Can we have a thread about the weather and nature, to distract from all the starvation and climate change gloom and blame throwing?
Just been for a ride outside Cardiff, still quite a lot of green about. The tall grass is yellow but there are lots of green shoots and some mown areas are still green. The local stream is down to about I'd guess 1/5 of normal summer flow. There are some wild plants wilting, but mostly it's the shallow rooted Himalayan Balsam that is struggling - hurray! Other than the grass, most of the native stuff is doing pretty well. My garden is ok despite not having been watered for a week, the lawn is still lovely and I haven't watered it at all.
I felt worse on my ride today at 33 than when I went out last time at 37, but it might be because it's been hotter overnight, and we've had a week of heat already and I've been sat in a hot room all day.
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I planted 200 trees back in spring, I’d say more than half are dead
Climate disaster, nature and weather come hand in hand, we can’t talk about one without the others
Scheduled for rain Tuesday or Wednesday in many parts of the country.
Did 55k around Orkney today.
It was very wet.
The green stuff is very green.
The trails are boggy.
I think it was about 15 degrees.
Fine ride tho, finished off with a fish supper in kirkwall.
Having not watered the garden anything without deep roots is now dead or looks dead including a couple of the trees, however it's remarkable the things that come back to life after a dry spell. Sitting in the TGV back home from holiday France was doing a good impression of central Spain, various shades of brown.
Looks like France is due for some heavy showers next week as well.
There is a spot by the gate I use to get into the woods on my bike ride that was nearly always a puddle all winter. It would then turn into soft mud and very occasionally dry out for a few days. In 2018 though it dried out then became dust. Since then it hasn't got wet enough to fill and there is now grass growing in it. I think 2018 really shifted the water table. Before then I'd be lucky to remove my crud catcher for a couple of rides a year; since then I've left it off all summer every summer.
yep looks like (how I imagine) California around here these days. Took this pic the other night, just about to go over there and watch the moon:
Pretty dry here in the New Forest. Everything’s brown and yellow, it’s like the south of France. Lawn is bereft of any green shoots and the veg garden has had it. My speculative outdoor tomatoes are doing better than the ones in the greenhouse.
I’m off this weekend after last week/ weekend on call as duty manager. We’ve got wildfires going left right and centre here as we’ve got a resident arsonist local to one corner of the forest and there are also plenty of people still coming here to have bbq’s. This is despite a well publicised ban. We also still have idiots coming out and wild camping and having a fire to keep warm even when it’s 20 degrees or more obpvernight. When they put the fire out and go home, even the “bush crafty or bike packer” ones that keep things clean and take their rubbish and tents home, it’s so dry the fire rekindles once the wind and sun get to it resulting in a wildfire.
Our staff are working all the hours supporting the fire service with our fire appliances as the wildfires are reigniting day after day even after massive combined efforts to dig out and drench the fire.
We get this now and again but this has been for such a sustained period everyone is knackered and other stuff isn’t getting done, families aren’t getting much attention from mum or dad!
Situations such as this we need something like a total fire ban like they have in some other countries with some serious sanctions for flouting it.
if it's the daily response your looking for then
it's just summer init! #hotterin76
I’m on Skye, you insensitive clot 😉
Interestingly while its currently hot up in the Lakes, the water levels aren't actually that low.
It hasn't been a super dry summer up here in all honesty.
Dry but not dead here
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It’s very dry here in Kent, apart from the top of my favourite trail back down bluebell hill. Here, there has been a leaking water main for the last two months which has left a big muddy puddle, thus resulting in me still going home with a muddy bike and mud splattered legs.
I nearly fell down several crevasses cycling across a local field* last week. Cycled through a field of totally brown/black dead crop this week. Yep, pretty dry.
*same field that I resorted to carrying the bike through a while back as the clay was so horrible you couldn’t push the bike through it let alone consider riding.
Bit wet on holiday. Would only last an hour but come from nowhere.
Interestingly while its currently hot up in the Lakes, the water levels aren’t actually that low.
It hasn’t been a super dry summer up here in all honesty.
Yeah, quite a bit of rain when we were in North Wales for two weeks. Some nice weather too but it wanged it down a couple of nights and we had a couple of "classic" rainy days.
I nearly got my road bike wheel stuck in a crevasse thats opened up on a New Forest road this week!
And all the streams have dried up completely. A few puddles in deep corners but nothing running at all. Even the top of the Beaulieu River. Don't know how the ponies are managing.
And dust! Had a couple of people crash last weekend on a group ride as they couldn't see the ground in front of them if following anyone.
The ciders still cold and wet though 😁
The weather in Blackpool has been fairly grim since the two 40 degree days. Lots of overcast days, wind, pretty rainy. The summer has been relatively shit tbh. It's only really gone dry and now hot again in the last week.
Went to Gisburn yesterday and was surprised to see Stocks reservoir this low (is normally lapping right up to the bottom of the picture.) I genuinely didn't think we'd had it that dry for that long up here!
Hot and dry here in Newbury, can't remember when it rained last, certainly hasn't rained for a month.
well, people were going on about moving to Oz. No need anymore.
Out here in East Anglia, it's fairly dry. Some farms reckon only 40mm of rain since march.
I've never seen so many harvest related fires.
Yet, some are still drilling. And it's growing, so there is moisture in the ground.
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Burning in mid-Essex.
Massive cracks in the ground in the parks and fields. Oak trees dropping their leaves. Looks like autumn.
Supposedly any meaningful rainfall was in April/May. Had a few drops the other week, but that was literally it. Not enough to wet the ground.
I planted 200 trees back in spring, I’d say more than half are dead
I planted a couple of thousand whips in recent years. In 2018 (not like this year, but still dry) I thought the oaks I planted that Jan were dying left right and centre and I marked the guards of those I thought were dead but the following year many of those came back. Fingers crossed you might find similar.
Southern edge of the Highlands from Dunblane last night.
It’s bone dry in Oxfordshire, I can’t remember it raining at all for about two months.
A village up the road from us has no water as the reservoir that services them is dry. The water company are handing out bottled water there.
We’ve got 40% chance of rain forecast for Monday and Tuesday which will be welcome.
No doubt a few heavy showers this week will be all the evidence needed to convince the terminally stupid that climate change is nonsense and it’s just a normal summer 🤦🏼♂️
Lucky here in Erewash that we had about half an inch of rain - half a water butt full - about 3 weeks. Just enough to green up the grass briefly and save some trees and bushes that were not in good shape.
Harvest well under way, plenty of green in verges and a lot of pastoral land if we head up towards the Peak, but parks, especially heading south towards Leicestershire, are looking very dry and brown.
A lot of nature will recover round here.
The Purbecks have been on fire quite a lot over the last 24 hours.
Reservoir levels aren't always an accurate indicator. Water can be piped around the country. My 2 local reservoirs are linked, water is often pumped from 1 to the other.
Yes, agree about reservoir levels. There are many alarming photos of the Brecon Beacons reservoir, but it's the tip one of three which always empties first. And some Elan Valley ones have been drained for maintenance. Bad timing though.
Bit surprised at that Gizzy/Stocks pic up thread, I'm nearby and also don't think it's been that dry here and my rain-fed ponds are looking pretty good. Lawn green (no watering).
I know the SE in particular has been parched and the country as a whole is well below average, but round here hasn't been that unusual. Some very fine spells (including right now) but also some wet times.
First for me yesterday out on the gravel bike - stumbled across a wildfire on the Spen Greenway - called the fire brigade. Was spreading quickly. Park run this morning OMG - it was hot hot hot....
Our "grass" is golden brown and crispy & crunchy when walked on.
I believe there is a storm warning issues for all of Wales which may impact on the GBDuro riders.
I recently called 999 to a wild fire in a tricky to get to rural location, the brigade must of loved me!
Had a look at the Barden reservoirs which supply Bradford this morning - both well down, no wonder Yorkshire Water has had to start taking measures. Heather's gone full autumn colour already as well.
Garden was still pretty green though, although now I've cut the lawn it's starting to lose its colour.
Very dry down here in the South East. Quite a few wild fires locally. The closest was less than half a mile away.
I'm just making the most of the dry weather and getting out for some long rides. Last year was wet and boggy all summer.
Gave in and watered a few selected plants in the garden today.
It's the driest I've ever seen it in Bristol. Went on an early morning road ride today and saw the remains of 3 fires (fairly small, maybe a field each). Didn't see any green grass at all and the crops that I passed looked massively stressed. All the usual irrigation ditches etc were bone dry which I haven't seen before.
Big fires near me, bone dry almost everywhere. Our garden's green, though. we've got a few thousand litres of water a day coming up through various springs.
The best/worst I've drained to the stream. I left a decent well on the last one so I could draw water if I ever needed to. Currently enjoying a guilt-free spring water paddling pool!
Where was that @alpin ? My brother is an Essex firefighter (leaden roding) and had been very busy busy with field fires
Drier than Ben Shapiro's missus down here in Herts.
Grass is almost all browned but the larger vegetation seems to be holding up O.K so far
Give it 4 months and we'll all be grumbling about the mud and slop so enjoy it while we can.
Time to fire up the BBQ (edit: The Weber, not a disposable fire hazard jobbie)
Spanish or Scottish hills?
the forecast for rain here is being rolled back to light showers 70% tuesday (with thunder) and 40% wednesday (and only for a short time)
Surprised how low the river Ribble was today given we're not in drought up here in the lush North West. Talking to my brother in law today about the drought orders, it's not a response to the current dry period, more a result of 2 years of below average rainfall. Also gives other options over winter which will be needed to refill the system in time for 2023.
We had a grassland fire in the meadow at the end of our road yesterday. Luckily put out very quickly before it spread into the sheep field and nearby flats. Bit close to home!
looks like a biblical thunderstorm rocking through Cornwall and Devon at the moment!
I wonder whether it'll make it across the country to East Anglia.... It looked like it might rain a few times last week, but petered out before hitting the coast.
Looking out the train window, there are some ominous looking clouds around Paris.
We had a grassland fire in the meadow at the end of our road yesterday. Luckily put out very quickly before it spread into the sheep field and nearby flats. Bit close to home!
We've had 2 in the last week or so within "worrying" distance. One was grass the other I think (based on the field, I've not walked over to see) should have been crops.
the forecast for rain here is being rolled back to light showers
It might not be a 'roll back' as such. They forecast showers crossing the country and if the model decides you aren't getting hit then you won't get the rain thingy in the forecast. But whilst we can very accurately predict there will be showers or thunderstorms, we cannot predict if a small storm will hit your actual town. So don't lose hope just yet. Our forecast has gone from storms to drizzle, but the map still shows lots of intense downpours across southern Britain tomorrow.
It rained most of the morning off and on here in Cardiff but the water has only penetrated about 2cm into the soil in our borders.
the problem with heavy rain now is that, as all teh ground is rock hard, lots will just runoff the surface. so flooding may be an issue.
good for business though (drainage engineer)
Despite the forecast, no appreciable rain here in north Wiltshire that I’ve seen. ☹️
I can't actually remember when we last had rain in North Norfolk, trails and bridleways are so just dust and sand, did forecast rain today, but that been moved to tomorrow night, we desperately need it, been a lot of harvest related fires. Friends shed went up taking fence and scorching back of house they think from greenhouse glass leant against shed.
On the plus side, the North Sea has never been warmer...
Peeing it down here in Glencoe, same as yesterday. So, not dry at all (and hasn’t really been this summer).
Today, on the other hand, there was a torrential downpour in Westbury, and in Chippenham, judging by how wet it was when I got home.
Been raining steadily in Newark since late afternoon with some occasional heavy outbursts.
Good news is it keeps the chavs indoors - concerns about shrinking when they get wet or skin not being waterproof or something..
Now know that a connector in my guttering has failed; ho hum, that will wait.
Half an inch in the rain gauge by last night, here near Derby, and more steady rain overnight.
No doubt the weeds will be the first things in the fadden to bounce back
We were looking at 3-4 hours of rain this afternoon (from this mornings forecast) but it seems to have evaporated 🙁
We've had quite a bit in Cardiff. Some heavy, but plenty of steady light rain. Everything's looking quite hydrated now.