As you may have seen on the News page, Winterbourne Stoke once again can live up to its name as the springs in and around the village have begun to break. We’ve learned that this seems to happen when the water levels in the Tilshead aquifer pass the 82 metre mark and this year that happened at the start of the week. The heavy rain towards the end of 2017 has been working its way into the ground and the rate of increase in the aquifer water level has increased markedly over the last 7 days.
Water levels are still around 3m below average for the time of year, but 4.5m deeper than at the same time last year. With only 0.2mm of rain falling over the last 7 days, we would expect the rate of increase to fall over the next 7 days. We have rain forecast for early next week, but beyond this, the forecast is for more stable and drier weather conditions.