By Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Parts of southern Britain are suffering from drought conditions following the warmest April on record, and a dry March, amid a heatwave sweeping across northern Europe, so say researchers.
And I personally, as a professional gardener and groundsman, would not even have needed telling me. The soil is but like dust and it will be a “crime”, basically, to bed out summer bedding into beds and containers the soil of which is in such a dry state.
Water flows in some rivers, in southwest England and also in northern England, were similar to those experienced in a drought in 1976, which has been considered the most severe ever across much of Britain. Those dry conditions have "resulted in agricultural and hydrological drought conditions that are affecting large parts of southern Britain and farmers and growers are very concerned as to their crops.
The primary impacts, as said, are on farmers and growers; are an increased risk of forest and heath fires and, importantly, on river flows, some of which are no longer flowing much at all.
The dry weather sparked rare wildfires in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland at the start of May and the Met Office national weather service has said last month was the warmest April on record in Britain, with an average temperature of 10.7 degrees Celsius (51.3 degrees Fahrenheit).
That may have been the average temperature but we have had days of well into the low 20 degrees Celsius with often not a cloud in the sky. This is unprecedented, or if not then we don't have the written records for it, for the month of April. The lack of rain definitely was not a normal April. no April showers anywhere really, at least not in the South of England.
The rest of Northern Europe too, Germany, Switzerland, and other countries, are having a serious late Spring heatwave, with low water levels in rivers and lakes everywhere.
A sign of things to come? Who knows...
© 2011
