It hasn’t rained for a week.
The ground is frozen solid.
The River Severn is still flowing at a high level.
Where does the water come from ?

The hills, come on do you really need to ask.

But if it’s frozen here in the low lands, the hills will be even frozener.
How is there water running off them ?

There’s water under the ground. The Severn is also fairly big it will take a wee while for the water further up to reach. Isn’t it also tidal?

Sheep piss into warm buckets and then top the rivers up 😯 the river seven included

Is it frozen solid? I thought we’d only had a light frost the last couple of mornings.

The ground is frozen solid.

Only down to a couple of cm.

Unless permafrost has started making an appearance in the UK.

Here these 2 friends should help.

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/riversevern/

It’s only tidal as far as Gloucester.
The grounds frozen solid on top round here, I don’t know how far down.

Also.

It won’t be that far down, even the cold spell we had you’d be lucky if it was even down to 6″ and around here it was down to -20 or colder. Even during the day for days it didn’t go above -5. The rivers still flowed.

seriously OP – 😮

And of course you also have to take into account that the faster moving feeder rivers upstream will not freeze as readily as slow moving waters downstream.

All larger rivers are fed by smaller tributaries that can range from a smaller rivers/stream or even dykes that collect surface water from roads or natural springs.

Aren’t those faster moving feeder rivers also fed by surface water which will be even more prone to freezing as it’s higher ground ?

Yes, seriously, MF. I know it’s a stupid question, but it’s a bit like asking how big is the universe.
There’s a simple scientific answer, but when you start to think about it and look at how much water is still flowing now, it’s hard to comprehend just how much water there is stored underground and it’s amazing to think how it acts a sort of damper, turning alternating spells of dry and wet weather coming in, in to a more or less constant flow of water going out.

Peat bog hold huge amounts of water too and you have to consider the size of the Severn how far it’s travelled it’s picked up an awful lot of water. We had massive snow falls too, Wales being one of the areas that got loads. If it’s like around here then that is still melting in some sheltered areas.

Looks at the other way, in long hot dry summers we sometimes have the rivers are low but still have water in even after months of no or hardly any rain.

Not all the tributaries will come from higher ground depends I guess it depends where you live and as said above ground frost will only go down a few inches. Where I was working the other day it was -10 yet the river may be 3 feet across and about 2 foot deep was still running normal.

Yeah, that’s what I meant by the natural underground reservoirs acting as a damper.
Even if the surface has been frozen for weeks, or there’s been no rain for weeks, the underground water still seeps out at a fairly constant rate to keep the river flowing.

Get an OS map and look at all the little blue lines and springs you might be surprised by how many there is.

as a geologist, this post is hilarious, thank you 🙂

You may think the ground is frozen but the creatures living in it disagree!

As a bus mechanic, I find geology fascinating.
I’m sure the novelty would wear off if I did it for a job though.

Not all the tributaries will come from higher ground

So, do the tributaries from lower ground flow uphill into the bigger rivers?

O… M… G…

As a geologist; atmospheric, surface and ground processes are facts that I have as the base to my knowledge of the overall processes involved in how the “world works” and I find some of the questions that my friends and for that matter my wife’s friends ask to be astonishing in their apparent ignorance. It always amazes me that so many people have such a limited understanding of such things as how a river works.

Anyway, the water flowing down the river seven that you are seeing now will be from a number of sources, the prime source being the water table / ground water. This supplies what is know as the rivers base level, though this does change as the water table changes over the year. The water in the rivers from rain, melt water, sheep wee doesn’t stay in the river for very long the length of time is dependant on the ground cover, geography and geology of the rivers catchment area. Water from a rain storm can be seen in the river in just a couple hours and can increase the water level for half a day after the rain has stopped. The SEPA website has some nice real-time information where the river level can be gauged against rainfall and other factors, its great for picking which rivers have water for kayaking, and the speed that the water level increases following storm rain is interesting to see – look at any rivers data following a prolonged dry spell and you will still see water flowing, which is sourced from its ground water supply, which has already been explained wont be frozen, as in our climate even during really long cold spells the level to which the ground freezes only extends to a few centimetres.

The River Seven ehh?

Bloody geologists. 😉

Basingstoke?

and can increase the water level for half a day after the rain has stopped

It can peak in half a day but water can still be running in for a while after that in some areas.

I thought helicopters went up to drop water in the hills when the rivers start looking a bit dry.

Ahem….

View post on imgur.com

The rivers only flow if people are there to see them.

The ground temperature at 1m below ground never gets below 8degC in uk – max of 12degC in summer. No chance of it freezing and loads of water to keep the rivers wet.