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At Eastbourne.
Looking at the very impressive 9 mile long flood prevention programme, protecting over 18,000 homes.
Testing electric heavy plant today.
Looking at the very impressive 9 mile long flood prevention programme, protecting over 18,000 homes.
Testing electric heavy plant today.
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After 6 months of drought it’s only taken a few days of very wet weather for our rivers to get going again.
Multiple river and coastal flood alerts and warnings now across the UK.
Multiple river and coastal flood alerts and warnings now across the UK.
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Might be wetter than an otter’s pocket but it’s also exceptionally mild.
Warm air being drawn up from the Azores by Storm Boelo
Warm air being drawn up from the Azores by Storm Boelo
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Welsh mountains taking the sting out of the rain tomorrow for my part of the world.
10mm (still a wet day) compared to 30-50mm.
10mm (still a wet day) compared to 30-50mm.
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Kicking off our tree planting season in the Heart of England Forest.
There will be another 100,000 by March.
Great to have all 3 MPs for our patch, local landowners and volunteers joining us.
It’s a great project.
Doing rather than talking!
heartofenglandforest.org
There will be another 100,000 by March.
Great to have all 3 MPs for our patch, local landowners and volunteers joining us.
It’s a great project.
Doing rather than talking!
heartofenglandforest.org
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Wet few days.
Widespread rainfall too with quite a few lowland locations In southern England seeing over 60mm.
Widespread rainfall too with quite a few lowland locations In southern England seeing over 60mm.
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Dave Throup retweeted
The lowest point of land in Britain is a cast-iron post in a Cambridgeshire wood, and when it went in the ground it was level with the ground.
Stand next to it now and it is four metres over your head.
It is at Holme Fen, south of Peterborough, and in 1851 this was the edge of rgest lake in southern England. A syndicate of landowners drained the lake that year for farmland, and the engineer, who knew what happens to peat when you take the water out of it, drove an oak pile through 22 feet of it down to the clay and cut the top flush with the turf. A column from the Crystal Palace replaced it. Then they stood back and watched the land go down.
Nine inches in the first year. Eight feet by the 1890s. Today the ground around that post is 2.75 metres below sea level, and the post is a ruler nobody asked for, sticking out of a birch wood with guy ropes holding it up because the soil that used to hold it up has gone into the sky.
That is what drained peat does. It dries, it shrinks, and it oxidises, which means it turns into carbon dioxide and leaves. Peat takes a thousand years to lay down a metre. Under the plough it loses a centimetre or two of that every year, and the Fens have been under the plough since the Dutch engineers arrived in the 1600s. Peat soils farmed for crops are among the largest sources of carbon dioxide in Britain's whole land sector, and the fields doing it are growing lettuce.
Because that is what the Fens are for. A third of England's vegetables come out of this one flat black square: half the lettuce grown in Britain, three quarters of the celery, the carrots, the onions, the potatoes, the leeks, the beetroot. The bag of salad, the celery sticks, the chips. Every field of it is a few millimetres lower than it was last January, the pumps run day and night to keep the sea out of a landscape that is now beneath it, and the water the crops need is forecast to run short within ten years.
Before the drain this was eels, wildfowl, reeds, summer grazing, and a fen that had been quietly stacking carbon since the ice left. The cattle came and went on it for 5,000 years and the ground stayed where it was.
The salad has been on it for 170 years and the ground is four metres down. The post is still measuring.
Stand next to it now and it is four metres over your head.
It is at Holme Fen, south of Peterborough, and in 1851 this was the edge of rgest lake in southern England. A syndicate of landowners drained the lake that year for farmland, and the engineer, who knew what happens to peat when you take the water out of it, drove an oak pile through 22 feet of it down to the clay and cut the top flush with the turf. A column from the Crystal Palace replaced it. Then they stood back and watched the land go down.
Nine inches in the first year. Eight feet by the 1890s. Today the ground around that post is 2.75 metres below sea level, and the post is a ruler nobody asked for, sticking out of a birch wood with guy ropes holding it up because the soil that used to hold it up has gone into the sky.
That is what drained peat does. It dries, it shrinks, and it oxidises, which means it turns into carbon dioxide and leaves. Peat takes a thousand years to lay down a metre. Under the plough it loses a centimetre or two of that every year, and the Fens have been under the plough since the Dutch engineers arrived in the 1600s. Peat soils farmed for crops are among the largest sources of carbon dioxide in Britain's whole land sector, and the fields doing it are growing lettuce.
Because that is what the Fens are for. A third of England's vegetables come out of this one flat black square: half the lettuce grown in Britain, three quarters of the celery, the carrots, the onions, the potatoes, the leeks, the beetroot. The bag of salad, the celery sticks, the chips. Every field of it is a few millimetres lower than it was last January, the pumps run day and night to keep the sea out of a landscape that is now beneath it, and the water the crops need is forecast to run short within ten years.
Before the drain this was eels, wildfowl, reeds, summer grazing, and a fen that had been quietly stacking carbon since the ice left. The cattle came and went on it for 5,000 years and the ground stayed where it was.
The salad has been on it for 170 years and the ground is four metres down. The post is still measuring.
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2026/27 storm season off to a flier with 2 named storms in 48 hours.
Storm Boelo will arrive on Saturday into Sunday bringing very stormy conditions to NW UK.
Big El Niño years increase the chances of a stormy Autumn in the UK, and this year’s a record breaker.
Storm Boelo will arrive on Saturday into Sunday bringing very stormy conditions to NW UK.
Big El Niño years increase the chances of a stormy Autumn in the UK, and this year’s a record breaker.
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Raft (forgive the pun) of all time French rainfall records confirmed in Corsica yesterday.
Nearly 600mm over the day, but 420mm of that in 3 hours, 200mm in an hour and 100mm in 30 minutes.
Tropical rainfall in a non tropical location.
Nearly 600mm over the day, but 420mm of that in 3 hours, 200mm in an hour and 100mm in 30 minutes.
Tropical rainfall in a non tropical location.
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Looks like France may have beaten all its short duration rainfall records (1,2 and 3 hour totals).
380mm fell in 3 hours in Corsica, 25mm in 15 minutes, this morning.
Warmer atmosphere holds more water. No surprise, just physics.
380mm fell in 3 hours in Corsica, 25mm in 15 minutes, this morning.
Warmer atmosphere holds more water. No surprise, just physics.
‼️ Rècord de pluja en 1, 2 i 3 hores a França, amb més de 300 mm en només dues hores al nord de Còrsega!
#Projecte4Estacions
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Storm Austen becomes the first named storm of the 2026/27 season.
Likely to bring gales and storm force winds to SW and southern coastal areas late Thursday into Friday.
20-30mm of rain too, probably double that over western hills.
Likely to bring gales and storm force winds to SW and southern coastal areas late Thursday into Friday.
20-30mm of rain too, probably double that over western hills.
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Wonder how long it’s going to be until we’re talking about flooding.
Could be another 70-80mm quite widely by next weekend.
Could be another 70-80mm quite widely by next weekend.
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Very wet day in the extreme SE today.
Radar accumulations suggest up to 70mm may have fallen in parts of Kent.
Radar accumulations suggest up to 70mm may have fallen in parts of Kent.
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