# flood alerts: whose flooded out? we are in Rossendale



## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (23 Jun 2012)

but not as bad as Hebden Bridge yet......

http://www.itv.com/news/calendar/


I don't think Colinj will be up for our ride on Saturday!


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (23 Jun 2012)

i rode thru this earlier, but not now it's too high.....less than a mile from my house!

http://i50.tinypic.com/vfi1cy.jpg


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (23 Jun 2012)

rode thru this too.....apparently the river has burst its banks now...poor buggers...

http://www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/images/imgstore/268_yycb4yd39w.jpg


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (23 Jun 2012)

all those that have been on colinj's rides will recognize this street, well maybe not due to the water...

http://www.hebdenbridge.co.uk/


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## Accy cyclist (23 Jun 2012)

Accrington is wet(as usual) but we're on a hill so no flooding. However my bloody window is raining in, and i was nearly blown off my bike tonight. It's the poorest "mid Summer" i can remember.
I pity those flooded out. I've never experienced flooding but i can imagine the devastation it causes, as shown in your link.


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (23 Jun 2012)

todmorden as well.....


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG7TiKKcq7k&feature=related


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## potsy (23 Jun 2012)

Wow, didn't realise it was so bad up there, it's been wet and windy in the civilised part of the country.

Maybe Colin will organise a 'canoe' ride for Sunday?


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## Norm (23 Jun 2012)

potsy said:


> Wow, didn't realise it was so bad up there, it's been wet and windy in the civilised part of the country.


A civilised part of the country? You should have called in whilst you were here.


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## tubbycyclist (23 Jun 2012)

The flood sirens went about 8pm last night in Hebden Bridge, and river burst its banks flooding the centre of town. This morning the river has retreated and flood waters have gone. Looks like a lot of businesses and homes have been hit hard in the valley. 

Main road still shut at the moment but there are a lot of council staff out clearing mud and debris. Think trains and buses are still not running. The olympic torch comes to Calderdale on Sunday


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## fossala (23 Jun 2012)

I was born in Blackburn, seen some suprising pictures.


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## ColinJ (23 Jun 2012)

I went out in the middle of the night to see what the damage was. There was a lot of mud showing how far the water had risen.

My niece is coming up for lunch in the town. I just had to direct her round the floodwaters further down the valley. I reckon the cafe we were going to meet in will probably be shut today for a big clean-up operation.


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## Peteaud (23 Jun 2012)

Have not been to tod for a long time, but i have fond memories of a little cafe by a cobble bridge.

Wettest june on record.


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## ColinJ (23 Jun 2012)

The flood waters bent some scaffolding poles that were down into the water behind the new Town Hall buildings by about 45° - the power of large volumes of fast-moving water is incredible! This is what the river looked like yesterday evening _before_ it flooded the town centre ...







That is normally slow-moving and a few inches deep.


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## Scoosh (23 Jun 2012)

Glad to hear you are OK, **ColinJ  ... I was wondering ...

** and all the other CC members in the very wet bits


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## Rickshaw Phil (23 Jun 2012)

We had all this locally back in 2007. Fortunately I live on a hill so wasn't affected personally but I've seen how much damage floods can do and my thoughts are with all those who have been affected this time.

Burway Bridge, Ludlow 2007




Severn Valley Railway 2007


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## ColinJ (23 Jun 2012)

Scoosh said:


> Glad to hear you are OK, **ColinJ  ... I was wondering ...
> 
> ** and all the other CC members in the very wet bits


Thanks - it's nice of you to think of me, however my house is far enough away from the river and high enough by a couple of metres that it would take a flood of catastrophic proportions to affect me directly. It must be a right pain for those affected though. It's not as bad as the centre of York where flooding occurs regularly, but there has been significant flooding at least 5 or 6 times in the 26 years that I've lived here.


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## potsy (23 Jun 2012)

ColinJ said:


> Thanks - it's nice of you to think of me, however my house is far enough away from the river and high enough by a couple of metres that it would take a flood of catastrophic proportions to affect me directly..


Even if the off license was flooded?


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## dave r (23 Jun 2012)

ColinJ said:


> Thanks - it's nice of you to think of me, however my house is far enough away from the river and high enough by a couple of metres that it would take a flood of catastrophic proportions to affect me directly. It must be a right pain for those affected though. It's not as bad as the centre of York where flooding occurs regularly, but there has been significant flooding at least 5 or 6 times in the 26 years that I've lived here.


 
I was wondering if you were OK, I saw it on the news tonight, its nice to hear you're OK.


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## ColinJ (23 Jun 2012)

potsy said:


> Even if the off license was flooded?


Where do you think I was headed when I took that photo last night! 

The shop I buy my beer from is up a few steps from street level so the main shop floor was probably above the flood line, but all of their stock is in a cellar below the shop and the street outside definitely flooded, judging by the amount of mud out there today. I wouldn't be at all surprised if flood water and mud got down there.

A friend of mine in Mytholmroyd woke up to find his cellar flooded. He is way above the flood line but his neighbour's guttering is faulty and the water cascading down from the leak found its way down there! He is particularly peed off because he has been complaining to the neighbour and their landlord about it for a couple of years but nothing has been done about it.


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## HLaB (23 Jun 2012)

dave r said:


> I was wondering if you were OK, I saw it on the news tonight, its nice to hear you're OK.


ditto


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## al78 (23 Jun 2012)

ColinJ said:


> A friend of mine in Mytholmroyd woke up to find his cellar flooded. He is way above the flood line but his neighbour's guttering is faulty and the water cascading down from the leak found its way down there! He is particularly peed off because he has been complaining to the neighbour and their landlord about it for a couple of years but nothing has been done about it.


 
Would the landlord not be liable in a situation like that?

I almost had a similar situation last December when my fence got partially blown down in high winds. I got a knock on the door from a neighbour telling me that my fence was at a precarious angle and was threatening to fall on his car. It didn't in the end as I managed to shore it up until I could get it repaired but I was concerned for a time that if the fence had subsequently come down after I had been alerted to the threat to the car, that I would be liable for any damage to the car.


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## ColinJ (24 Jun 2012)

al78 said:


> Would the landlord not be liable in a situation like that?


I would imagine so. 

I don't know if there was anything valuable in the cellar but my friend had the hassle of having to get the water out and clean the cellar. Now he has the hassle of having to try again to get a response from the landlord.


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## Poacher (24 Jun 2012)

I wonder whether all that beer in the cellar will have to be written off, or could be sold off at rock-bottom prices. Bottles should be OK after a thorough wash, but lack of labels could make for a very interesting lucky dip. 

Apologies for the unwarranted levity, and sympathy for anyone suffering from the flooding. It doesn't seem long since the announcement of a drought. Unusually York seems to have got off lightly this time, but I noticed the Wharfe was over its banks near Tadcaster yesterday - nothing like as bad as Hebden Bridge, though.


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## ColinJ (24 Jun 2012)

I am going to that shop later so I will ask if their store room was affected, and will keep my eyes open for any soggy bargains. TBH - the flood came and went rather suddenly so most of us have not been badly affected....


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## potsy (24 Jun 2012)

CoffeJo and Speicher want to know if there were any cake shops affected?
think they might be on their way up


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## ColinJ (24 Jun 2012)

Some definitely were but given the ridiculous number of cafes in such a small town centre, that is hardly surprising. I tried cafe counting in my head the other day but gave up after 15 or so. I keep discovering unfamiliar ones and new ones keep opening.


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## Globalti (25 Jun 2012)

Did you catch any fish in the town Colin?

We have a brook running UNDER our house. Within two months of us moving in, in 2004, there were two torrential downpours that caused local flooding and the brook burst its banks and flowed around the house. The bloke who built it and sold it to us (a cyclist) said that in 17 years he had never seen that happen. Anyway he built the DPC and floor level at least a foot above the surrounding ground and there's a long way for the water to spread out just an inch or two deep so if water was ever deep enough to get in, it would be because the reservoir upstream had burst its dam or something really serious. On Friday night it reached pretty high and we could hear boulders tumbling along the bed of the culvert, an un-nerving sound that i don't like to hear. Being a short brook with a small catchment area it goes down as fast as it rises so last night Gti Junior and I were sploshing around under the house in our wellies. I showed him the driftwood lodged under the house from 2004 and that impressed him! The rain in one of those storms was heavy enough to lift entire ribbons of tarmac from street repairs and actually carry them many yards downhill.


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## ColinJ (25 Jun 2012)

Globalti said:


> Did you catch any fish in the town Colin?


More likely to have caught a big jobbie!

Some kids were swimming up and down Market Street after a flood a few years ago until someone pointed out the turds floating past them ...


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## Globalti (25 Jun 2012)

Ah! What we call a Mersey Trout over this side!


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## Linford (25 Jun 2012)

Having had our fair share of the flooding in 2007, most people in Gloucestershire will be sympathetic to this. My in laws were flooded out, and had to live in rented acommodation for 6 months whilst they sorted out the damage - we put them up for a bit.


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## AndyRM (25 Jun 2012)

Looked pretty awful on the news. Hope those affected get sorted.

I was riding back from Tynemouth at about 3 yesterday. Got caught in what I can only describe as a monsoon. Turned the road into a river causing me to miss a hole in the road: bang. Double puncture and a long walk home. Not great.


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## ColinJ (25 Jun 2012)

I just went for a stroll around the town centre. The library is shut due to flood damage and I spotted some more areas of dug-up pavement with emergency electricity cable repairs. I saw lots and lots of Dyno-Rod and plumbers' vans parked outside town centre houses and shops. Lots of mess everywhere. I went to use the Natwest cash machine on the main road and it was out of action. I don't think it was due to the recent technical problems - it had a muddy tide-mark across it at my chest height, showing that the flood waters were at least 4 feet deep there!

I'm surprised by how quickly the water levels went down again. Between 8:00 pm Friday and 04:30 Saturday, most of the water had come and gone.


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## Linford (25 Jun 2012)

ColinJ said:


> I just went for a stroll around the town centre. The library is shut due to flood damage and I spotted some more areas of dug-up pavement with emergency electricity cable repairs. I saw lots and lots of Dyno-Rod and plumbers' vans parked outside town centre houses and shops. Lots of mess everywhere. I went to use the Natwest cash machine on the main road and it was out of action. I don't think it was due to the recent technical problems - it had a muddy tide-mark across it at my chest height, showing that the flood waters were at least 4 feet deep there!
> 
> I'm surprised by how quickly the water levels went down again. Between 8:00 pm Friday and 04:30 Saturday, most of the water had come and gone.


 
Isn't it quite shocking. The good thing is that in that case it is flash flooding and unlikely to be repeated for a good time. The bad thing is obviously that it has made a mess.

When we had that, there were lines of cars abandoned on the apex of the roads in the middle of nowhere. It was very weird to happen across it.


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## ColinJ (25 Jun 2012)

Linford said:


> The good thing is that in that case it is flash flooding and unlikely to be repeated for a good time.


Unfortunately, that isn't true - in recent years, for example, we've had flooding in 2000, 2006 and 2008!

Because of the shape of the valley, the flooding problems tend to be concentrated in certain areas, but those are getting hit time after time.

I do think that more could be done to try and protect vulnerable properties - dumping a pile of sandbags in front of a door surely isn't the best way of keeping water out?


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## Globalti (26 Jun 2012)

The trouble with old Victorian properties would be that even if you blocked the door, water would find its way up through the floors.

I can't help wondering why people actually built so close to the river in places like HB, or when they did, why they didn't build higher. Could it be because flash flooding never happened before tarmac roads, car parks and buildings with huge areas of roof? Or could it be that in old times houses and shops had little furniture and no fitted carpets and the occasional flood did no lasting damage? Did people actually live alongside the river or would all the riverside buildings have been workshops and pubs where water didn't matter?


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## Linford (26 Jun 2012)

Globalti said:


> The trouble with old Victorian properties would be that even if you blocked the door, water would find its way up through the floors.
> 
> I can't help wondering why people actually built so close to the river in places like HB, or when they did, why they didn't build higher. Could it be because flash flooding never happened before tarmac roads, car parks and buildings with huge areas of roof? Or could it be that in old times houses and shops had little furniture and no fitted carpets and the occasional flood did no lasting damage? Did people actually live alongside the river or would all the riverside buildings have been workshops and pubs where water didn't matter?


 
I would have said it was more down to sewage disposal where they would either have to have their own cess pit or be near a running water course to flush it away into the nearest river


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## Globalti (26 Jun 2012)

Colin will be along soon but my understanding is that Hebden Bridge started as just that; a bridge over the river for the main packhorse trunk route to the wool market at Halifax. Being a natural stopping point it wouldn't have been long before inns followed and then the new manufactories, which would have been beside the river for the water and the power. That's what makes me think all the riverside buildings would have been industrial or commercial, not the comfortably furnished and carpeted dwellings, cafes, pubs and shops we have now.


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## ColinJ (26 Jun 2012)

Globalti said:


> Colin will be along soon but my understanding is that Hebden Bridge started as just that; a bridge over the river for the main packhorse trunk route to the wool market at Halifax.


That's true. The little cobbled packhorse bridge over Hebden Water is a replacement for the original medieval bridge.












I read that the valley used to be very swampy so the packhorse trails stayed high where possible.

The While Lion Hotel is an old coaching inn built in 1657. I would guess that the packhorses were brought though Midgley and Old Town, down to the White Lion. From there they would cross the old bridge and head up the Buttress to Heptonstall. (Or make the journey in the opposite direction towards Halifax.)



Globalti said:


> Being a natural stopping point it wouldn't have been long before inns followed and then the new manufactories, which would have been beside the river for the water and the power. That's what makes me think all the riverside buildings would have been industrial or commercial, not the comfortably furnished and carpeted dwellings, cafes, pubs and shops we have now.


Most of Hebden Bridge was built surprisingly recently! My house is on a little cobbled back street but it wasn't built until 1888, about the time that many buildings in the town were. There certainly weren't a lot of buildings here before the start of the 19th century.

By contrast, Heptonstall village (on a hill overlooking Hebden Bridge) has many 500 year old buildings.

The sudden expansion of Hebden Bridge in the 19th century was due to the construction of many water-powered mills. If you go for a coffee in the cafe at 'Innovation', take a look at the posters on the walls depicting the history of the local mills. Many of those mills no longer exist.

Later, steam power was used. At one point there were supposed to be about 500 mill chimneys in the Calder Valley and the air pollution was horrendous. Housewives would hang out their washing to dry, then the wind direction would change and would cover the washing with smuts.

I read that Hebden Bridge was considered such a horrible place then that misbehaving children were threatened with being sent here! _"Get thee t'Hebden Bridge!" _

I just discovered what used to be on the Heptonstall side of the old bridge - Buttress Brink!

_"Most problematical of all was Buttress Brink, where occupants had to walk through a gloomy ground floor tunnel still lit by gas lamps, climb steep steps set into an almost vertical hillside, then cross bridges spanning the gaps between hillside and property. Needless to say the homes within boasted no modern amenities such as bathrooms and toilets; the kitchens, small and cramped, had only a single cold water tap over a stone sink."_

There is a big picture of Buttress Brink here, and it includes the original Hole in the Wall Inn.


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## Svendo (26 Jun 2012)

Lots of places along the valley were built up the sides, e.g. Luddenden and Sowerby, and only in the 19thC were substantial development of the valley floor made, Luddenden Foot and Sowerby Bridge, apparently due to industry and the canal and later railway. I'm now in Walsden and got some pictures of the flooding near us.

,

,

. That's SWMBO and Daisy Dog on the road near Grand Ma Pollards. Nearby it was flowing enough to knock you off your feet. second two are each way from the foot bridge at Walsden Station. On the middle one note the speed the water is flowing off the line at the bottom left, yet the water was still rising at this point! My actual House is on the valley side, and not in the path of run off, so 'I'm all right Jack'.


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## ColinJ (26 Jun 2012)

Blimey, I thought that third one was a picture of the Rochdale canal for a second!


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## Globalti (27 Jun 2012)

I wrote a piece for Singletrack magazine in 2004, which is quite relevant to this discussion, so I've posted it in Riders' Tales, here: http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/the-packhorse-trail.104995/


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## dan_bo (27 Jun 2012)

Globalti said:


> I wrote a piece for Singletrack magazine in 2004, which is quite relevant to this discussion, so I've posted it in Riders' Tales, here: http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/the-packhorse-trail.104995/


 
Nice read cheers GTi. I rode over from bacup-walsden on sunday- the road in large parts was littered with rubble washed onto the road, and there were sections of tarmac torn up by the floodwaters. Never seen that before!


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## Globalti (27 Jun 2012)

I saw that back in 2005 near Clitheroe; long ribbons of tarmac had been lifted cleanly from road strip repairs and carried many yards down the hill and dumped in the road. Amazing.


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## Svendo (27 Jun 2012)

dan_bo said:


> Nice read cheers GTi. I rode over from bacup-walsden on sunday- the road in large parts was littered with rubble washed onto the road, and there were sections of tarmac torn up by the floodwaters. Never seen that before!


Saw that myself too yesterday. Another reason why chip & seal is a false economy.
On pack horse routes, oppostite my new house are Watty Lane and Naze Road, which go almost straight up the 'shoulders' of the hills either side of Bacup Road at Walsden. They were apparently part of a salt route originally. The first toll road road in the valley was on the sides rather than the bottom, Hollins Road is part of it, and there's a Toll House cottage a few doors down from me.


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## Globalti (27 Jun 2012)

The toll houses were built to extract revenue from users of the new turnpike roads, which were generally well engineered for use by wagons. Many of them are now our old trunk routes.


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## ColinJ (27 Jun 2012)

I rode up the A6033 from Oxenhope towards Cock Hill after a severe thunderstom and found that underground water had managed to burst its way through the road surface and was spraying about 6 ft into the air - an impressive natural fountain!

(I suppose it could have been a burst water main but if so it was a big coincidence that it happened immediately after the storm. It definitely hadn't been like that an hour before when I rode down the hill.)


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## Globalti (28 Jun 2012)

Maybe the name Cock Hill gives you a clue?


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## ColinJ (28 Jun 2012)

Globalti said:


> Maybe the name Cock Hill gives you a clue?


Ah, as in stopcocks!

Speaking of which ... don't you think that Stopcocks is a great name for an organisation promoting female plumbers! 

Back to the flooding ... David Cameron made a visit to Todmorden today to see what the floods had done there. He got some verbal from an angry Tod woman - ha ha!


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## BrumJim (28 Jun 2012)

Floods round here now, including just down the road from home. No pictures yet, but we are far enough from the water to have any problems ourselves.


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## Globalti (28 Jun 2012)

We have brook running in a culvert under our house; when the water gets really high we can hear boulders tumbling down the stream bed, which is un-nerving.


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## Svendo (28 Jun 2012)

Globalti said:


> We have brook running in a culvert under our house; when the water gets really high we can hear boulders tumbling down the stream bed, which is un-nerving.


We were chatting to Mr. Pollard (of Grandma Pollard's Chippy) on the day who was saying the same thing, he said that's when he turns the fryers off and put the flood boards in!


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## ColinJ (5 Jul 2012)

Prince Charles is coming to Hebden Bridge tomorrow to see the flood damage and offer support.

Guess what the forecast is ...? Heavy rain all day, torrential at times with a risk of flooding! 

Forecast for the next 5 days - rain. After that, until at least the following weekend - probably _more_ rain! Ho hum ...


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## dave r (5 Jul 2012)

ColinJ said:


> Prince Charles is coming to Hebden Bridge tomorrow to see the flood damage and offer support.
> 
> Guess what the forecast is ...? Heavy rain all day, torrential at times with a risk of flooding!
> 
> Forecast for the next 5 days - rain. After that, until at least the following weekend - probably _more_ rain! Ho hum ...


 
We're on holiday on the Isle Of Wight next week, the forecast is for a mixture of sunshine and heavy showers.


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## ColinJ (5 Jul 2012)

dave r said:


> We're on holiday on the Isle Of Wight next week, the forecast is for a mixture of sunshine and heavy showers.


Let's hope the mix is skewed in favour of the sunshine, Dave!

Did you see any of the golfball-sized hailstones in the storms last week? My sister said a couple of cars were damaged in streets near to her!

We got some sunshine here this afternoon so I was thinking of getting the bike out when I got back from doing my market shopping. Before I could, thunderstorms blew in and that was that ...


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## dave r (5 Jul 2012)

ColinJ said:


> Let's hope the mix is skewed in favour of the sunshine, Dave!
> 
> Did you see any of the golfball-sized hailstones in the storms last week? My sister said a couple of cars were damaged in streets near to her!
> 
> We got some sunshine here this afternoon so I was thinking of getting the bike out when I got back from doing my market shopping. Before I could, thunderstorms blew in and that was that ...


 
I was at work last week when the storm hit, heard it on the warehouse roof but did not see any of it. Its been dry here today, I managed to get the garden tidied up tonight, the forecast for tomorrow is horrendous, I might be better off commuting by boat tomorrow.


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (6 Jul 2012)

here we go again, already half hour of silly amounts of rain, it's just started lightning as well...


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## totallyfixed (6 Jul 2012)

Wettest drought I can remember.


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## Night Train (6 Jul 2012)

It's been raining continuously and heavily since about 7am here and there is a torrent of water flowing down the street outside. Fortunately no chance of flooding.

Just had thunder and lightning too.


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## Ron-da-Valli (6 Jul 2012)

Svendo said:


> We were chatting to Mr. Pollard (of Grandma Pollard's Chippy) on the day who was saying the same thing, he said that's when he turns the fryers off and put the flood boards in!


When we lived in Accrington we always popped into Grandma Pollard's chippy when we were going to Gordon Riggs.


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## GetAGrip (6 Jul 2012)

totallyfixed said:


> Wettest drought I can remember.


Oh yeah! All those authorities banning hose pipes. Seems like that was from a time long long ago


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## dave r (6 Jul 2012)

Here in Coventry it was raining when I got up at quarter to six this morning and it is still raining now, hasn't stopped all day.


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## marshmella (6 Jul 2012)

dave r said:


> Here in Coventry it was raining when I got up at quarter to six this morning and it is still raining now, hasn't stopped all day.


It's stopped here, after pouring down all day.


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## ColinJ (6 Jul 2012)

The coastal villages and towns on the Costa Blanca where I used to take my annual cycling holiday had enormous storm drains through them leading out to sea. They were either bone dry, or had just a trickle of water running down them. They seemed like overkill to me since it hardly ever rained there*** ...

Then one year, it started raining on the last Thursday afternoon before our Saturday flight home. When I say raining - it was torrential, monsoon-like.

It rained all through the night and Friday's ride was called off because it continued through Friday, and into Saturday. 

I wondered how long the rain continued. I found out a year later when I met somebody who had stayed on at the hotel for another week after I had flown home. Apparently, the storm had continued until the Tuesday afternoon - 5 days in total! 

*** A British couple were killed in that area last year when flash floods swept them away. The local council had paved the bottom of a ravine and sited a market there, despite warnings of the dangers - link.


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (6 Jul 2012)

here you are colin, monitor your local river level from home......

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120699.aspx?stationId=8097


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## ColinJ (6 Jul 2012)

bromptonfb said:


> here you are colin, monitor your local river level from home......
> 
> http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/floods/riverlevels/120699.aspx?stationId=8097


That's interesting!

I went out and had a look at the river earlier after the Royal visit was over. The water level was pretty high but I think the rain just eased off in time. There is always a bit of a delay for water to make its way downstream, but levels seemed to have peaked.

The new council buildings back onto the river. Several million pounds have been spent on them and they are only just finishing them off. I was told by someone that the flood waters last time got within an inch of the top of the wall keeping them back! I hope that they are going to add a foot or more to that wall or they could have big problems one day!


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## Pennine-Paul (7 Jul 2012)

Ron-da-Valli said:


> When we lived in Accrington we always popped into Grandma Pollard's chippy when we were going to Gordon Riggs.


 
Ughh! they still use dripping for cooking with,you can smell the vile stench 100m up the road


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## HLaB (7 Jul 2012)

ColinJ said:


> The coastal villages and towns on the Costa Blanca where I used to take my annual cycling holiday had enormous storm drains through them leading out to sea. They were either bone dry, or had just a trickle of water running down them. They seemed like overkill to me since it hardly ever rained there*** ...
> 
> Then one year, it started raining on the last Thursday afternoon before our Saturday flight home. When I say raining - it was torrential, monsoon-like.
> 
> ...


 
When I went to the Costa Blanca they got two days of the torrential rain!
Sardinia was similar but without the huge drains, they'd had no rain for 6 months but in the week before I arrived it was torrential, massive mud slides and somebody killed fortunately for all but two days of my holiday it was sunshine.
It was close to monsoon like here last night/this morning but thankfully its over some rivers were on the edge of tipping point.


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## Arch (7 Jul 2012)

GetAGrip said:


> Oh yeah! All those authorities banning hose pipes. Seems like that was from a time long long ago


The trouble is that even now, a lot of the rain that's fallen isn't going to help the reservoir and ground water levels, it's just racing into rivers and out to sea....

We reckon we had an inch of rain yesterday morning - very heavy bursts interspersed with persistent merely heavy rain. The Ouse was coming up again as I walked down to the station - but as Colin said, that's not unusual, even in mid summer.


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## ColinJ (9 Jul 2012)

Blimey - I am watching the TdF TT but a friend has just phoned and told me that perhaps a reservoir has burst its banks on the tops and the town centre has flooded even more badly than before! Jeez ... 

News report.


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## potsy (9 Jul 2012)

ColinJ said:


> Blimey - I am watching the TdF TT but a friend has just phoned and told me that perhaps a reservoir has burst its banks on the tops and the town centre has flooded even more badly than before! Jeez ...
> 
> News report.


 Now, about this ride on Sunday...


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## ColinJ (9 Jul 2012)

potsy said:


> Now, about this ride on Sunday...


It was flash flooding this time. The river hadn't burst its banks, but so much rain fell on the hills above HB in a few hours that the drains were overwhelmed and the water all ended up streaming down the roads into town. 

The main A646 is under water through town but there are still prats driving into the flood water and then accelerating away. This not only causes big bow waves to spread out and swamp people and doorways, but also risks even more broken down and flooded vehicles blocking the road.

There is an amazing amount of mud and gravel on the roads in the town centre. It is as though someone has just emptied a gravel wagon there! I'll post some photos later.

The buses are not running. One of the station platforms is out of action so people are having to go on to Todmorden and come back to the other platform on other trains.

Some houses on the way to Mytholmroyd have had their foundations undermined and are in danger of collapse.

People trying to get to and from Halifax the alternative way on Heights Road are being turned back because that road is subsiding!

A helicopter is criss-crossing the skies above the town so I expect there will be more coverage on the news tonight.

As for my ride next weekend ... No way, if we don't get a break in this stupid wet weather! I'll definitely postpone it if the forecast isn't looking okay by Friday evening.


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## Rohloff_Brompton_Rider (9 Jul 2012)

friggin hell, no sign off rain here and i'm only 16 miles by rd and 11 miles as the crow flies.....friggin hell.


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## ColinJ (9 Jul 2012)

Our forecast for today was only for light showers but around midday the rain started hammering down. It was bouncing back about 18 inches off the roads!


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## ColinJ (9 Jul 2012)

A few photos of the aftermath ...


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## tubbycyclist (9 Jul 2012)

Got back into Hebden on the train a little while ago. The road near the station is awash with a new river coming off the hills. A JCB is trying to clear the road but little chance of success. Dazed commuters getting off the train looking a little non plussed by the piles of gravel and ponds.

Awful conditions with gridlock on either side of the lake that used to be the A646. Looks worse than a fortnight ago at the moment although should clear more quickly.


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## ColinJ (9 Jul 2012)

I wish the Jet Stream would bugger off back over the Shetlands, or wherever it should normally be at this time of year! 

I feel especially sorry for the home and business owners who were still clearing up from the previous floods, only to get hit again.


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## Pennine-Paul (9 Jul 2012)

potsy said:


> Now, about this ride on Sunday...


 
Do they hire pedalos in Hebden Bridge???


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## Arch (9 Jul 2012)

Jeez! I only passed through Hebden Bridge on the train at about 11.30 today. Just missed it! Poor little Hebden, not doing well recently! 

I'm afraid this quote made me smile though. 

."To say it looks like a tsunami is an understatement."

No, I think if you've seen a real tsunami, you'd agree it's either accurate, or an overstatement. Not much in the way of water is worse....


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## phil_hg_uk (9 Jul 2012)

Wow sorry to hear about this Colin and anyone else affected just seen it on the news. 

Sent from my portable telephone


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## ColinJ (9 Jul 2012)

The weatherman on _Look North_ said that we got 44 mm of rain in 3 hours - that's about what we should have got in the whole of July!


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## phil_hg_uk (9 Jul 2012)

Didn't rain here today but on Saturday it was heavier than I have seen in years, I couldn't believe how fast it came down. 

Sent from my portable telephone


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## Globalti (10 Jul 2012)

It was dry and sunny yesterday evening on the south side of the Ribble valley but we crossed over to the north side around Stonyhurst College and Clitheroe and it was torrential, with similar amounts of gravel coming down country lanes to those seen in Colin's pictures. That could be the same storm that hit Hebden Bridge. We're going to have to watch out if we go out for our regular Thursday evening thrash-the-nuts-off ride around the lanes; road bikes don't go too well on gravel.


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## HLaB (10 Jul 2012)

It sounds like Edinburgh got it pretty bad but just 15miles over the Forth we were not too bad. It was torrential (biblical) with flash floods on Friday night/ Saturday but it dried up over night and Sunday was quite dry. Monday was forecast to be dry after a torrential night but it stayed wet all day :-( Visa versa, today was forecast to be wet but touch wood its stayed dry so far.


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## fossyant (10 Jul 2012)

Really odd weather. Must say with the level of rain, most of the local drains are 'blasted' clear. Get this on a dry summer/winter, they clog up, and you have some huge puddles to ride through.


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## HLaB (10 Jul 2012)

The heavens opened yet again, right on our chain gang. I could lie by saying its the coldest and wettest I've ever been but this summer (aye Summer ) has been sh1te.


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## Arch (10 Jul 2012)

It contented itself with raining gently on me as I rode into town from work for an errand, but then bucketed briefly just before I got home...

So, anyone reckon we're in for the wettest July on record, to match June? We certainly must have had an inch (c25 mm) here in York on Friday morning, and the average for July is apparently about 50, so we only need another inch to be above average.

Some way off the wettest though, according to this thread. 182.6mm!

http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/for...recordjuly-1828/page__pid__811560#entry811560


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## ColinJ (3 Nov 2012)

Well, we had another little flood while I was in hospital in August and the BBC were talking about the risks of more flooding by Christmas!

Now that I'm out and hobbling around the town centre, I have noticed that some of the shopkeepers are finally being more proactive. Rather than just dumping sandbags in front of their doors when floods threaten, they have now installed panels which slot in front of their doorways to seal the gaps. I'll be interested to see how effective they are next time the town centre floods.

I spoke to the staff at one shop and they said that their cellar stockroom had water spurting out of the walls in the earlier floods, so blocking the doors isn't going to help them!


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