Britain underwater, thanks Obama. (aka Winter weather watch 2015)

a reply to: Phage

It was supposed to be 1 in a 100 years here, the last one being in 2009.

Now we have had 4 separate incidents in a matter of a few weeks, with more on its way.

Phage, as far as I know, since around 2009, the jet stream which normally moves past in between the UK and Iceland has moved further south, directly over the middle of the UK.

Would this account for what is happening?

a reply to: woogleuk

That's right, it would just take the wind to turn and come down from the North and it would be devastating. I worry about the diseases people are susceptible to right now with pipes blocked and overflowing. Just stay out the water!!!

I don't know why they don't dredge the rivers any more, that would help a bit. I hate to say it, but I can't help thinking that London doesn't really want to 'waste' money on the North - that's how it comes aross anyway.

a reply to: woogleuk
Likely, in a secondary sense. Right now you've got a low pressure area sitting on top of you, connected to a trough from the Atlantic . That would seem to be a pretty normal winter pattern and not a result of the location of the jet stream.

But it looks, from a quick glance. Like the jet stream is dipping even further south over the Atlantic before reaching up to your latitude. This could mean that it is pulling more moisture with it, adding precipitation to your low.

a reply to: Phage

In terms of flood prevention, part of the problem is that the area is so widespread.



Secondly, there has definitely been more rain, or rather more rain falling at one time. Certainly in Scotland, we had a wet summer so the ground has never really dried since last year's winter.
Also there has been a lot more building on flood plains over the years, so ground that was once left to 'hold' the water has gone.
And my own particular bugbear is that councils don't dredge rivers like they should. The temperature (I think, no facts here) also seems to be warmer so where normally our water would be held as snow, now we're getting it just as water.

a reply to: beansidhe

I live near Liverpool and for the past 30 days we've had rain every day, not enough to cause flooding but there hasn't been a dry day which I find really unusual, also it's a lot warmer than usual for christmas time. The weather is certainly an interesting unpredictable creature, I remember just 5 years ago for 3 years in a row we had snow as every time I drove from University for christmas break I had to drive through it, the second time was the worst where it was minus 20 too with icicles hanging off the roof which is something again I've never seen before but it was quite appropriate for christmas so it was good. But all this flooding it must be horrible for everyone further North having to deal with it, 3 times now in a month, they just can't get a break it seems

We got super El Nino in the North West, lots of warm wet air pushing into cold air. For the month of December in Portland we broke the record, and that is not an easy task in a place that rains a ton. It is also the wettest month in 75 years with rain everyday of the month..lol Crazy weather all over this year.

As Scotland rises at nearly three feet per century the south of England sinks from isostatic rebound. A large amount of groundwater extracted from the London area is also speeding the process.
Link

a reply to: glend

Not sure how much truth is in that, but either way, it's not the south that's flooding, or at least southern England.

It's southern Scotland, Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire....all middle Britain.

You don't often see the term "biblical proportions" thrown about, but it seems to be a recurring headline in this mornings papers.

Yorkshire has raised it's flood alert to "e' by 'eck, it's bloody wet oot theer!", it's highest level in over 1000 years.

Live updates here: Live: North of England flooding

Thousands of homes evacuated, with tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people affected.

And worst to come......

We're losing power to our core network sites in Leeds - a major incident has been declared and we're running on batteries/generators, but things are now starting to fall over as they're exhausted, so comms may well be affected in the region.

It looks pretty bad from what we see on the news - hope everyone is safe.

I've got a friend who lives in Manchester, who is currently on holiday in Texas to see her folks... Turns out, her area where she lives may well be flooded and now they have Tornado's in Texas... Sods law, hey?

a reply to: woogleuk

Be safe, my friend.

Damn, that's a lot of water, month after month... Amazing there's anything left at all.

a reply to: stumason

The whole worlds gone to pot, just reading up on the flooding in SA.

It's the relentlessness of it all, the irony is I bet there is still a hosepipe ban in the summer!

A friend of mine in the student block in Leeds says it's bad there.

Does anyone have a link to Ark schematics?

a reply to: seagull

Cheers Seagull, I think we are going to have to re-evaluate residential areas after this...problem is though, where do you build in the North where there isn't a river?

a reply to: Discotech

It's the constant rain which is the worst, nothing gets a chance to dry out or soak away. I would say it's warm this year - I've got roses in bloom here!! Not unheard of in November (it's a late flowering one), but into January? No, never before.

There's talk of ice on the news (one of their weather warning thingumys), so I really hope it stays with us and doesn't head south. That would be devastating for the Borders and Cumbria et al right now.

a reply to: woogleuk

Yorkshire has raised it's flood alert to "e' by 'eck, it's bloody wet oot theer!", it's highest level in over 1000 years.

Shouldn't laugh, but that was funny.

a reply to: woogleuk

Apparently it is pretty damp - the Police won't let our Field guys near the site owing to the flooding so we have no idea what the damage is...

a reply to: stumason

"Pretty damp" - English understatement at its finest.

Take care, hope things don't get any worse.

a reply to: beansidhe

It's the true north/south divide....attitude.

Yes it's hurting us, yes we are struggling.....but nature be damned it will not destroy our spirit.

We will laugh, we will joke, if we can survive Tory rule, we will survive the weather......not even Thatcher could truly destroy the Northern soul!

Now where is my t-shirt and shorts, I'm going out for a paddle!

a reply to: woogleuk

That's why we love yiz!

a reply to: woogleuk

Poncy southerner here! But we feel for you guys up there, although we are surprised that it is warm enough for liquid water to actually flow, but there you go . Apparently though, the rain is due to be heading South over the next couple of days, so we'll be getting swamped soon enough

This has caused us a bit of a headache though - management are now demanding we re-route network around Leeds - ignoring the fact it's a major metropolitan area and these two sites serve the entire region with the smaller towns hubbing off them - where are we supposed to re route too?

Latest update is there is 4ft of water around our sites (Kendall area) - one site is under water, the other is dry but without power. Police have now granted us access to assess the damage.

This is the centre of York at mid-day today, we're already hitting 6 meters above normal and still awaiting the drain off from the overall catchment. So, more to come and all flood control systems breached, I believe.








The sun has been shining all day though...so fingers crossed we're nearing the end of it...for another year.

a reply to: Anaana

Looks almost pleasant!

Let's hope it is the last of it, but we still have a couple of months to go before spring/summer kicks in (assuming they do or aren't a wash out) and the ground is sodden...