May England's Driest In 100 Years; Spring Scotland's Wettest On Record - Guardian

[hatrack]

The River Derwent was bone dry at Seathwaite on 3 May 2011. England has had its driest May in a century. Photograph: Paul Kingston/NNP

England suffered its driest spring in a century last month, leaving fields parched and many rivers at record lows, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) said on Friday, as government officials met experts and utilities to discuss the drought conditions prevailing in many parts of the country.

But Scotland, by contrast, had its wettest spring on record for the three-month period of March, April and May, showing the wide regional variation. Much of the south-east of England has also escaped drought.

Most reservoir stocks throughout northern Scotland and Northern Ireland were described as "healthy" by the CEH, the public sector research centre charged with collating drought data. For England and Wales as a whole in May, stocks were within 4% of the early June average. In areas such as London, stocks are also estimated within 10% of capacity, but in the south-west, Wales and the Midlands, reservoir stocks are 10-20% below where they should be at this time of year.

Terry Marsh, senior hydrologist at the CEH, said: "Late May soils were the driest on record across large parts of eastern and central England, causing substantial agricultural stress impacting on crop yields. Currently, the most evident hydrological impact of the drought is on river flows across much of southern Britain – flows in responsive rivers were close to, or below, previous late-May minima over wide areas."

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/10/england-driest-may-drought

[AndyTiedye]

1. If This Keeps Up (Which it Will) We Will Need Pipelines to Move the Water

from the areas that have way too much to the drought areas.

[Odin2005]

2. Holy SHIT! I never expected to see a dried-up river in ENGLAND!

:wow: