We just went four weeks without any rain at all and then when the rain was finally forecast it failed to occur for a few days. This has come to be the new normal and it happens every year during summer that the rain just gets pushed back and back until a huge storm happens.
The heat was consistently higher than forecast such that it said 21C but it felt much hotter and my thermometers were showing several degrees higher and mostly correlated with the records afterwards. Forecasts seem to be becoming a lot less accurate. We hit 31C one day early in June but I think only 27 was forecast.
Then when it at last rained it damn near destroyed everything in the garden. Huge gusts, heavy pelting of 1-2cm hail that shredded the plants and such a torrential downpour that it flattened plants to the ground. Streets quickly flooded but then half an hour later it was done. I've noticed this every year since the heatwave in 2018 but this time it seemed far more destructive and generally apocalyptic looking than before. Hail hasn't been so severe before as to tear my plants to shreds but then that can be extremely localised at times and friends near me had it a few years back when I did not. I have a feeling that July and August are going to be scary this year though if this is happening in only early June. Previously this has happened much later in the Summer after prolonged heat.
About the same as we're having where I am in Asia. Temps have been around what we would expect in July or August, although interspersed with cooler days that make it ok for now.
But, the monsoon rains that we usually get in May and June are yet to materialise, with the weather forecast saying it will rain but then getting maybe a short shower at best. It was supposed to be wet all this week, but it looks like we may get our first rain this afternoon (Thursday) and then nothing until "extreme rains next week" (which will probably not eventuate either).
For the last few years I've been thinking that it's sort of like we are moving to a pseudo monsoon climate. Not like a proper monsoon season or anything but these huge downpours that roll in suddenly, flood everything and then are done in 15-30 minutes reminds me of the monsoon season in Arizona.
I see moderately heavy rain forecast here again for Sunday but there is so much variation between different providers that I have no expectation any of them will actually be right.
>I see moderately heavy rain forecast here again for Sunday but there is so much variation between different providers that I have no expectation any of them will actually be right.
Yeah, so the heavy rain that was forecast for yesterday was basically a shirt shower over one part of the city and nothing anywhere else (the sky darkened for a few minutes where I was, but it didnt rain).
People are complaining because they're now forecasting heavy rain all next week. I guess they've forgotten that forecast of heavy rain haven't eventuated for most of the past few years, not to mention that we've been in semi-drought since late 2020 and that rain may actually be useful for us.
It annoys me every year that we see heatwaves and periods of drought and yet rain still gets reported as 'bad weather' with people complaining about it. Most people seem so detached from reality and I think most are too disconnected from nature to see the problems. Maybe the unprecedented wildfires we had last year will wake people up to the necessity of rain but I'm not holding my breath.
There's a huge burnt patch in one of the places I walk which is usually a floodplain and often submerged. Still smells strongly of burning after a year from all the ash and burnt wood around. That barely even made the news though because it occurred at the same time as a huge fire destroyed houses after someone's compost bin spontaneously combusted in the heat.
Out here in Wales the weather the last couple of summers has decimated our garden - blistering heat then horrific rain has done for a bunch of our shrubs which were hardy as hell beforehand. It’s horrible. Also it hasn’t rained here since at least mid-May, and like you the forecast keeps getting pushed back. It was supposed to break last weekend, now it’s meant to be this weekend, but the rainy period in the forecast keeps getting smaller.
I'm somewhat in awe of my blackberries. Just wild ones I let grow and tied back to keep them tidy(ish). They'd take over the whole garden if I left them alone as nothing seems to bother them. With the clay soil and deep roots I think I could get away without ever actually watering them even during the worst heatwaves. Produces so many flowers for the bees too.
It’s wild just how leaky UK water infrastructure is, something on the order of losing 3 billion litres a day are lost. All water management is privately owned though, so until their feet are held to the fire, nothing will be done. The uk should never experience drought or hose pipe bans in summer given how much it fecking rains here. Just staggering mismanagement.
It's the curse of being the first country to industrialise.
It means we've just coasted along on mostly Victorian infrastructure, just patching it up and adding to it ad-hoc with no major upgrades.
Now a lot of it is reaching the end of its life and wasn't designed for 20 million extra people anyway. Totally neglected by the private owners, it's all creaking.
Countries that developed later won't have this problem until decades later, but hopefully It's a lesson they'll learn.
The UK's water systems rely on us having regular rain. We waste enormous amounts through leaks and 'business use'(which isn't regulated like household use) and now we have seemed to shift to a Mediterranean climate, we need to invest in retaining more water during the wet months. However, our water companies are owned by foreign nationals who only really care about their dividends and not about the people living in the UK. We have built 3 new resivoirs in the past 30 years at a time when our population has gone from 50m to 68m.
Also, fuck hot tubs.
Only? This time in June in the UK temperatures would only really hit 20C max, yet we’ve had temperatures of 31C and are averaging 26-27C, that is not normal for the UK.
East England is actually a desert in terms of yearly average rainfall. SE England is going that way. We're over abstracting the water and running out. But that's where all the people are and that's where all the housebuilding happens.
I came to check if anyone noticed the same thing. It’s obviously a small detail and “not important” but maybe shit like this also an example of how hypernormalized everything is that this important life changing news doesn’t deserve even an accurate stock photo, let alone a legitimate real life photograph from an assigned photographer
Look the Salt River doesn't melt until it is over 100 for a few days.
We for us have had the most mild June in a long time. If it actually rains this summer cooling off the afternoons it will be great.
The following submission statement was provided by /u/PandaBoyWonder:
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ss: collapse related because heat waves and droughts seem to be more common, and at the same time flooding is also happening in other places. This seems like a a result of climate forcing and disruptive human caused changes. Also the kids arent in school so they either have to make up the time later or simply miss stuff
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Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/149eqz0/water_shortages_in_uk_force_school_closures_due/jo4qqo8/
ss: collapse related because heat waves and droughts seem to be more common, and at the same time flooding is also happening in other places. This seems like a a result of climate forcing and disruptive human caused changes. Also the kids arent in school so they either have to make up the time later or simply miss stuff
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