Met Office: SIGNIFICANT WEATHER EVENT will hit UK in days as HUGE Atlantic storm ROARS in

reply to post by stumason


These storms are so British, that the clouds are made of Harris tweed, and rain drops of warm tea!

The thing that gets me, is people saying water is going to be one of the most valuable natural resources in the future. Yet we don't seem to be storing it for its potential future value, just piping it back into the sea. Maybe I'm missing something? Build some big reservoirs, potentially export fresh water?

The most valuable commodity in the world today, and likely to remain so for much of this century, is not oil, not natural gas, not even some type of renewable energy. It’s water—clean, safe, fresh water

environment.about.com...

crazyewok
Good job i live on a hill

I live very high up in yorkshire so If I flood most of the country will be 50ft underwater
Stay safe all.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Water is very expensive to transport, it's one of the reasons why we don't transport water from the North or Wales to the South when we're in drought. It is more cost effective to find other solutions in places with water shortages, like desalination for example that we see in the Arabian countries.

Reservoirs take up huge amounts of space too - generally speaking, the UK is never really short of water so it wouldn't be economic to try and store it in exportable quantities. In fact, after this Winter, all our aquifers are so full the water is literally seeping out of the ground in some places. Arguably, water isn't necessarily in "short supply" anywhere, it's just the management of it that is the problem.

reply to post by theabsolutetruth


Great, it already looked like I was walking in slow motion to work this morning lol

here in donegal v little wind a bit of rain but nothing out of the Ordinary

Landslides from the recent storm has wrecked an area of rail line meaning that Devon and Cornwall now have no rail link to the rest of the UK, including services to London.

www.bbc.co.uk...

The weather has caused more damage to the South West's rail network with a landslip on the Exeter to Waterloo line, Network Rail has reported.

It said the incident at Crewkerne in Somerset meant passengers could not get to Exeter by train.

In Dawlish, where waves destroyed the main railway line, shipping containers are being used as a breakwater.

Earlier coastguards warned of "phenomenal" waves of more than 45ft (14m) for the region.

Ben Bradshaw, the Labour MP for Exeter, tweeted: "Just got worse: Landslip shuts Waterloo line at Crewkerne - no trains at all in or out of the Westcountry. Nearest services Bristol & Yeovil."

Network Rail said it had spent the night spraying concrete onto the cliff and damaged sections of the track, which had connected Devon and Cornwall to the rest of the UK.

Reports of 10 boats sunk at Porthleven and video of ''boiling cauldron'' seas.

What's happening over there now? Has the weather settled down? I understand there was a significant storm coming over the weekend but doesn't appear to have been so severe? Any updates? Thanks.

reply to post by surrealist


The worst from fri /sat storm seems to be the rail line linking the counties of Devon and Cornwall to the rest of the UK as previous post, thought there is high tide there at midnight, currently 23:39 and ''phenomenal'' seas so I guess we will hear in the morning how the coast fared.

Another possible storm on Wednesday being tracked across the Atlantic, again caused by the jet stream, and reports of similar all February.

Seems like a few particular areas have been most affected, areas such as Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.

deleted by poster

Looks like my local area is now set to get a tad on the soggy side.

This river is not far from my house, fortunately I live on a hill, but there is quite a few homes built alongside it.

stumason
Looks like my local area is now set to get a tad on the soggy side.

This river is not far from my house, fortunately I live on a hill, but there is quite a few homes built alongside it.

Will be keeping my fingers crossed for your area Stu, i know very little about the whole flood protection thing for the Thames, but are the flood barriers more for protecting London or can these help the whole river?

I see Pickles on the news earlier apologizing for not dredging earlier. Actually he apologized for listening to the experts in the Environment Agency's advice on dredging. Thing is, the government are advised by experts supposedly, so did they do wrong by listening to them?

I'm down south in the New Forest about 5 minutes up from the Isle of Wight, and last night i opened my front door to check the wind, and for the first time ever i had to go back in because i i felt actually scared of the power of the wind. I used to fly traction kites in all kinds of stupid winds and i love storms, but last night was weird. Very powerful indeed.

I spent this morning from first light searching for a lost dog that had last been seen in a flooded river in my village. Not a nice task. My heart goes out to all those hugely affected by this weather.

Had a long chat over a pint today about the whole "using foreign aid here for a while". Not sure of the wider implications of that, but it sounds a good idea. I'm all for foreign aid if it's the right kind, but just a few weeks of looking after our own would be enough.

If we don't look after our own country when we are this much surrounded by water, one day we won't be able to help anyone else out.

CX.

reply to post by surrealist


Wasn't too bad over the weekend - but never expected to be except in bizzaro-Express-land.

However, more storms and particularly more rain coming this week. We're not out of the floods yet and in some pslace they could well get worse

reply to post by CX


Cheers

The Barrier is to protect London and mainly from high river levels meeting a high tide, it doesn't do anything for us this far up I'm afraid. That said, Reading has plenty of greenfield area's by the river to absorb the worst. I was living in the town in 2003 when it last flooded and, for the most part, it just made for lots of soggy football pitches and play parks. It's the little villages built right up to the river outside of town that get hit the hardest.

The wind last night was crazy - I live beside the Reading > Waterloo railway (my little boy loves it, me not so much) and the wind was so strong it was louder than any train and just constant - it sounded like there was a huge freight train rolling by for hours.

Your point about Pickles apology is a good one - I think the apology was merely for public consumption really, because if the Government don't listen to their experts, who are they supposed to listen too? What people do forget is even experts make the wrong decisions and they can't predict everything - they are only human, after all.

Yep you're right, can't get it right all the time.

I was listening to Radio 4 a couple of days ago and en elderly lady was talking about flood insurance. She has only just got over one flood where she had to claim, now she is flooded again but if she claims her excess is over £2000 which there is no way she can afford. The insurance companies know where to hit people don't they?

Did you see that guy who built that dam around is house down in Somerset when the waters came, it seems to be holding, the only thing around there that is. I wonder how many will follow suit after the floods die down?

Not that planning would allow it, but after this even, i see more people taking matters into their own hands.

CX.

Flippin eck Stu....just turned on Sky News and saw what it's like up the Thames at the moment!

You still away from it there?

No let up this week either, storms constant in the south west it seems.

CX.

I was at the Oracle in Reading last MOnday evening after work, for a meal with colleagues. The River Kennet which flows through there was very fast flowing and the level was right up and overflowing onto the lower level pathways.

Cousin in Henley keeps updating with photos too and it's looking a bit dicey there and along in Marlow as well. Even at work in Green Park, Reading, the water level in the lake behind and to the side of us is probably a good 6-7 feet above the usual summer levels and the 2 footbridges and paths are all under water. It's the highest I have seen it flood in the 8 years I have worked there.
The ducks seem to like it - they can now swim over the footbridge instead of under it.

reply to post by Flyinghaggis


It's really strange how little snow the whole of the UK has had this winter

reply to post by CX


Fortunately, I no longer live in Reading, but Wokingham, so a little way from the Thames. We do have the Loddon and Emmbrook rivers near me bursting their banks but it's mostly farmland getting inundated. I'm more concerned for my mate in Henley to be honest, but I think he lives up a hill - I doubt he'll be going to work though as all the trains and roads are closed!

Water levels are expected to rise for another 24hrs at least and then we have another band of rain coming in tomorrow morning...Yay!

la2
reply to post by Flyinghaggis

 

It's really strange how little snow the whole of the UK has had this winter

We've only had about two nights of really low temperatures and a hard frost here in London. No sign of a single snowflake. Just rain. And more rain. And then yet more rain.