Amongst all the talk about flood plains, climate change and so on, the one things that stands out for me is this:
Brize Norton in Oxfordshire received 121.2mm of rain between midnight Thursday and 5pm Friday
In real money that’s between 5 and 6 inches of rain in one day. Difficult to see how there wouldn’t be flooding with that much coming down out of the skies.
What is this ‘real money’ of which you speak? In Imperial inches it’s less than 5.
Tim adds: Obviously insufficiently caffeinated to do mental arithmetic. Apologies.
“In real money that’s between 5 and 6 inches of rain in one day. Difficult to see how there wouldn’t be flooding with that much coming down out of the skies.”
FWIW the alternative point-of-view, blaming the government for ignoring internal warnings, is put in this piece in Tuesday’s The Guardian:
“The government has been accused of failing to act on its own advice to overhaul UK flood defences and drainage systems which first highlighted deep-seated problems three years ago. . . ”
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2133421,00.html
My goodness, you’ve cracked it! It flooded because it rained a lot. Well done.
Clearly we can forget all this crazy talk of flood plains and climate change now you’ve nailed this down.
Tim adds: Quite. Read George Monbiot yet this morning? ‘T’ain’t climate change.
I was under the impression that your extraordinary insight regarding the link between heavy rain and flooding was all that we needed. Now you’re telling me I must read Monbiot as well?
Tim adds: Of couse, everybody must read Monbiot. Essential reading, or hasn’t the memo reached you yet?
I was wondering why the power will go down if that endangered power station goes offline (as was asserted twice on the BBC 10pm news last night) … is there some problem with the national grid? Anybody got anything on that?
Perhaps many of the Ancients among us may still recall the terrible winter of 1946/7 and the floods that followed which were unprecedented in their scale until now:
“The British winter of 1946-1947 was one of the most severe winters on record to effect the United Kingdom. Just as the country was recovering from post-World War II fuel and food shortages, it had to cope with prolonged frost and snow from 21 January to 16 March 1947. . . ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winter_of_1946-1947
“In the second half of March 1947, the most catastrophic river floods for at least 200 years occurred in the United Kingdom. The flooding, which inundated nearly all the main rivers in the South, Midlands, and the Northeast of England, was notable for its origins, regional extent, and duration. Impacting thirty out of forty English counties over a two week period, around 700,000 acres of land were underwater. Tens of thousands of people were temporarily displaced from their homes, and thousands of acres of crops were lost.
“The flooding was triggered by the rapid thaw of deep snow that covered much of the country after one of the coldest and snowiest winters on record. The thaw was triggered by the arrival of a succession of southwesterly depressions, each bringing significant additional rainfall. During this period, flooding was not only widespread in the U.K., but also extended across Europe. . . ”
http://www.rms.com/Publications/1947_UKRiverFloods.pdf
We weren’t really affected by the flooding where we lived in London then but I can still recall from walking to school and back the image of the snow in the hole where the V2 rocket had fallen in January 1945, a few months before the war in Europe had ended. Two years on, the site still hadn’t been redeveloped. Times was ‘ard then and that was before global warming came upon us. Twice in a lifetime is a bit much IMO.
Cue for recalling the Monty Python sketch of Four Yorkshiremen on about ‘ard times:
I live in Phoenix, Arizona USA where it almost never rains. I wonder what it’s like to live with all that rain. The only thing that bothers most of us here is our dry heat. Over 100F isn’t too bad, but over 110F is quite uncomfortable.
Average normal annual rainfall in London is about 30 inches:
http://www.londondrum.com/info/weather.php
BobB:
Had I guessed at it, I’d have guessed more.
I think it was Mark Twain that said (about America) that “the West” was where the rainfall was less than 30 inches per year.
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