Heatwave

[Kin Hell]

Cornwall gets a hosepipe ban 1 minute after midnight on August 23. - First time in 26 years.....

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...parts-of-devon

On Monday 15th, Roche where I work, Truro & other areas in Cornwall were flooded....

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/co...g-rain-7466104

Never seen rain that BIG before anywhere in the UK. - Just so....Tropical like. - Unbelievable!

[Harrison]

I saw the flooding there on the news. When we had the heavy rain and flooding 10 years ago it was as bad wasn't it? I remember seeing the water pooring down steps that looked the same as footage they showed this time. But please don't remind me of flooding. It was so bad here in 2012 and 2013 when I flooded both times. So glad we managed to move.

We had a couple of days of quite heavy rain but no real flooding. But on thr first day of the rain Southern water did simmering really nice. They released all of the sewerage into the sea right in the middle of Bognor Regis, so the water is now complete pollutated and dangerous to swim in, and it stinks of human sewerage too. So yeah, not happy. We were going dien to the beach last afternoon each day when the tide was low so Tom could go swimming and have some fun. Now it's warmer again we can't use it.

But flooding was to be expected after months of such dry weather. The ground being so dry can't absorb any water.

The government, environment agency and water companies need to seeies start getting their act together. They have know for many decades the climate was changing, 26th droughts and flooding becoming a more regular issue. Instead of starting to investment to put infrastructure in place to combat or even completely illiminatevthe issue they allow greed to create a culture of denial that climate chafe was really a thing, or just ignored the long term in exchange for short term profit.

The reality is we will most likely be seeing drier warmer summers, milder wetter winters, and random seasons. The levels of water in our reservoirs will therfore drop every time. European countries are rehung the same issue. Portugal and Spain are nearly or of water completely in many regions causing huge issues for farming. The solution for the UK in terms of water is contingencies. We need to build desalination plants addons the coast that can be activated when water levels reach a certain point, so it doesn't happen. That would also mean far less water from sources would be taken for drinking water so rivers wouldn't suffer as much.

[J T]

We were back in England in late June, and stayed for about 4 weeks so we got that really hot period - it was nice as we were technically on holiday. We stayed at father-in-laws place - he has a nice big place, huge garden and a pool too so frankly, we were not suffering.

[Harrison]

But then you are used to hot weather on Australia.

The problem in the UK is plantlife and wildlife. Many trees and shubs have been shocked by the extremely dry weather for England, and have gone into an early false autumn. Many trees are already shedding leaves or they are turnjng brown. 2 months early. And for planets that form their buds for next year they are starting to do that far too early, so they will most likely lose the buds before they mature and not flower next year, or the early activity could kill them. And the other thing is fruit and seed volume. When it's a really wet year you don't always get a lot of fruit because the plants are using the excess water to grow, rather then flower. But in a really dry drought situation they go into a survival mode and produce easy more then usual because they think they might die, so go all out to create offspring. This initially seems great for the owner with an abundance of fruit or flowers. But those trees and plants might then have expended too much energy and die. I had 2 last trees and 3 apple trees die in previous years because of strange weather patterns.

Sorry the gardener in me coming out.

My Oak tree seems to have produced a lot of Acorns this year. Just hope that's ok. It's about 50 years old so should have a strong root system though.

And no hosepipe ban in West Sussex yet, so that's something. All other counties around me have them or are about to get them. Seriously thinking of building a water storage well. I'm in a water meter to have to pay for the amount used, rather then the older fixed rate regardless. So if I could store more from rainwater I wouldn't have to pay to waste the garden. I have 4 water butts but they ran out within a week of the drought. Visited large gardensx such as National Trust a lot of thr old gardens have deep storage ponds for storing specifically for watering their gardens. Therefore I'm thinking of something similar. Dug a big hole, bury something to hold the water, and feed it from the garden log cabin roof. Should be able to collect enough over winter and then use an electric pump and hose to water the garden from it.