I ventured down to my plots again, last Saturday in the hope that I could achieve some constructive work there, after a dry cold week with most days being breezy and sunny. Not a bit of it. The ground was still incredibly wet with even the grass paths squelching underfoot. After a quick perusal of the situation I deposited more kitchen waste on the compost heap and left for home in my car which skidded in the mud, as I reversed out of my parking space at the top end of plot N2.
Last Wednesday night I attended a regular pub quiz at one of our local rural pubs. Four of the regular teams couldn't make the quiz, due to the fact that their villages were still cut off from the rest of civilization by the recent floods.
At present 16 huge extra pumps (along with 20 other pumping stations) are pumping excess rain water from the Somerset levels (3rd time this year) at a rate of 10 tonnes per second, into the local rivers. If there is no further rainfall, it will take a full month to bring the water levels down to acceptable levels. Guess what, it's been raining here again since about midday yesterday.
Several villages around the levels area are still cut off by the flood waters. As of last Friday repair crews were still working to clear some of the 13 landslips from the rail lines between Exeter and Plymouth. One statistic I heard recently, was that Somerset was subjected to 280% more rainfall than it "normally" gets in November. What were the figures for your area??
This is a link to the BBC's article about the pumping operations CLICK HERE.
5 more pumps have recently been added to the ones already pumping rain water from the Somerset Levels and surrounding areas. 20 Tonnes of water per second are now being pumped out. The main Taunton to Glastonbury trunk road is still under water as is the A361 between East Lyng and Burrowbridge, along with other areas in between. Muchelney is still badly affected by the flood waters. It is estimated that it will take at least until Christmas to deal with the estimated 43 million Tonnes of water, currently swamping the Levels.
The River Yeo at Pen Mill and Ilchester peaked in the early hours of Sunday morning, and has now fallen to safer levels. High river levels remain further downstream where the River Yeo and River Parrett meet, near Langport. The risk of flooding remains in these areas, particularly to low lying land and roads near Muchelney and Thorney. A band of persistent rain is forecast to arrive on Monday morning. This will be followed by more showery conditions on Monday afternoon, and Monday evening. Total accumulations of 12 mm of rain are expected on Monday. We may well see river levels in this area rise for a time again on Monday in response to this rain. Pumping will start at Huish Episcopi pumping station as soon as the level of the River Yeo drops enough to safely allow this.
On the upside I've almost finished decorating my house, throughout, this year thanks to the rain.
There's always tomorrow??
Last Wednesday night I attended a regular pub quiz at one of our local rural pubs. Four of the regular teams couldn't make the quiz, due to the fact that their villages were still cut off from the rest of civilization by the recent floods.
At present 16 huge extra pumps (along with 20 other pumping stations) are pumping excess rain water from the Somerset levels (3rd time this year) at a rate of 10 tonnes per second, into the local rivers. If there is no further rainfall, it will take a full month to bring the water levels down to acceptable levels. Guess what, it's been raining here again since about midday yesterday.
Several villages around the levels area are still cut off by the flood waters. As of last Friday repair crews were still working to clear some of the 13 landslips from the rail lines between Exeter and Plymouth. One statistic I heard recently, was that Somerset was subjected to 280% more rainfall than it "normally" gets in November. What were the figures for your area??
This is a link to the BBC's article about the pumping operations CLICK HERE.
UPDATE TO THE ABOVE POST
5 more pumps have recently been added to the ones already pumping rain water from the Somerset Levels and surrounding areas. 20 Tonnes of water per second are now being pumped out. The main Taunton to Glastonbury trunk road is still under water as is the A361 between East Lyng and Burrowbridge, along with other areas in between. Muchelney is still badly affected by the flood waters. It is estimated that it will take at least until Christmas to deal with the estimated 43 million Tonnes of water, currently swamping the Levels.
FURTHER (LOCAL) UPDATE (31/12/2012)
The River Yeo at Pen Mill and Ilchester peaked in the early hours of Sunday morning, and has now fallen to safer levels. High river levels remain further downstream where the River Yeo and River Parrett meet, near Langport. The risk of flooding remains in these areas, particularly to low lying land and roads near Muchelney and Thorney. A band of persistent rain is forecast to arrive on Monday morning. This will be followed by more showery conditions on Monday afternoon, and Monday evening. Total accumulations of 12 mm of rain are expected on Monday. We may well see river levels in this area rise for a time again on Monday in response to this rain. Pumping will start at Huish Episcopi pumping station as soon as the level of the River Yeo drops enough to safely allow this.
“Contains Environment Agency information © Environment Agency and database right”
On the upside I've almost finished decorating my house, throughout, this year thanks to the rain.
There's always tomorrow??
Ugh! What a terrible allotment year. I don't want to wish the days away, but... bring on 2013!! :-)
ReplyDeleteHello Belinda, yes not the best of years for the allotment. Some of it was good though in the middle of the year. I can't complain at the amount of produce in my freezer. The spuds and Onions are still being used from storage.
DeleteCould you pop over and do some decorating for us too?
ReplyDeleteHi Sue, Only if I can use "water based paint".
Delete