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Leeds: Are we braced for drought?
In a July that has seen more than its fair share of rain, Neil Hudson asks: Why we are braced for drought?
Apparently, we've been having the wrong type of rain this month.
It sounds like the kind of excuse British Rail used to come out with back in the 1990s but, according to water chiefs, even though it has rained more than usual this month, water stocks are dwindling.
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What we've had is short bursts of localised rain, which still gets your washing wet but is no good when it comes to filling up our rivers.
Levels at the 80-odd reservoirs in Yorkshire are well down on what they
should be. Other parts of the country are even worse off.
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British Waterways recently announced it is to close half the Leeds-Liverpool Canal and, in the North West, water authorities have introduced a hosepipe ban.
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According to the Met Office, which provides weather forecasts for the BBC, this year has seen the driest six months since 1929.
Helen Edwards is optimal planning and performance manager for Yorkshire Water and the woman responsible for ensuring the 1.3bn litres of water used in Yorkshire every day is where it should be when it should be.
She said a few days of rain just doesn't cut it when it comes to filling up our reservoirs.
"I don't want to sound like British Rail but it's all depends on the type of rain we get. What we've had is very intense, localised showers, which, if you are in them you think it's rained a lot but in fact they've just been quite patchy. For the reservoirs to fill back up, we need the rain to be more sustained.
"When it has been very dry for a long time, we find that the ground soaks up a lot of water before it starts running back into reservoirs. Moorland is like a giant sponge, you will see some impact on the rivers after a downpour but it takes a lot of water to fill everything back up."
According to the Met Office, unusual weather patterns over the UK are blocking traditional winds from the Atlantic, winds which normally bring rain, hence the dry spell.
A spokeswoman for the weather forecasting service said: "The dry theme to the weather has been largely caused by 'blocked' weather patterns across the UK. This weather pattern has prevented the usual run of westerly winds off the Atlantic Ocean, which bring with them rain.
"This has meant regions in the west of the UK, which are usually the wettest, have received much less rainfall than usual. Eastern areas have seen dry weather but not to the same extent. The current run of dry months is part of the natural variability in our weather in this part of Europe."
Professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Leeds, Piers Forster, agreed. He said this year's dry weather was due to the jet stream.
He said: "It has been very wet in July, we have had a phenomenal amount of rain but that's only just changed recently. In the beginning of the year, it has been very dry and that was because of the jet stream, which is the band of air that planes try to get into when they are flying back from America, because it makes it quicker.
"The jet stream is one of the things our computers are not able to predict. It can move suddenly and stay for weeks or days, and it's this which makes the UK weather so unpredictable.
"When it moves north, as it has been doing, it creates a high pressure zone, which causes the hot weather."
This June was the 11th warmest on record with an average maximum of 19 degrees Celsius. But 2003 and 2006 were warmer. The warmest June on record was in 1940, with an average maximum of 21.3 degrees Celsius.
This year, water levels in Yorkshire reservoirs, which are checked weekly, stand at 63 per cent, when they are usually at about 80 per cent.
Rainfall for April, May and June is 30 per cent down on the long-term average and January to March was also below average.
Typically, an adult will use about 40 litres of water a day, enough to make 500 cups of tea. The population of Yorkshire as a whole uses 1.3bn litres of water every day.
The last time there was a major drought, in 1995, Yorkshire Water was reduced to bringing water in using tankers, but that's no longer necessary, thanks to a network of underground pipes called 'the grid'.
But there's nothing to worry about just yet, so long as we don't make a habit of leaving the tap running while we brush our teeth.
Clare Dunlop is water resource planning manager for Yorkshire Water and the woman whose job it is to look 25 years into the future.
She said: "Every five years we produce a 25-year forecast, the last of which was completed in November 2009. It takes into account all kinds of things, such as housing, how many people live in each house, metering, climate change and so on.
"Our forecasts indicate there will be no water shortage in Yorkshire in that time but, at the same time, we still encourage people to use water wisely."
Miss Dunlop added: "Compared to the 1995 summer when we had low rainfall and had to bring water in using tankers, we are not in that position today.
"Yorkshire Water invested in an underground network of pipes, called the grid system, which allows us to move treated and untreated water from east to west. We're also able to move water around using rivers."
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Weather for Leeds
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
