More on rain
Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter, Chief Spud
In this part of West Kent we've had 85mm of rain in April, making it the wettest month since last August. BUT half of it (46mm) came in that freaky night when we woke up to snow - a heavy rain storm met a blast of very cold air over Kent and Sussex. That actually made quite a difference to moisture levels in the garden. That one night apart, this April was drier than in 2005 or 2004. Never mind - according to the local 5-day forecast, the temperature could get up to 26 by Thursday!
From what I can gather of the forecasts available on the web we are about to get 2 rain belts this week, the Tuesday one seems more promising. There could be more now the high pressure has at last disappeared. It is a worry as to whether this shift of the rain belys is temporary variation or a lasting pattern from global warming. I have revamped the roof drainage to store the maximum amount possible but that won't be any good without some rain. There is once again 2700 gallon storage available at the farm, half of it still has rain from some time ago when it became inaccessible.
It's at the house where real savings can be made, for every payment for water there us a 250% markup because of assumed sewage charges.
Allan
It's at the house where real savings can be made, for every payment for water there us a 250% markup because of assumed sewage charges.
Allan
our local forcast is showers monday , thursday and friday. some cloud the rest of the week. seems pretty much normal for early may.
our weather patterns have allways varied year on year this year sofar is does not appear to be exceptional. some years we have had trailers sinking in the mud in the may silage making, others we have been choking on the dust. wet years we have overfilled the silage clamp with first cutgrass in may, other dry years weve been trying to fill it with late cuts in november.
most of the people pontificating about the weather never seem to look out the window. those whove been working out in all their working lives have a totally different perception of its year on year variations.
our weather patterns have allways varied year on year this year sofar is does not appear to be exceptional. some years we have had trailers sinking in the mud in the may silage making, others we have been choking on the dust. wet years we have overfilled the silage clamp with first cutgrass in may, other dry years weve been trying to fill it with late cuts in november.
most of the people pontificating about the weather never seem to look out the window. those whove been working out in all their working lives have a totally different perception of its year on year variations.
the talk of global warming, resulting in dry summers which will happen soon has been going on for at least 15 years. i was running a herd of dairy cows in the late 80's early 90's and the expert's advice then was that summers were going to get warmer and dryer. as we are on thin soil on the top of a hill, which in a dry dry year dries out in summer and the grass stops growing, we looked at various alternatives for feeding the cattle in summer. we even grew trials of alternative forage crops, peas, beans , tunips, forage cereals etc but found none were better than grass. funny thing is 15/20 years on we have seen no significant change in either summer or winter conditions conditions .
there is real evidence of something happening in ice sheet melting, but predictions of what effect this will have on our weather is at best guess work and in recent years a lot of the guesses have been wrong. even weekly weather forcasts are wrong as often as they are right.
there is real evidence of something happening in ice sheet melting, but predictions of what effect this will have on our weather is at best guess work and in recent years a lot of the guesses have been wrong. even weekly weather forcasts are wrong as often as they are right.
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Anonymous
Thank god for global warming, otherwise we would be stuck in the last ice-age.
The likes of greenpeace and ?friends of the earth are the church of the latter day end of the world is nigh idiots.
I cannot for one moment believe the arrogance that 'man' can change anything on this planet. I am with Professor David Bellamy, insofar as the world naturally regulates itself.
The only reason that there it a shortage of water in the south east of the uk is that the area is overpopulated, and the the likes of fatso Prescott wanting to build thousands more homes there, knowing fullwell that the water supply is inadequate for the existing home owners, is ludicrous. But, hey, where has this corrupt, self seeking, sleazy government got us?
valmarg
The likes of greenpeace and ?friends of the earth are the church of the latter day end of the world is nigh idiots.
I cannot for one moment believe the arrogance that 'man' can change anything on this planet. I am with Professor David Bellamy, insofar as the world naturally regulates itself.
The only reason that there it a shortage of water in the south east of the uk is that the area is overpopulated, and the the likes of fatso Prescott wanting to build thousands more homes there, knowing fullwell that the water supply is inadequate for the existing home owners, is ludicrous. But, hey, where has this corrupt, self seeking, sleazy government got us?
valmarg
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peter
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Allan wrote: There is once again 2700 gallon storage available at the farm, half of it still has rain from some time ago when it became inaccessible.
Allan, what became inaccessible, farm, rain, stored water or the storage tank?
I am perplexed.
Do not put off thanking people when they have helped you, as they may not be there to thank later.
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I support http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/
Contrary to Valmarg's view, I think it's highly arrogant for mankind to assume that no matter what they do, they can't damage this planet. There are plenty of examples on a comparatively local scale to prove the opposite - like intensive agriculture leading to dustbowl conditions, removal of forests from mountain sides leading to soil erosion, chemical pollution leading to dead lakes, and overfishing leading to the near-extinction of fish species. In something like 200 years we've raided deposits of carbon in the form of coal, gas and oil that had been removed from the atmosphere over millions of years, and released it back into the air. And you think it is having no effect?
Hi Ken,
I am lead to believe that when the Volcano Mount St. Helen in Washington State USA blew the last time it released more pollution into the atmosphere than any internal or external combustion engine ever used since their invention. There are many such Volcanos around the world and we, as mere onlookers, are powerless to do anything to prevent them reoccurring.
I am not suggesting that we should do nothing but I feel that the organizations that Valmarg has mentioned are using the natural phenomena of warming and cooling of the planet Earth as down to mankind alone and using this to make political capital. This is patently untrue and to think that we, as humans, have the power to reverse the situation is utter nonesense.
There are things that we can do and to my knowledge are being done but they cannot be acheived overnight so to speak.
Every time somebody wants to make a change they hit a barrage from the organizations that Valmarg mentions and because things are not to be done exactly as they (and who are they?) suggest so they start to campaign causing hardening of attitudes all round with the net result of stalemate!
The trouble in UK is that they never seem to learn from other people eg Norway has boundless fish stock especially of Cod but do we follow their example of course not. One of the difficulties with fish stocks is that they penalise the Fishermen because they are taking too many and then another government department gives the OK to a company to abstract gravel which is where the fish breed so where does that get us. Again nowhere.
Ken it goes on and on and I see no end to the global warming whatever man will do.
I am lead to believe that when the Volcano Mount St. Helen in Washington State USA blew the last time it released more pollution into the atmosphere than any internal or external combustion engine ever used since their invention. There are many such Volcanos around the world and we, as mere onlookers, are powerless to do anything to prevent them reoccurring.
I am not suggesting that we should do nothing but I feel that the organizations that Valmarg has mentioned are using the natural phenomena of warming and cooling of the planet Earth as down to mankind alone and using this to make political capital. This is patently untrue and to think that we, as humans, have the power to reverse the situation is utter nonesense.
There are things that we can do and to my knowledge are being done but they cannot be acheived overnight so to speak.
Every time somebody wants to make a change they hit a barrage from the organizations that Valmarg mentions and because things are not to be done exactly as they (and who are they?) suggest so they start to campaign causing hardening of attitudes all round with the net result of stalemate!
The trouble in UK is that they never seem to learn from other people eg Norway has boundless fish stock especially of Cod but do we follow their example of course not. One of the difficulties with fish stocks is that they penalise the Fishermen because they are taking too many and then another government department gives the OK to a company to abstract gravel which is where the fish breed so where does that get us. Again nowhere.
Ken it goes on and on and I see no end to the global warming whatever man will do.
JB.
Hi Johnboy - As always, I agree with a lot you say. I'd just add that there's pollution and there's pollution. Undoubtedly there have been massive volcanoes that have thrown thousands if not millions of tons of dust into the atmosphere, sufficient to cause climate change over a wide area for a few years. But this settles down after a while. Carbon dioxide concentrations continue to mount.
As a junior hack 40 years or so ago I had to write about the Icelandic cod wars. Public opinion was that Iceland was being outrageous. Well, they've still got their cod stocks.
As for Prescott, I think most people in the south-east would agree he's totally out of touch, trying to push through these huge housing developments here. Yes, we're having the worst drought/lowest rainfall for 80 years. Meanwhile, not only is the population much greater here now than it was, but water consumption per head is several times what it was.
As a junior hack 40 years or so ago I had to write about the Icelandic cod wars. Public opinion was that Iceland was being outrageous. Well, they've still got their cod stocks.
As for Prescott, I think most people in the south-east would agree he's totally out of touch, trying to push through these huge housing developments here. Yes, we're having the worst drought/lowest rainfall for 80 years. Meanwhile, not only is the population much greater here now than it was, but water consumption per head is several times what it was.
going nucleur may reduce carbon emmissions, but we still have no idea how to decommission a nucleur power station (or heap of war heads) or how much it will cost. even the casing of concrete poured over chernobile, (at what human cost?) is starting to crack open. if people can fly planes into skyscrapers when will they land one on a power station? we should be developing the non polluting renewable resources we have, solar,wind ,hydro, tidal etc. everything we do will alter something in the environment but the potential for large scale catastrophic effects is less with the renewables
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Cider Boys
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Yes of course it is a bit like the Organic debate. Renewable energy such as wind, tidal, solar etc sound very good but are in fact useless as prime generators of electricity. They are at best top ups, when they decide to work. Surely we need a dependable form of electrical power, where we do not rely on other countries supplying fuels to us.
I wish there was an effective way to supply our electrical energy using renewable energy, but as all other forward looking countries have realised there is no dependable form except Hydro-electricity.
If we do not build further Nuclear Power Stations it will make us no safer to a plane flying into a Nuclear Station in France or Sweden. However Modern Nuclear power stations are built to the highest standards of safety.
Barney
I wish there was an effective way to supply our electrical energy using renewable energy, but as all other forward looking countries have realised there is no dependable form except Hydro-electricity.
If we do not build further Nuclear Power Stations it will make us no safer to a plane flying into a Nuclear Station in France or Sweden. However Modern Nuclear power stations are built to the highest standards of safety.
Barney
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Mr Potato Head
You'll see that I've split this topic, so that Valmarg can continue her rant somewhere else. Let's stick to the topic folks, and keep the rude comments to ourselves.
Hi Barney,
I said before that we can never follow another countries example.
France have had Nuclear Power for many years and we do not hear the bleatings of the anti nuclear campaigners coming from there.
They also have so very good Hydro-Electric Schemes on most of their rivers.
At Trebas (Tarn) there are three such schemes one after another and the River Tarn supplies most of that region with power.
Most of the Alternative Schemes in UK are but at best never going to supply anywhere our needs.
The ananogly to use is 'Like Peeing in the Altlantic with every endeavour of changing the tide!'
I said before that we can never follow another countries example.
France have had Nuclear Power for many years and we do not hear the bleatings of the anti nuclear campaigners coming from there.
They also have so very good Hydro-Electric Schemes on most of their rivers.
At Trebas (Tarn) there are three such schemes one after another and the River Tarn supplies most of that region with power.
Most of the Alternative Schemes in UK are but at best never going to supply anywhere our needs.
The ananogly to use is 'Like Peeing in the Altlantic with every endeavour of changing the tide!'
JB.