The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[tiermat]

Due to a copious amount of panic and grumpiness on my part, I think I have left one of my favourite Embers skull caps in that there Spanishland

[Jurek]

Please stop raining.

I want to go out.

Not for a ride or anything.

Just out.

[interzen]

Please stop raining.

I want to go out.

Not for a ride or anything.

Just out.

This.
Times ∞

I got everything I needed to get this morning: some more tea, general low-GI snackage and whatnot. I also got royally soaked - and that was just walking across the car park.

I love summer, me.

[Marco Stefano]

April; we get it, showers, yes. Enough now.

May on Tuesday; I can expect a change, can I? 

(not holding breath or putting waterproofs away)

[interzen]

I've just read that the Ouse is currently 9ft above it's normal level - it's still well short of what it reached in November 2000 (17ft 8in above normal) at least for now.

This is all getting a bit silly - can we track down the people who starting banging on about droughts and give them a good kicking? Please?

[jogler]

I've just read that the Ouse is currently 9ft above it's normal level - it's still well short of what it reached in November 2000 (17ft 8in above normal) at least for now.

This is all getting a bit silly - can we track down the people who starting banging on about droughts and give them a good kicking? Please?

they would tell you that...
it's the wrong type of rain
in the wrong places
at the wrong time

[mcshroom]

I've just read that the Ouse is currently 9ft above it's normal level - it's still well short of what it reached in November 2000 (17ft 8in above normal) at least for now.

This is all getting a bit silly - can we track down the people who starting banging on about droughts and give them a good kicking? Please?

they would tell you that...
it's the wrong type of rain
in the wrong places
at the wrong time

... and they would also be right (except about the place bit). If the population of the South East was more accepting of giving up land to surface storage then this rain would be far more useful^[1], but while most of the area is aquifer fed then you really need long periods of light rain during the winter to actually make a significant impact on the water levels. Most of this rainwater will wash out into rivers and then into the sea leaving little long term benefit.

Unfortunately this, just like the lack of clear evidence on cycle helmets (example not a debate invitation) is something that even science editor in media seem not to be able to comprehend. The 'common sense' argument of 'it's raining hard this week so the drought is over' is the only line they'll believe.

^[1] When I worked in the industry down there the surveys said that people were in favour of reservoirs in theory, but the NIMBYism when any scheme was proposed was incredibly strong.

[interzen]

... and they would also be right (except about the place bit). If the population of the South East was more accepting of giving up land to surface storage then this rain would be far more useful^[1], but while most of the area is aquifer fed then you really need long periods of light rain during the winter to actually make a significant impact on the water levels. Most of this rainwater will wash out into rivers and then into the sea leaving little long term benefit.

We have a similar problem here - houses getting built on land which also happens to be flood-plain; you know the drill.

My knowledge of groundwater management is pretty limited¹ but my understanding is that one of the reasons York is so prone to flooding is that not only is the catchment area for the Ouse pretty damned big (same deal with the Derwent, if you live in Malton) but the management of the land surrounding it is such that the water doesn't really have anywhere to 'go' other than downstream when we have weather like this. Certainly, the last time I nipped up the road to check the conditions on my favourite bit of bridleway a few days ago it was largely dry as the water had just run off it (into the fields, which are now extremely flooded)

Still, it's not (yet) as bad as it was in November 2000², which is a small blessing.

We now return you to your scheduled grumbles

¹ - whilst I do have a PhD in fluid dynamics, it's more to do with things that go 'bang'
² - some pics of mine from the time may well be floating around t'internets; my one lasting memory was the Army trying desperately to shore up the flood defenses in Selby to prevent the river from bursting its banks. To say it was a close run thing would be an understatement.

[Arch]

² - some pics of mine from the time may well be floating around t'internets; my one lasting memory was the Army trying desperately to shore up the flood defenses in Selby to prevent the river from bursting its banks. To say it was a close run thing would be an understatement.

I remember on That Day, cycling into town with Tom, and at the top of Piccadilly we were held up by a policeman who was waving through a convoy of Army trucks laden with sandbags. Being curious sorts, we followed the convoy to outside The Maltings, where they were sandbagging against the floodgates closed under Lendal Bridge, and finished the whole lot off by parking one of the trucks backed up against the sandbags...

That was the night we actually packed a box of stuff to take upstairs, when we heard that there was a warning on the Foss at Foss Islands Road, although we were in Farrar Street, off Lawrence St, some way away.  I packed tins of beans (and tin opener!), my housemates put in a bottle of whisky....

It was all Quite Exciting, from our not-terribly-likely-to-be-flooded point of view. It's a feeling captured very well in the bit of The Kraken Wakes when the Thames overtops the Embankment.

[jogler]

That was the night we actually packed a box of stuff to take upstairs,

hellsbells Arch,if you are likely to be flooded at your place there'd be a lot of York under water.Sufficient for you to be packing not for upstairs but more appropriatley for a voyage on The Good Ship Ark,captain Noah in command.

[interzen]

I remember on That Day, cycling into town with Tom, and at the top of Piccadilly we were held up by a policeman who was waving through a convoy of Army trucks laden with sandbags.

Something similar happened when we were riding down to Selby - once we got to Riccall and the bit of track that runs alongside the A19 we noticed an awful lot of trucks going past, most of which were carrying rubble - not aggregates, but yer actual busted up concrete/stone/etc. When we got to Barlby we found out where all these trucks were going; the Army had given up on sandbags and were bringing in the Big Stuff to stop the flood bank near the BOCM factory from being breached.

ISTR that one of my photos was published in the Evening Press, possibly the one of the Millennium Bridge (still incomplete at that time) appearing to be 'marooned' in a vast expanse of rather mucky water.

[trio25]

Not allowed to go back to work tomorrow as they want a Dr's note. I know they are just covering their backs but it would be easier to go back when everyone was in as oppose to later in the week when they can 'talk to me'

[interzen]

That was the night we actually packed a box of stuff to take upstairs,

hellsbells Arch,if you are likely to be flooded at your place there'd be a lot of York under water.Sufficient for you to be packing not for upstairs but more appropriatley for a voyage on The Good Ship Ark,captain Noah in command.

It really was that bad - the level of the river was roughly twice what is currently (17ft 8in was the peak height above normal, compared with 9ft 2in ATM) and to add a bit of extra spice, several of the pumps at the Foss pumping station had failed too, meaning that there was a very real risk of things backing up into the city centre.

Of course, in the aftermath of all that the insurers had a field day - especially the robbing bastards who tried to treble my premium because I lived in a 'flood risk' area; the village I live in has never flooded (to my knowledge) and is about 3 miles from the river. Of course, the next village down is right on the river and happens to have a YO23 postcode 

Even the clergy weren't spared - the Archbishop's Palace flooded that year too.

[jogler]

One assume's the Archbishop had commited some sin subsequently having his direct line with god disconnected

[Bledlow]

Of course, in the aftermath of all that the insurers had a field day - especially the robbing bastards who tried to treble my premium because I lived in a 'flood risk' area; the village I live in has never flooded (to my knowledge) and is about 3 miles from the river. Of course, the next village down is right on the river and happens to have a YO23 postcode 

A mate of mine's insurers tried that one. He pointed out that he's in a building half a mile from & 20 metres higher than the nearest point that's been flooded in recorded history, pointed them to the Environment Agency flood risk map, which shows him clearly outside the areas at risk of anything short of the melting of the Antarctic ice cap, & told 'em (truthfully) that he lives in a third floor flat. He also said he was looking for an insurer which understood that postcodes at the level of "RG1" are not a reliable indicator of shared risk, whether of flooding or anything else.

They changed their minds. 

[Arch]

That was the night we actually packed a box of stuff to take upstairs,

hellsbells Arch,if you are likely to be flooded at your place there'd be a lot of York under water.Sufficient for you to be packing not for upstairs but more appropriatley for a voyage on The Good Ship Ark,captain Noah in command.

Ah, that was when I lived round the corner from where CL lives, not in my current 2nd floor flat! 

It was only because they'd warned about the Foss that we did it, since we were about a quarter mile from the Foss.

Mind you, when I get back to York tomorrow (assuming the trains haven't been washed away), I have to first cross the Ouse, and then the Dean's Garden, which when I crossed it on Thursday afternoon had a puddle in the middle big enough for Olympic swimming heats....

I heard a story about the 2000 flood, that while they were busy battling to work the pumps that stop the Ouse flowing back up the Foss at the gate at their confluence (which would put a serious amount of central York under water), someone noticed that water was merrily creeping from the flooded Tower Gardens, along the road, and round the roundabout towards the Foss.  Swift sandbagging stopped it...

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

The clarithromycin has given me a nasty bitter taste in my mouth. 

[clarion]

It will do.  It always does.  But it's damned effective IME.

[jogler]

My PC is borked & there is a lot of stuff I can't get at now,particularly emails.
It's frustrating.
I can't print anything;this laptop is not configured to the PC printer.I cannot print audax entryt forms.
It's a serious nuisance/inconvenience wrt my business comms.,quotes,invoices.
 
as the day progresses I may escalate to the Rant thread.

& there's no W.W. ride

F^ckit.I'm going to have a coffee.

[Feline]

My PC is borked & there is a lot of stuff I can't get at now,particularly emails.
It's frustrating.
I can't print anything;this laptop is not configured to the PC printer.I cannot print audax entryt forms.
It's a serious nuisance/inconvenience wrt my business comms.,quotes,invoices.
 
as the day progresses I may escalate to the Rant thread.

& there's no W.W. ride

F^ckit.I'm going to have a coffee.

If you're really stuck email them to me and I will print them and post them to you!

[jogler]

I appreciate your kind offer but the PC will not boot up

[clarion]

We'll need a bigger boot

[clarion]

(can't tell you how long I've been waiting for an opportunity to use that )

[jogler]

happy to oblige

[mcshroom]

The BBC are showing adverts about 'why politics matters'. There's scenes of all sorts of things, but at one point they show a bicycle - filtering through traffic and damaging a car wing mirror. Nice balanced view I see