees higher than the long term average for every month this year, so far.

Hose Pipe bans, that's one of those "other peoples problems" for us.

We 'make' so much water in Wales we export it.

could actualy do with it being a bit warmer

I suspect the consistent cold northerlies and easterlies are partially to blame for the dryness. Certainly down here in the sarf a winter northerly is colder but because of the big drop in humidity it dries things out, especially when compared to a more usual south-westerly which comes straight in off the Atlantic and is full of moisture.

If memory serves the UK sits under a meeting point of four weather systems, and while the Gulf Stream is the dominant one, it doesn't take a lot to disrupt them.

it was very loose and dusty last night around woburn on

I was too lazy to take my shorty HR2 off for something faster but in the end the extra grip was appreciated

I'm actually considering washing my bike as the dust is getting pretty thick on it now, can't remember ever doing that before.

I work in water supply and the pressure to get out of service borehole sites back online is really ramping up

According to the news on telly last night, if it rains in the West of Scotland this weekend then it will cause 21 Billion midges to hatch.

I'd rather that didn't happen, if i'm honest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-scotland-39858858/scotland-set-for-21-billion-biting-midges

^^^^ yeah, it has been great last few weeks with dry and dusty trails and no midges and very few ticks. It's all about to change... 😯

It's great in't it!
Looking forward to tonight's ride over some very cheeky Bowland moorland. The moors are wheel-deep bogs for 11 months of the year, so we'll ride 'em while we can 😀
No rain just yet please.

Rain needed here, it's so dry everything is crumbling and turning to dust.

That'll keep the moaners happy.

Rainmoaners?

My local river (Tweed) is as low as I ever remember seeing it. The trails are fantastic