up until today, when I’ve heard people panicking about climate change or weather patterns I’ve always quite smugly informed them that the floods were worse in 1960 or that they are just doom mongers and hoping for catastrophe to add excitement to their lives..

until this morning..

last night for about 3 or 4 minutes, rain fell hard enough that I worried the roof might collapse and when I’ve popped out this morning the rain is till steady and showing no signs of abating..

so knowing that this place has a number of very knowledgeable folk that form their opinions based on solid research, can anyone offer any answers regarding the biblical rain this year..?

Gulf stream shift..? Axis shift caused by an earth quake..? Human pollutants..? Cyclic..? Biblical..?

Are there any well informed opinions available..?

Are there any well informed opinions available..?

On here?

Oh dear…

😉

God’s weeing in our shoes, init.

OP, did you see Is Our Weather Getting Worse last night?

Nothing out of the ordinary. People just have very short memories, it’s flooded much worse in the last 100 years, just we chose to forget and built housing estates on all the flood plains.

If your local library has a local Weather Book, as many south-eastern counties do, read it. It’ll put recent events in perspective.

‘Once-in-a-hundred-years’ events are getting more common though…
.
.

just we chose to forget and built housing estates on all the flood plains

Great one in our village. 20yrs ago someone wanted to build a bungalow on the site of the old village pond (long since filled in). The council told him ‘no, you can’t do that, it will flood.’ So he bought some land half a mile away and built a bungalow there.
10yrs later the local farmer’s son wanted to build a house on the site of the old village pond. Local farmer didn’t like being told ‘no’ so he gave the planning officer a brown envelope and his son was allowed to build a house there.
Oddly enough, it floods quite often.

Warming is increasing evaporation rates in the Atlantic, which falls on us. It is also increasing energy in the atmosphere which pushes up wind speeds and could be the reason the jet stream is migrating. That is my theory anyway (based o studying such subjects whilst at CAT)

‘Once-in-a-hundred-years’ events are getting more common though…

1 in a hundred is not a measure of frequency though…it’s a measure of magnitude. I blame the EA for the utter confusion that terms like a 1 in a 100 year flood causes.

There’s absolutely no reason whatsoever why you can’t get 6, 10 or indeed no “one in a hundred floods” in the same year

It’s not just a warming atlantic though. Melting polar ice is causing cold water to flow south, cooling the air above it and steering the jet stream so that the storms that would’ve gone further north now hit the UK directly. But never mind, the earth will reset it’s natural thermostat eventually, but the process of doing so may be erratic.

It wasn’t too bad up in the Lakes last night when you were at low level but up on top it was grim cheek stinging lashing down and the wind got up and was pushing the rain beyond horizontal to abut 50 degrees. It seems like normal winter weather to me?

the point is, who’s willing to take the chance?…oh, everyone…brum brum.

Well this time last year the media were masturbating furiously over the lack of rain. Journo’s standing in the middle of dried up river beds… The drought and hose pipe bans were in full swing. If only some of them could be standing in those river beds right now. The end was upon us.

Short memories and shite media = usual frenzy

The other reason there ‘seems’ to be more floods is because of bad land management and the greed of developers to build houses on those convenient flat bits near pretty rivers. Water is fond of nice smooth roads too, makes for a convenient route..

Axis shift caused by an earth quake..?

Unlikely. That one in Japan that was all over the news when it broke the nuclear power station was the 5th biggest since they invented a way of measuring them. It did change the rotation of the earth, but by enough to alter the length of a day by 0.025seconds (IIRC), don’t think that will really have a noticable effect on the weather.
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As an aside, it’s often pointed out the folly of building nuclear power plants in earthquake zones. However, I see it as ‘a power station was hit by the 5th biggest earthquake ever recorded. It was then hit by a bloody great tsunami. Which broke the power supply. and the back-up power supply. And the back-up back-up power supply. And yet it still didn’t blow up. Sounds pretty safe to me.

A solution to the building management and building on floodplains would be to build houses on stilts, Such as in the ski resorts and have boats.

Or start building noah’s ark.

In all, a few years ago we were flooded twice in 3 weeks,this year the water hasn’t been anywhere near what it was.

EDITED to remove insults

As has been explained a million times in the media, global warming means freak weather is more likely. So yes, there have been terrible floods before, and probably worse ones, but we have certainly been having greater incidence of freak weather.

Like having a severe drought in the first half of the year then torrential rain in the second half.

footflaps – Member
Nothing out of the ordinary. People just have very short memories, it’s flooded much worse in the last 100 years, just we chose to forget and built housing estates on all the flood plains.

^^this+1^^

I have ruined 2 umbrellas and left one on the train, if I’m sick of buying the things you’d never know. 🙄

Everyone I have met who is educated on this subject says the temperature is rising exceptionally due to our activities and the result will be more extremes of weather and rising sea levels.

Looking good for Greenland land/property prices.

Like having a severe drought in the first half of the year then torrential rain in the second half.

Get some perspective, a hosepipe ban doesn’t constitute a severe drought and a few cancelled trains doesn’t constitute severe flooding.

Oh and Yunki.

You live in Devon, should be used to the rain by now….

A slightly more informed opinion..

Met Office

One possible outcome!

Man made global cooling – obvious surely?!? It’s 20 years or so since the world was at risk of devastating cooling, then we had the warming stuff, so must be time to go back to wet/cool threats now. What else should we worry about.

A slightly more informed opinion..

Met Office

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

“Met Office” 😯
Waste of Taxpayers Money. All the data comes from German Universities.

We could become a world water super power. Tankers would ship it all over the world to those that need it and we will all be millionaires.

http://www.infoplease.com/cig/weather/so-why-does-it-rain.html

LOL that South London is listed separately from ‘London’ and will be flooded earlier… good to see old prejudices dying hard 🙂

tbh tho if we carry on getting summers like this year I imagine a lot of trails will become impassable. Not great for MTB overall if more extreme weather limits the trail network/opportunities to get out

Has all the rain we’ve had over the summer made the sea much higher?
If it carries on like this we’ll all have to go and live on the Island of Nevis.

Interesting article on rain/ jet stream on BBC website today. Beautifully ambiguous on relation to MMCC!!! Classic BBC.

We are currently experiencing massive flooding around the trent valley area. Spent the whole of boxing day with the local sailing club on our safety power boats rescuing people/animals from floods. Never seen so many snakes brought out of hibernation and clinging to branches..

We are now in our fifth ‘once in a century’ flood since 2000. The last one being only a month ago.. (maybe the last one and this one could be considered the same flood though).

Weird thing is.. we’ve not had that much rain really.

Not great for MTB overall if more extreme weather limits the trail network/opportunities to get out

this is my concern, and the reason that I posed the question.. I’m wondering if it might be worth selling the bike now whilst there’s still a market and getting some sort of canoe/kayak..

Weird thing is.. we’ve not had that much rain really.

my thoughts exactly.. so perhaps the melting ice caps instead of causing rising sea levels, are causing a saturated water table first..?

What you all need to do now is buy Kitesurfing and Windsurfing stuff..

IanW – Member

Everyone I have met who is educated on this subject says the temperature is rising exceptionally due to our activities and the result will be more extremes of weather and rising sea levels.

Looking good for Greenland land/property prices.

Ask them if the medieval warm period appears in their data 😉

what’s occurring..?

Gavin and Stacey box set for christmas? 🙂

2000:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html

2009:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/02/snow-brings-britain-travel-chaos

2010:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jan/05/uk-faces-coldest-winter-weather

2011:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/8960173/Snow-and-ice-warning-for-entire-UK.html

brooess – Member

LOL that South London is listed separately from ‘London’ and will be flooded earlier… good to see old prejudices dying hard

Well, it would be- South London’s barely more than a floodplain. The graphic’s weird though, shows London as higher than Edinburgh… Some parts of London are reasonably high but the heart of the city is far lower, whereas most of Edinburgh and all of the town centre is far higher. I guess they’ve gone from highest points or something.

The graphic’s weird though

Had the book for Christmas last year, and most of it’s the same.
They called it “Information is Beutiful” but could have just as easily called it “Pretty Graphics Talk Bollox”

Read the IPCC’s fourth assessment report summary for policy makers – all the info along with uncertainties/ evidence base etc. Fifth assessment is due out soon.

This thread is even more bollocks filled than usual.

Z11 nicely showing nothing other than newspapers talking through their arses.

“Met Office”
Waste of Taxpayers Money. All the data comes from German Universities.

Oh really? Interested to hear more about that please.