Thankfully, a week without any real rain; we did have 0.1mm of rain in the middle of the week. Consequently, levels in the River Till have continued to fall and Water Lane/Dryden Street no longer has water flowing along it. It just has a large puddle and lots of very sticky mud. Water levels in the Tilshead borehole peaked last Sunday and Monday at 99.65 metres AOD, well below the 2014 peak of 99.88 metres. Since then, the level has fallen pretty steadily and today stands at 99.59 metres AOD.
That mean we are still over half a metre above the maximum normal range for the borehole, so groundwater flooding remains a distinct possibility. The only Flood Warning still in force in this area is for the River Till. The Flood Alert for groundwater flooding on the rest of Salisbury Plain remains in force, as does the Flood Alert for the River Wylye and its other tributaries. That reflects how sensitive the situation is, and could remain until Spring.
I was rather taken aback earlier in the week to discover that we had apparently had almost 10 metres of rain last Tuesday. I completely missed being submerged under such a deluge and I bet you did as well! It’s one of the reasons I collect raw data myself and sanity-check it. Instruments and computers regularly have glitches – this one may have been the result of a major Microsoft failure that affected a whole range of websites and systems that use their software.
We may have a little drizzle and light rain today and in the early part of next week, but things should get drier as the week goes on. I don’t think we will have substantial amounts of rain, so more good news. From now, until late February, there is likely to be a north-south divide in the weather across the country with wet weather to the north and drier conditions in the south. Unfortunately, determining where in the country this split will be is a lot more uncertain. However, we do seem in line for a period of very wet weather towards the end of February. Temperatures are likely to be a little above average and drop a little as the month goes on. All in all, a pretty typical situation for late winter.