This Autumn is turning into quite an exceptional one on the weather front and this is reflected in the water level in the Tilshead borehole. It was hoped that we might get to the 1st of December without publishing another update, but in the early hours of this morning a significant water level was passed; the water level has now passed the 10-year average peak level for the whole of the winter flood season.
This means that if the water level rises a further 0.5 meters, the Environment Agency is likely to issue a Flood Alert for this area. Given the rate of rise over the last few weeks, that might happen as soon as Wednesday – or might not happen at all. The Tilshead aquifer is anything but predictable when the water levels get into this area.
As always, lot is going to depend on the weather over the next few days. We are unlikely to see any significant rain until Thursday when showers, possibly of snow, might set in. This could continue for the first week in December with warmer and more unsettled weather blowing in from the west. UNfortunately, the rest of December looks set to be wetter than average, so we are very likely to see some groundwater flooding and if the ground is saturated, run-off flooding into the River Till also seems highly likely before Christmas.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.