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United Kingdom Earth

Drought Is Declared in Parts of a Hot, Dry Britain (nytimes.com) 110

Posted by msmash from the tussle-continues dept.
The British government declared a drought for parts of southern, eastern and central England on Friday as the country, unaccustomed to such extreme heat, endured another day of scorching conditions. From a report: The declaration came after a group of officials and experts, including the National Drought Group, met to discuss the government's response to "the driest summer in 50 years," the Environment Agency said in a statement. Extreme-heat warnings have also been issued for parts of southern England and Wales, just weeks after Britain withered under some of its highest temperatures on record. "We are currently experiencing a second heat wave after what was the driest July on record for parts of the country," Britain's water minister, Steve Double, said in a statement released after the drought group's meeting.

"Action is already being taken by the government and other partners," to deal with the drought, he added. The drought announcement will allow water companies to impose stricter conservation measures. Several water companies have temporarily banned the use of hoses to water yards and gardens and to wash vehicles. The Met Office, Britain's national weather service, issued an extreme-heat warning through Sunday for much of the southern half of England and for parts of Wales, underscoring that the soaring temperatures could not only disrupt travel but also raise the risk of heat-related illnesses for certain groups.
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Drought Is Declared in Parts of a Hot, Dry Britain More

Drought Is Declared in Parts of a Hot, Dry Britain

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  • It's preventing snow fall and snow melt, which is what restored lakes and reservoirs. The American SW is in a massive water crisis right now, and in about 40 days they're going to have to either give the federal gov't a plan or they're gonna get one. $4 billion was put into the last round of legislation to address water shortages, but it's a proverbial drop in the bucket.

    About $60-$80 billion is needed to build and maintain desalinization plants and aqueducts, and even that's a band-aid. We need to swi
    • The problem in the UK has got nothing to do with snowfall - we hardly ever get any & so there isn't really much to melt either. The main problem is the crumbling infrastructure where large percentages of processed drinking water are lost from leaky pipes. The water companies have all been privatised & bought out & so they're unwilling to divert the necessary funds to invest in making overdue, necessary repairs from investors/shareholders profits.
      • personal water usage is a lot lower than industrial and agriculture. Britain's not special there. And it's a drought. That means there's less water than usual. It's not like the leaks are anything new. They're a problem now because there is less water. And, well, the reason is climate change.
        • The UK gets more than enough rainfall. The problem is lack of investment in managing it & no real incentives for the newly privatised water companies to do so.

          • What, you think they could easily build a pipe from Scotland? Seriously, the problem is lack of rain all year. Some areas have had the lowest rainfall since records began 130 years ago. Up until the beginning of August, some areas had had nearly 60 days with no rain at all, and 160 days with less than 0.5 mm. Not really the stereotype most foreigners have of rainy London Town.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by q_e_t ( 5104099 )

        The main problem is the crumbling infrastructure where large percentages of processed drinking water are lost from leaky pipes.

        That certainly doesn't help, but it's also dry at the moment. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/a... [metoffice.gov.uk]. It's dryer than 1976, for example. Dry in most places apart from

        Northern Scotland received 98% (99.4mm) of its July rainfall,

        February was unusually wet, but that's mostly been good for fish in the sea.

    • It is not the first time UK experienced draught. You can switch to wind and solar all you want, but this is not going to solve water shortage caused by periods of draught, growing population and medieval water management system.
      • nobody on this forum thinks longer than a few years out anymore. We're old, so we're just in the "waiting to die" stage of life I guess.

        Short term you solve it with water conservation and desalinization. Long term you stop pumping CO2 into the air.

        We used to be a science and tech forum. That implies futurism. Seems like we'd actually want there to be a future, and to think about how to make it something other than a regression back to medieval times.

  • Then desalinate to create water and put the brine into the salt sea for evaporation. Should not dump it back into the ocean.

    Should able to roll out dew catchers in a big way too.

  • Yet still on some UK phone in radio shows.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Friday August 12, 2022 @11:21AM (#62783690) Homepage

    "Its summer, it gets hot, stop making a fuss!"

    I honestly don't know what it'll take to convince these people there's a problem. If they were young I could understand it because they perhaps wouldn't remember the weather here when summers - with a few exceptions - were temperate and rainy. But its normally 50+ year old talk show hosts who should know better. This weather is NOT normal. One major heatwave is rare , 2 in the same summer with almost zero rain is unheard of.

    Perhaps just refusing to believe there's a serious problem is their way of coping.

    • To be fair that's not a UK issue. I've heard the same on the continent despite the fact many countries are facing the worst drought in 500 years and no one alive has ever seen most of the river levels as low (or dried out completely) as they are right now.

      No country has a monopoly on idiots. It's one of the few things which transcends race and culture.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by U0K ( 6195040 )
      After 2 years of COVID I'm not surprised at all by people like that.

      Maybe if you told them that we used to have snow in Christmas in the past?
      Not exactly true, but maybe something that makes them think. Just make sure to use the word "Christmas" and not something like "Holidays" which is likely to trigger them.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by davide marney ( 231845 )

      "I honestly don't know what it'll take to convince these people there's a problem. If they were young I could understand it because they perhaps wouldn't remember the weather here when summers - with a few exceptions - were temperate and rainy. "

      Oh, I can tell you what it'll take: when people like yourself understand that the period length of climate cycles can be enormously long -- as in thousands of years. So you're having the hottest weather in 50 years? Yeah, that length of time is kind of blip, really.

      • In 50 years? There is NO record of 40C in the uk weather records.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by mjwx ( 966435 )

          In 50 years? There is NO record of 40C in the uk weather records.

          Until this year, there were no records of it ever being 40C in over 100 years of recorded temperatures.

          Here's a list of the hottest temps recorded in the UK, you'll notice all but 1 have occurred since the 1990's and half have occurred in the last 8 years.
          40.3 C (104.5 F) 19 July 2022
          38.7 C (101.7 F) 25 July 2019
          38.5 C (101.3 F) 10 August 2003
          38.1 C (100.6 F) 18 July 2022
          37.8 C (100.0 F) 31 July 2020
          37.1 C (98.8 F) 3 August 1990
          36.7 C (98.1 F) 1 July 2015
          36.7 C (98.1 F) 9 August 1911
          36.6 C (97.9

      • So long in fact, that human civilization has never had to endure a change in the global climate cycle.
        Until potentially now. (probability stated as very high)
        The latest change (Last glacial period) "ended" about 10000 years ago. Coincidentally, that's when civilization/farming starts. That average global temperature change was 5C over 20000 years. Today we're talking 3C over the course of 200 years.
        Geologically, that's on the timescale of an asteroid hitting.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      And it's going to get worse too. :(

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      "Its summer, it gets hot, stop making a fuss!"

      I honestly don't know what it'll take to convince these people there's a problem. If they were young I could understand it because they perhaps wouldn't remember the weather here when summers - with a few exceptions - were temperate and rainy. But its normally 50+ year old talk show hosts who should know better. This weather is NOT normal. One major heatwave is rare , 2 in the same summer with almost zero rain is unheard of.

      Perhaps just refusing to believe there's a serious problem is their way of coping.

      Nah, it's just the "I need to pretend I'm tough" brigade. The same kind that squeal and shout "someone do something to help me" when Texas "gets a bit cold".

      BTW, to our rational Texan friends, I'm saying that not to make light of when Texas drops into the minuses the same way you shouldn't make light of when the UK runs into the 30's (Celsius, I'm not sure what that is in old money) for days on end. It's really _NOT_ what everything in the country is designed for UK houses and buildings are designed to r

  • My British Solution to this unusually hot and dry summer has been to massively increase my consumption of ice cold cider and beer. And I drink iced tea and coffee instead of hot. I am feeling very relaxed.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Iced tea? I wouldn't say that out loud as you might get deported.
  • In a century, nobody will believe that the steam engine was developed in Britain to pump out the rain water from the coal mines.

  • The drought is not in the UK only.

    It is in Germany, and France too.

    See what the Rhine River [bbc.com] looks like, for example ...

    • The Rhine water level is a particularly good example of a clusterfuck in slow motion gaining speed...

      Germany developed the Energiewende, building out renewables, but also increasing dependency on Gas.
      Gas comes through NordStream, that's from russia.
      Russia invades Ukraine. Gas supplies become an economic weapon.
      German/European Gas supplies start dwindling.
      Germany frantically goes back to coal. (Not only Germany, but for the Rhine story that's all we need now)
      Germany transports coal (By the way also imported

      • 'frantically goes back to coal"
        Lie
        No new coal foundries. They are using coal in previously gas fed steam generators as a stopgap until they can build enough reliable non fossil capacity

        • Germany has been building non fossil capacity for over ten years. It is not reliable. If gas runs out this year, coal is the only other option. A solution is needed now.
          "Frantically goes back to coal" -- Reactivated mothballed coal power plants, and started feeding coal into any generator that would accept it. I'd say that's frantic.
          New plants couldn't even spring up so quickly, and I agree that to my knowledge no plan to build out more coal plants exists.
          It is expected Germany will import 10-20% more coal

          • Bullshit. For a fraction of the money spent on coal per year storage can remove fossil fuels entirely. And as for NUKES, give it up. The waste storage under guard for 9600 years vitiates any gains.
            Yes, the Russian market manipulation is causing problems BECAUSE insufficient buildout of solar and wind.
            Give it up, fossil fuels are killing the planet, record heatwaves, French nukes shut down for overheated rivers, your Kentucky deplorables either are now, or will soon be, disposable labor on the market.

  • Every little rain-shower makes the waste-water companies pump raw shit-water into rivers and lakes and oceans about 400.000 times a year, over 1000 times per day, because neither the Romans nor the Victorian built storm-drains or rain-water-collectors and you can't expect the British taxpayer to pay for those.

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