Sharp-ish showers last night and during the early hours of this morning remind us that recently we've had very little of it. Those with time off between Maundy Thursday and Monday's spring bank holiday have enjoyed 11 glorious days (and more) to rival high summer. Sure, there were a few drops on Good Friday, overnight Saturday/Easter Day, on Thursday this week and fewer still during the late afternoon of That Wedding. There was light rain in the morning of Sunday 3rd April. But, really, it's been effectively dry for the whole of March and April. February couldn't really be classed as wet, either.
Today looks like being the first wet Saturday for a while. Things were not like this 25 years ago when on Saturday 26th April we had leaden skies and constant, prolonged, heavy rain. I remember the day well because, for part of it, though not a large part, I was outdoors. It was the day of the Jhernobyl/Чорнобиль/Chernobyl nuclear disaster. I was under an umbrella for most though not all of that time and I trust that this will have protected me from the worst of the potentially lethal downpour.
North Wales together with Scotland and Cumbria took the brunt of the heaviest rain that day. We didn't realise the implications immediately and it wasn't till June that reality hit home: upland farmers south and west of Rhuthun/Ruthin could no longer move or sell their stock. This was thanks to the land and vegetation absorbing radioactive caesium fallout. Sheep graze almost constantly and the risk of ingested radioactivity was too great.
So great in fact that it took into the 1990s for local sheep farmers to recover, not the few months as anticipated at the time. In the 1990s, you could still see sheep in the upland Rhuthun area with what had become familiarly daubed orange and green markings that indicated the stock had been tested negatively. Without the tests, though, the Welsh lamb market would've collapsed. Consumers would've had no confidence.
Graphic from The Guardian dated 2009 showing original and current restricted areas
Sheep are still under test in North Wales following the catastrophe. You rarely hear of this nowadays but, mercifully, this is now well outside the Rhuthun area and is confined to very high rainfall areas of Snowdonia.
Figures from the Environment Agency suggested that, in North Wales, 5,100 farms with 2,000,000 sheep were restricted in June 1986. By August 1990, this had reduced to 420 holdings and 300,000 sheep. In February 1994, there were 230,000 sheep on 940 farms. In May 2000, this was 359 farms and 180,000 sheep, where it has effectively stuck ever since.
Today looks like being the first wet Saturday for a while. Things were not like this 25 years ago when on Saturday 26th April we had leaden skies and constant, prolonged, heavy rain. I remember the day well because, for part of it, though not a large part, I was outdoors. It was the day of the Jhernobyl/Чорнобиль/Chernobyl nuclear disaster. I was under an umbrella for most though not all of that time and I trust that this will have protected me from the worst of the potentially lethal downpour.
An adbandoned school room near Chernobyl
North Wales together with Scotland and Cumbria took the brunt of the heaviest rain that day. We didn't realise the implications immediately and it wasn't till June that reality hit home: upland farmers south and west of Rhuthun/Ruthin could no longer move or sell their stock. This was thanks to the land and vegetation absorbing radioactive caesium fallout. Sheep graze almost constantly and the risk of ingested radioactivity was too great.
So great in fact that it took into the 1990s for local sheep farmers to recover, not the few months as anticipated at the time. In the 1990s, you could still see sheep in the upland Rhuthun area with what had become familiarly daubed orange and green markings that indicated the stock had been tested negatively. Without the tests, though, the Welsh lamb market would've collapsed. Consumers would've had no confidence.
Sheep are still under test in North Wales following the catastrophe. You rarely hear of this nowadays but, mercifully, this is now well outside the Rhuthun area and is confined to very high rainfall areas of Snowdonia.
Figures from the Environment Agency suggested that, in North Wales, 5,100 farms with 2,000,000 sheep were restricted in June 1986. By August 1990, this had reduced to 420 holdings and 300,000 sheep. In February 1994, there were 230,000 sheep on 940 farms. In May 2000, this was 359 farms and 180,000 sheep, where it has effectively stuck ever since.