The BBC published this satellite image of England and Wales today on their website. Much of the East and Central England has turned brown and Suffolk and Norfolk look particularly crispy. Not surprising an official drought has been declared although different regional water companies will apply their own responses as they see fit. So far no hose pipe ban from Anglia Water.
I am hearing more and more stories of concern from farmers and the like about how their crops and livestock are being affected. I have seen quite a few herds of cattle and flocks of sheep gleaning what they can from fields where there is no green grass. We are feeding our small flock hay plus some coarse feed supplement. This morning I collected another load of hay which should be enough for the next 10-12 days.
The forecast is not looking very encouraging and there could be a knock-on effect into next year if we have another dry Spring or do not have some sustained rainfall i the Autumn and Winter. It is 32 degrees centigrade for us today and 34 degrees is predicted for tomorrow and Sunday. Along with a couple of others we had arranged to help another smallholder erect their new to them polytunnel on Sunday. It has been called off because of the weather. This was a wise decision but like mad dogs and Englishmen I had been prepared to go.
It's starting to feel quite relentless, and very concerning. I went walking a couple of weeks ago and witnessed several fields of scorched, unusable beans (I assume cattle feed). So sad.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is worrying. There have been some filed fires nearby, including quite a big fire in part of Thetford forest.
ReplyDeleteAnd here in Norfolk we've had fires at Wild Ken nature reserve, and now on Mousehold Heath, as well as a number of fields.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear this - especially Wild Ken, which I know from Springwatch (et al) and have an affection for. I hope not too much damage/suffering has been caused; maybe they will tell us more on Autumnwatch.
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