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| Hi all,
just giving you a heads up on why I feel like my cats at bath time.
This lot's now heading down the Thames and Kennet rivers with peak flow due in Reading late Tuesday / early Wednesday (Pangbourne's a village just slightly NE of Reading) :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/6910522.stm
It's due to continue raining until Wednesday at least.
Anyone got a spare Ark?
Fee
Edited by Orbilia 2007-07-23 5:33 AM
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| I'd loan you by boat kiddo but we need it here. Normally south Texas is bone dry and hot, not this year--freaking constant rain. |
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| Tell me about it Bruce! I don't normally mind the rain but this is way too much. I feel like I'm damp all the way down to the marrow of my bones :-(
I'm told it's the result of El Nino making Australia warmer than usual and that having a knock-on effect on ocean currents and air systems world-wide.
Fee
Edited by Orbilia 2007-07-23 6:05 AM
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| That's why i live in the middle of the desert. 
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Veteran
Posts: 168
 
| Does your coccyx pillow float ? I hope so. My husband has some of his forum buddies who live near there and you. Maybe you could form a swim team . Glub, Glub Glub, yes it is a bit toooo much  |
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| Jonnie, you've just swopped one extremis for another 
Belle vie, I hope they're all safe.
Fee |
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| Both of you be safe |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
  
| We are not flooding here, but it has been cool, dark and damp (umbrella damp...)for over a week. Very unusual for us. I am not one to whine about the weather, but this is getting ridiculous!  |
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| Yeah, cincy's got something similar going on. Thankfully it's not flooding, but it's raining much more than it used to. Cincy weather when I was growing up involved summers that were one step away from a sauna. It was always humid, and the weather men would continually forecast rains that never came. In the past couple of years it's pretty much rained every other day, making things much more bearable.
Anyway, that's what my faulty memory tells me. So maybe there's going to be a lot more rain as a result of the polar ice cap melting? Seems to make sense, more water and heat means more humidity in the air. |
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| It rained 3 rain drops yesterday in the SW desert. too bad we can spread out the rain. |
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| We were dry last night however revised forecasts now predict high water surge along the Thames in Reading for the early hours of tonight.
It has become abundantly clear that the council did not know that the north end of my street is marked as at risk despite the slightly higher neighbouring street being on their list. I have reported this along side our gas grid company, Transco, having left a stack of gas main
pipes (in fetching bright yellow plastic) on top of the storm drains one side of the street this morning and am awaiting a call from their flood defence team.
My neighbour closest to the rail line has explained that there is a drainage system running from the railway to holding tanks at the bottom of the embankment. Whenever we get excessive rain water, these run the risk of overflowing. The water is contaminated with diesel. The area of railway on the embankment includes train washing gizmos and maintenance sheds as well as the main line to the west from London and the spur that runs down toward the south coast.
The map shows where I am and where I plan to go if we do get our feet wet. The Thames is to the north, the Kennett to the south. There are a number of tributaries of both hidden under Reading.
Fee
Edited by Orbilia 2007-07-24 5:54 AM
 (Fiona's part of Reading, Berkshire, UK.jpg)
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 Fiona's part of Reading, Berkshire, UK.jpg (71KB - 53 downloads)
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| Holy Cow! Run for high ground Fee!
I hate to be the a$$ of the weather conversation, but we are having an unusually delightful summer here in DC.. typically it's 95% humidity coupled with 95-100 degree weather. The last couple of weeks though it's been in the 80s with virtually no humidity. I feel like I'm in San Diego... except there's no beach.. 
I know it's going to hit us at some point though! Weather like this doesn't last forever! Not around here at least! |
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| That sounds delightful. I hate high humidity and with the amount of rivers and other waterways in Reading plus being in a valley surrounded by downs, it's only got to warm up a little for the humidity levels to soar.
Fee |
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| That's typically how it is here... like a hot, mosquito-y swamp... we're right on the Potomac River.. so it gets pretty muggy. I think El Nino is just treating us better than he did last time... |
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| Hahahaha!! I spoke too soon! I just looked at the 10-day forecast for the restaurant patio.. because it's now pouring rain here. We have forecasted thunderstorms for the next week and a half! With the exception of one day!! Still in the 80s though..so I'll take it!
I don't need the sun this summer anyway- I'm developing the beloved chloasma- mask of pregnancy... it's not too bad at the moment... but one errant day in the sun might make me look like Zorro!! |
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| *LOL* You'll just have to adopt the pale and insteresting look beloved by the Victorian Miss and invest in a parasol :-)
Ok, still dry indoors at the moment but the prediction for peak water flow in the Thames has been revised again for midnight tonight in Reading. This waiting is like being stuck in God's waiting room :-(
Fee
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Veteran
Posts: 168
| A couple of amusing stories to help you while away the time watching the water rise... When we lived in Calcutta some American friends had to evacuate their house during the monsoon. They were all packed and the furniture up on blocks when their bearer sloched in, pants rolled up and barefooted to announce TEA  .
Well, my dears, what could my friends do but sit down and have tea. Couldn't let down the side. The cheese toast were delicious. 
I think it was the same monsoon when I opened the door to check the water level on my veranda, to find myself eyeball to "Cheeks" with a Brahman bull. I uttered a quiet "shoo". He turned and batted the most gorgeous brown eyes at me. Well, my dears ,what could I do. I invited him to tea. After a discrete moment he ambled off, not leaving any presents--thank-goodness.
Try to keep dry. |
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| Council have called me back.
Apparently the Environment Agency have been giving them conflicting advice too so they are working from maps of actual flooding made 2002/2003. We didn't flood then, levels are expected now to be less than then, so they don't expect us to flood now. They are sandbagging the adjoining street as they expect some localised issues. They are going to send on of the team members in the area to check on the ground however.
They have also contacted Transco requesting that they get around to shifting their pipes as soon as they can (won't be now due to resource pressures but I didn't expect that anyway).
Belle Vie - How wonderful :-). I explained to an American pal who was amazed we were all still going to work, etc, that the average Brit has infinite capacity for ignoring sh*t when it happens and refusing to let it get in the way of life. Seems like your story shows it ain't just us Brits who're mad enough to go out in the noon-day sun *LOL*
Fee
Edited by Orbilia 2007-07-25 10:28 AM
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
| That is good news, Fee! I often think that flooding in summer is not as horrific as flooding in cold weather, but it is really awful all the time. At least in winter things won't rot and stink so quickly  But NO flooding is best of all
Great stories, belle vie! |
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| ...well, it was 44 and dry here today
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| I rest my case about mad-dogs and noon-day sun
Fee |
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| Haha, last week it rained all week here. I didn't mind as it wasn't too cold. I was worried about friday though, I had my friends 7year old daughter with us, and we had to walk about a mile to get my daughters to their eye doctor appointment. I was joking and I told the little one we were going to have to build an ark soon. She replied, " like Evan Almighty?" Ah, pop culture. |
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| :-)
Well still dry today and they've finally decided max. water levels have been reached. The council have been out emptying the drainage tanks from the railway today - coincidence I don't think so! We'll still be on alert for a while yet as more rain is forecast (I feel like a saturated sponge).
The latest BBC news about the floods is here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6916774.stm
And an interesting one on sewers (yes, really) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6916102.stm
I found out last night that a couple of my neighbours are contacted by the council as part of their flood watch scheme. One has promised to keep me informed if they get told of a change in risk status.
Fee
Edited by Orbilia 2007-07-26 5:43 AM
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| Wow Fee, I saw images of the flooding on the news last night. You know it's big when the bump Lindsay Lohan off the news. I was thinking of you and hoping for the best, and then they announced more rain coming. Is that right? Let me know when you get dry so we can get back to the trials of being Lindsay. |
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| It's been drizzeling here on and off all day but nothing like the heavy storm originally predicted for this area says she hurridly touching wood!
Fee |
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Ark required
