The final day of 2023. After falling steadily, but very slowly all week, and despite what has seemed to be an awful lot of rain, the water level in the aquifer bottomed out yesterday at 98.79 metres AOD and today has risen imperceptibly to 98.80 metres AOD. That still puts the level around 8 metres above the 10-year average. Not counting today, we have had 112mm of rain this month and just under half of that has fallen in the last week. The Flood Alert for groundwater flooding in this area remains in force and the Flood Alert for the Wylye and its tributaries, including the River Till has been reinstated.
Looking at the water levels on each New Year’s Eve over the last decade we see that this year is the second deepest over the period, being beaten only by the winter of 2019-2020. Given that the last 48 hours has seen more rain than in the first part of the week, it seems likely that the water depth may stay at the current level for the next week or even rise a little.
The weather is likely to remain fairly unsettled over the next few days, very similar to last week. But we are also expecting high winds over the next 24 hours. Early January seems very similar in terms of rain. As we move towards mid-month, the weather is likely to become drier and significantly colder. Best wishes for the New Year.
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