Notices

Tilshead Borehole Levels: Sunday 26th January 2025

Water levels in the Tilshead aquifer continued to rise until late on Tuesday and then began to drop again slowly.  We were then threatened by Storm Éowyn, an example of “explosive cyclogenesis” or a bomb cyclone, which is a weather phenomenon that results in a collapse in atmospheric pressure values to reach values similar to the atmospheric pressure values seen in tropical storms and hurricanes, but outside the tropical region. We were very lucky and the worst part of the storm missed us completely.  We had very moderate winds and only a little rain.  The highest wind speed recorded here in Winterbourne Stoke was a shade over 20 mph; almost 100mph less than wind speeds recorded in Eire, Northern Ireland and Scotland.  Over the week, we had 22.8mm of rain which reversed the trend in the aquifer and by late yesterday evening, water levels were beginning to rise again very slowly.

The Flood Warning issued by the Environment Agency on the 24th of January seems likely to remain in force until at least Tuesday.

The next named storm is blowing in off the Atlantic and has been named Storm Herminia by the Spanish Meteorological Service, with more significant impacts expected in Spain than in the UK.  It’s worth noting that this weather system didn’t meet our Met Office criteria for a storm, so the effects here may be minimal.  You can expect heavy rain to move into the area during the day and rain is going to be very much a feature over the next few days.  With luck, we might get a spell of drier weather towards next weekend.  For the rest of the month and into February, the weather is likely to become drier, with the odd spell of rain.  The rest of February seems set to follow a similar trend, but watch out for further ‘surprise’ storms due to the collapse of the polar vortex resulting in a series of polar depressions in the higher latitudes; such here in the UK.

Winterbourne Stoke Parish Council