Tuesday 10 June 2014

Wet, Wet, Wet + Woody Returns

No, not the Scottish band, my back garden. Teatime yesterday started with distant thunder but so strong it could be felt through the concrete floor in the kitchen. Fortunately the electrical storm passed over without any local problems apart from the electricity supply flickering off from time to time.

That wasn't the worst though. Suddenly the heavens opened with such stair rods of rain and hail the like of which I last saw decades ago as a child. According to my new weather centre the rate of rainfall reached 65mm / hour (2.5 inches / hour). Thank goodness that didn't last for an hour. As it was, 27mm (just over an inch) of rain was recorded in less than an hour.

The lane was a river with water flowing rapidly down from the main street and my back garden ended up about 3/4 under water. That lot was just rainfall and overflow from the gutters which couldn't cope. Normally it takes several hours of persistent rain to flood that much. Fortunately the building, garage and sheds are well above that level.

DSCN2814

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It had only just dried out after the last rainfall.

Once the rain had moved out to the North Sea Woody made his second visit of the day:

Great Spotted Woodpecker DSCN2829_Fotor

He is becoming quite a regular at the moment.

A bit of very shaky hand held video which iMovie did its best to stabilise:



It really cheered me up to see such a magnificent bird visiting the Birdy Bistro.

8 comments:

  1. That is incredible. I'm glad I'm in Scotland. I love seeing woodpeckers.

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    Replies
    1. We seem to get all or nothing these days Adrian.

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  2. Looks like you could do with some ducks John.

    Had a lot of rain here in Wales recently too.
    Lovely shot and video of the woodpecker.

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    Replies
    1. Did once have a duck in the pond for a short while Keith.

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  3. your ground is already so saturated, the rain had no where to go! wish i could funnel that into my pond. :)

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    Replies
    1. TWG: I've been reading fairly recently that Texas has been short of rain.

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  4. That rain sounds like a real tropical downpour! I'm glad your house etc are built high enough off the ground that the run-off didn't hurt them. Howeever, the backyard reflections are rather beautiful!

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    Replies
    1. Mick: Fortunately such downpours are rare here and very localised so it's pot luck where they arrive.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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