Weather

[Gaz]

Absolutely bucketing down down here too ☔  With a further warning of rain over the coming weekend.

 

What I don't completely get is the ground's boggy and wet.  Local rivers and lakes are brimming, including the Cuckmere River which was very high two days ago and close to bursting its banks.  Yet it's the same Cuckmere River that feeds our local reservoir (Arlington), which is currently only 33% full and was at its 12 month low just last week.  My simple logic thinks they ought to be sucking water out of the river like there's no tomorrow while it's so high.  With the weather warning it won't take much more for the little village of Alfriston to cop it, again 🙄

 

G

 

[Paws4Thot]

2 hours ago, Gaz said:

My simple logic thinks they ought to be sucking water out of the river like there's no tomorrow while it's so high.

For that to work you need to pump water from river to reservoir, and have pumps that normally run at, say, 50% of their service peak delivery. You more likely have a spillway from river to reservoir, and it's at its peak capacity.

[Ootohere]

Serious rain where i am this time and roads flooding very easily.   Going to be hellish for those with the flooding already. 

[Stonekeeper]

2 hours ago, Gaz said:

Absolutely bucketing down down here too ☔  With a further warning of rain over the coming weekend.

 

What I don't completely get is the ground's boggy and wet.  Local rivers and lakes are brimming, including the Cuckmere River which was very high two days ago and close to bursting its banks.  Yet it's the same Cuckmere River that feeds our local reservoir (Arlington), which is currently only 33% full and was at its 12 month low just last week.  My simple logic thinks they ought to be sucking water out of the river like there's no tomorrow while it's so high.  With the weather warning it won't take much more for the little village of Alfriston to cop it, again 🙄

 

G

 

 

 

Maybe someone should question @sewateruk why the reservoirs are so low in these circumstances

 

[J.R.]

42 minutes ago, Paws4Thot said:

For that to work you need to pump water from river to reservoir, and have pumps that normally run at, say, 50% of their service peak delivery. You more likely have a spillway from river to reservoir, and it's at its peak capacity.

Erm, reservoirs are rivers that have been dammed, water flows into the reservoir through gravity.

 

The spillways allow gravity to channel excess water from the reservoir to the lower river section to maintain but not exceed the maximum water level at the dam. They are not used to fill the reservoir unless an anti-gravity one has been invented.

 

Pumps (and siphons) are only used to lower the reservoir level if the dam outlet is not working or under maintenance, not for filling.

 

Perhaps you live in Australia? 😄

Edited 26 October, 2023 by J.R.

[J.R.]

27 minutes ago, Stonekeeper said:

 

 

Maybe someone should question @sewateruk why the reservoirs are so low in these circumstances

 

 

If the river upstream of the reservoir is say 2" higher than normal (unlikely) and all that excess water flows into the reservoir over a 24 hour period it would only raise by an imperceptible amount, it takes an extended period of high rainfall to refill the reservoir and also an extended period of drout for the level to fall significantly.

 

The clue is in the name!

 

 

[Stonekeeper]

Arlington reservoir is at the side of the river,no river appears to run through it

 

 

[Ootohere]

Pumped Hydro has Reservoirs which can be not only for running the turbines when released but also used for drinking water,  but lets not complicate things with facts. 

Rivers and streams will fill them and require releases especially at times lie now where they are getting brimmed.  

2 reservoirs required.  Dam a valley, dam 2. 

 

Edited 26 October, 2023 by Rooted

[J.R.]

10 minutes ago, Stonekeeper said:

Arlington reservoir is at the side of the river,no river appears to run through it

 

Look at the contour lines.

 

Also the flood plain beside the river.

 

They wont be pumping the water into it.

[Breezy_Pete]

It's pumped into my local one, Farmoor.

 

[Stonekeeper]

2 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

Look at the contour lines.

 

Also the flood plain beside the river.

 

They wont be pumping the water into it.

 

 

I made no mention of pumping anything.

 

I have no expectations of our privatised water companies other than them to maximise profits for shareholders

[J.R.]

It's pumped into a water tower for pretty much every village & commune in my country but they dont have dams so are not classed as reservoirs.

 

Does Farmoor have a dam?

[J.R.]

2 minutes ago, Stonekeeper said:

I made no mention of pumping anything.

And I made no mention of a river having to flow through a reservoir.

[Ootohere]

Sometimes just burns are enough.

Clatto Dundee is a nice.   There is no water shortages here just now. 

Edited 26 October, 2023 by Rooted

[Breezy_Pete]

22 minutes ago, J.R. said:

It's pumped into a water tower for pretty much every village & commune in my country but they dont have dams so are not classed as reservoirs.

 

Does Farmoor have a dam?

No, it's a massive concrete basin purpose-built as a reservoir next to the Thames. 

@Ttaskmaster can probably tell you a lot more about it, and similar reservoirs.

[Gaz]

14 hours ago, J.R. said:

If the river upstream of the reservoir is say 2" higher than normal (unlikely) ....

 

This was at Alfriston (downstream two miles) two days ago.  The Cuckmere being, conservatively, a good 6' above normal.  It's already flooded some of the fields to the East, the village itself being on the West side of the river:

 

 

 

The river's usually 6' to 10' wide here, and around 3' deep (varies of course).

 

Gaz

 

Edit:  I was looking on street maps to get a photo of the Cuckmere at a 'normal' level.  Unfortunately, at the same point (looking towards the Church spire) I can't get a clear screen grab of the water because of bridge repairs 🙄:

 

 

 

 

Edited 27 October, 2023 by Gaz
Added a photo

[Gaz]

1 hour ago, J.R. said:

They wont be pumping the water into it.

 

't'is pumped:

 

 

Extract taken from here:

 

https://arlingtonvillage.co.uk/arlington-reservoir/#:~:text=Arlington reservoir is filled with,treated and distributed to consumers.

 

G

 

[J.R.]

And yet looking at the contours on the map the reservoir appears to be at a lower level than the river, unfortunately I hve only recently very reluctantly thrown away my OS Landranger maps of the South East, with them I could have seen the heights of all the contour lines.

 

I can see the logic of maintaining the existing river bank and not putting in a sluice gate (if thats the right word) to feed the reservoir as it could fail and threaten the dam if there is one on the reservoir (perhaps its more like a hammer pond) pumping the water over the bank for it then to fall by gravity means the reservoir will not need spillways.

 

I suppose technically any store of water is a reservoir including our water towers.

[@Lee]

46 minutes ago, J.R. said:

I suppose technically any store of water is a reservoir including our water towers.

 

You'll kick yourself when you Google the etymology of 'reservoir'.

[Gaz]

It's not raining, so I thought I'd go see what it's like now. The river level's going down, but I'd think it's still around 60' wide:

 

 

And I was looking for a depth measure on the bridge (Lullington Road), but there was none to see:

 

 

Fair bit of surface water around still.  Ironically this is on the approach to Arlington Village, about 100 yards north of the reservoir pumping station buildings.   I waved a Hilux through, just to make sure it was as shallow as I thought (it was):

 

 

This was all about an hour ago.  I'll go back to the same bridge when water levels normalise, just for a comparison.

 

Gaz

 

 

[Aspman]

Rain warnings out again till Monday.

Our useless build simialrly claimed that it was the wrong sort of rain that's why we got ingress in the living room bay window.
I didn't know it was ok to only make houses weatherproof in one direction.

[J.R.]

The wrong type of rain and the wrong direction!

 

Look on the positive side, if it wasn't for bad luck you would not have any luck!!!

[Aspman]

We always said his action would catch up with him some day.
The 5 properties in his first development are ALL now looking to take action on him.
I expect his next development will be looking to do something similar since he's a year behind on those builds too.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/oct/21/cracked-tiles-wonky-gutters-leaning-walls-why-are-britains-new-houses-so-rubbish

This absolutely what we have experienced even though it's not one of the big builders. Same attitude. "That'll do, not my problem"

[Ootohere]

The forecast for the next 3 days around the UK looks pretty certain and for Thursday there is enough warning if it is as stormy as it might be.

 

No wrong type or directions of rain, wind or snow coming, the modelling from the forecasters is pretty clear. 

 

Storm CIARAN. 

Edited 29 October, 2023 by Rooted

[Ttaskmaster]

On 26/10/2023 at 20:49, Breezy_Pete said:

No, it's a massive concrete basin purpose-built as a reservoir next to the Thames. 

@Ttaskmaster can probably tell you a lot more about it, and similar reservoirs.

Not really - I'm a wastewater specialist.

I can relay any questions you have to the reservoir team, though?