The lack of any appreciable rain since May is now having a real effect.

On Scilly, despite 50% of the water supply coming from the desalination plant, there are serious concerns about ground water supplies. There are severe risks in letting the groundwater run too low, just in case the desalination plant breaks down. It is getting near the stage where water will have to be imported from the mainland.

Scilly relies much more on frontal rainfall than mainland England, as it avoids much of the signifiant convectional rainfall, which in SW England tends to form near the spine & drift towards one coast or other, depending on the gradient wind.

The dairy herds are now getting affected. Much of the milk in Cornwall gets turned into clotted cream & Cornish ice cream at places like Roskillys, so a serious issue! Though fortunately there still seems to be plenty of CO2 for beer.

A picture taken during a walk near Pendeen today shows the only green left is gorse, bracken hottentot figs etc. Green grass now limited to near winterbournes. http://www.turnstone-cottage.co.uk/PDCliffs.html

The bottom picture shows the tidal race around Pendeen Lighthouse. (The area of standing waves.)

Graham
Penzance

On Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at 2:11:24 PM UTC+1, Graham Easterling wrote:
The lack of any appreciable rain since May is now having a real effect.

On Scilly, despite 50% of the water supply coming from the desalination plant, there are serious concerns about ground water supplies. There are severe risks in letting the groundwater run too low, just in case the desalination plant breaks down. It is getting near the stage where water will have to be imported from the mainland.

Scilly relies much more on frontal rainfall than mainland England, as it avoids much of the signifiant convectional rainfall, which in SW England tends to form near the spine & drift towards one coast or other, depending on the gradient wind.

The dairy herds are now getting affected. Much of the milk in Cornwall gets turned into clotted cream & Cornish ice cream at places like Roskillys, so a serious issue! Though fortunately there still seems to be plenty of CO2 for beer.

A picture taken during a walk near Pendeen today shows the only green left is gorse, bracken hottentot figs etc. Green grass now limited to near winterbournes. http://www.turnstone-cottage.co.uk/PDCliffs.html

The bottom picture shows the tidal race around Pendeen Lighthouse. (The area of standing waves.)

Graham
Penzance

Yes, it is a serious problem for Scilly.

But for the rest of us in the SW the drought is not as bad as 1995, yet.
The dry weather started that year in April. This year it was May.

The SouthWest water website shows there is still plenty of water in total (74.6%) in the reservoirs. The graph is interesting as it shows the water is being depleted at the same rate as in 1995. It bottomed out at 35% in September when the rains returned. That was a 5 month drought.

https://www.southwes****er.co.uk/env...voir-storages/

Summer rinfall is highly variable in Wembury, but the linear trend over the last 30 years is for wetter summers. So no panic?

:-)

Len
Wembury, SW Devon

On Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at 2:43:34 PM UTC+1, wrote:
On Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at 2:11:24 PM UTC+1, Graham Easterling wrote:
The lack of any appreciable rain since May is now having a real effect.

On Scilly, despite 50% of the water supply coming from the desalination plant, there are serious concerns about ground water supplies. There are severe risks in letting the groundwater run too low, just in case the desalination plant breaks down. It is getting near the stage where water will have to be imported from the mainland.

Scilly relies much more on frontal rainfall than mainland England, as it avoids much of the signifiant convectional rainfall, which in SW England tends to form near the spine & drift towards one coast or other, depending on the gradient wind.

The dairy herds are now getting affected. Much of the milk in Cornwall gets turned into clotted cream & Cornish ice cream at places like Roskillys, so a serious issue! Though fortunately there still seems to be plenty of CO2 for beer.

A picture taken during a walk near Pendeen today shows the only green left is gorse, bracken hottentot figs etc. Green grass now limited to near winterbournes. http://www.turnstone-cottage.co.uk/PDCliffs.html

The bottom picture shows the tidal race around Pendeen Lighthouse. (The area of standing waves.)

Graham
Penzance

Yes, it is a serious problem for Scilly.

But for the rest of us in the SW the drought is not as bad as 1995, yet.
The dry weather started that year in April. This year it was May.

The SouthWest water website shows there is still plenty of water in total (74.6%) in the reservoirs. The graph is interesting as it shows the water is being depleted at the same rate as in 1995. It bottomed out at 35% in September when the rains returned. That was a 5 month drought.

https://www.southwes****er.co.uk/env...voir-storages/

Summer rinfall is highly variable in Wembury, but the linear trend over the last 30 years is for wetter summers. So no panic?

:-)

Len
Wembury, SW Devon

Overdue for a dry one then!

Most of the SW reservoirs are interlinked, so that water can be pumped from one to another. An important exception (for me!) is Drift, which supplies Penzance. As far as I know Penzance is solely dependent on Drift.

2 weeks ago it was still full, it has fallen a surprising amount since then.. There is little water now feeding into it. Next week all the Emmets swarm in, and water useage will shoot up.

Graham
Penzance

On Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at 2:11:24 PM UTC+1, Graham Easterling wrote:
The lack of any appreciable rain since May is now having a real effect.

On Scilly, despite 50% of the water supply coming from the desalination plant, there are serious concerns about ground water supplies. There are severe risks in letting the groundwater run too low, just in case the desalination plant breaks down. It is getting near the stage where water will have to be imported from the mainland.

Scilly relies much more on frontal rainfall than mainland England, as it avoids much of the signifiant convectional rainfall, which in SW England tends to form near the spine & drift towards one coast or other, depending on the gradient wind.

The dairy herds are now getting affected. Much of the milk in Cornwall gets turned into clotted cream & Cornish ice cream at places like Roskillys, so a serious issue! Though fortunately there still seems to be plenty of CO2 for beer.

A picture taken during a walk near Pendeen today shows the only green left is gorse, bracken hottentot figs etc. Green grass now limited to near winterbournes. http://www.turnstone-cottage.co.uk/PDCliffs.html

The bottom picture shows the tidal race around Pendeen Lighthouse. (The area of standing waves.)

Graham
Penzance

Convergence concentrated the cloud inland, where there were a couple of very light showers.

On the coast, it was quite a sunny afternoon, just patches of very thin Sc. 30 day running sunshine total up at Bossullow now around 315 hours, despite rather more cloud of late. Set to rise tomorrow, must be 330 hours on the coast.

No sea breeze today in Penzance, wind was calm or a F1-2 offshore this afternoon.

Graham
Penzance