Another interesting week in the borehole. After the torrential rain the week before last and the snow last weekend whilst the water levels in the borehole fell to a low of 95.62 metres AOD last Monday, they began to rise steadily from Tuesday onwards. This is an example in the lag in the hydrology of chalk; it takes time for rain at the surface to percolate down to the aquifer. The level is still 4metres above the 7 year average for this time of year and 1 metre above the 7-year average winter maxima that tends to occur in around 3-4 weeks time.
We are expecting rain later on today and, to be honest, wet and blustery weather seems to be the order of the day for most of the coming week. That trend also seems likely to continue until the middle of February, interspersed with a few bright days. The picture beyond that remains unclear, with the likelihood of warmer and wetter weather from the west coming up against colder drier weather from the east and bringing the prospect of more wintry conditions. Be careful what you wish for – warmer weather will bring more rain, colder weather may be drier, but may trigger snowfall.