Flood

A warm and sultry spell working at our flowery railside site was spent by a late afternoon at home, with a short break relaxing tin the garden, which delighted our elderly cat - as far as she's concerned we don't spend nearly enough time lying about in the sun! Alex rang me from Brighton, where he's staying for a few days, and while we chatted dark clouds began to heap up.

I decided it would be prudent to put the garden chair away, and was just setting off for Waitrose as the first heavy drops of rain spattered on the windscreen. This shortly turned into a tropical deluge and the roads were already beginning to flood within less than five minutes of me leaving home. I sat in the car waiting for the rain to ease, but it just kept going, so in the end I got out and quickly put on my cagoule which was in the boot, getting pretty wet in the process.

Surely it would have stopped by the time I'd finished my shop, I thought. But no, an hour later the rain was still just as heavy and I got soaked again dashing back to the car. I drove back through floods along most of Mayor's Walk, and this was the situation at the end of the road when I arrived home. It must be the first time I've needed a complete change of clothes after shopping! 

The torrential rain continued for well over an hour, and it's estimated that over 6 cm fell, causing widespread flash flooding in other parts of the city. The increasing frequency of such extreme weather conditions are, sadly, one of the expected consequences of climate change and underlines the need to take urgent action (though this should have happened thirty years ago!).