Heavy April rain 'not enough to end drought' by Fiona Harvey
Summary:
England suffers severe drought problems. Despite that, when there was heavy rain fall in the latest weeks, several flood alerts were issued. Although this enormous amount of rain that even threatened to cause floods, the problem of the drought throughout London is not solved yet. The rain was not enough to recharge reservoirs.
England has had two exceptionally dry winters which cause drought in summer, since rain in summer is mostly absorbed by vegetation. It will probably have to rain for more than two weeks to restore the damage done.
Unfortunately the weather forecast does not predict a lot of rain. This way England´s water levels will be dependent on the rainfall in the winter of 2012/2013.
Opinion:
This sounds like a serious problem. Certainly when considering that there have been exeptionally dry winters for two years on end now. What will happen if next winter is going to be dry as well? What will be the consequences for the environment, farmers and the people of England? If this kind of weather keeps up, water will be rationed? Crops will wither and die?
When talking about the weather I always think about my grandmother. She always says that all that talk about evironmental changes is just stupid, because concerning nature everything will be compensated. My grandmother would say to us to just sit still and wait for the floods to come, nature will always compensate....
Grandmothers can be so comforting! Talking of drought I tend to think of countries in Africa and not the UK. I didn't know it has been such a problem in the UK these last years. I hope your grandmother is right and the drought will be compensated by heavy rain fall next winter.
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