How much water is there?

Whilst the rainfall for February, March and April has only been 76% of the long-term average [LTA] at 177 mm, the last twelve months from May 2024 to April 2025 was 106% of the LTA reflecting the wet 2024 summer. So, we should not lose sight of the fact that until recently we almost had too much water locally. However, the first week and a half of May has continued the anti-cyclonic dry weather with no rain and, as a result, rivers and stream are dropping and flows from aquifer related springs appear to be slowing too. The borehole at Woodyates in the Cranbourne Chase in the last week of April was at 90.07 AOD which is 6.3 metre below the position twelve months ago, this current reading, nevertheless, is classified as normal and the 2024 level reflected that extremely wet winter of 2023-24.

 The River Stour is now below normal (the agreed definition for this being a state which it is in for only 15% of its annual cycle), which is not usual for this early in the year. As the River rises on clay this low flow reflects the lack of rainfall run-off. Further, this effect is not helped by the water from the chalk aquifer springs slowing, as this means volumes from tributaries such as the River Allen diminish.

 So, a year on from too much water we now seem to be heading for semi-drought conditions, as even when we receive rain in summer it is never as effective at re-filling the aquifer and maintaining river levels. This is due to several factors such as evaporation associated with higher temperatures, and plants and trees using more of the water as they are in active growing cycles. Humans of course aggravate the situation by demanding more water during the summer months too, so abstraction plays a part.

 For the Angling Club it means lakes are not like they were last year, when some were almost flooded and with soft banks. They are currently better behaved, although the adjacent vegetation is still growing, as is the water weed. It also means that Club plans are being revisited to carry out work shelved last year because the ground was too soft.  So, for example the Club hopes to be able to get on and carry out the wet dredge of Julia’s at Edmondsham in the latter half of June.  There is also on-going discussion with the farm manager at Rawlsbury over removal of the silt in Chapmans too. Paul Baker will send an email, to all those trout fishermen on his circulation list, once the Club has dates for this project.