Reports to 30th November 2009
Updated on 2nd December 2009
ENGLISH LAKES FLY FISHING WITH PATRICK ARNOLD. ANGLING IN THE ENGLISH LAKE DISTRICT (165A)
This Report now covers Game Angling only.
WEATHER
November is often a wet month but this year it was exceptionally so – taking the Country as a whole it was the wettest November for 58 years as the month saw 8.5 inches as against the previous highest of 7.5 inches in 1951. This, however, totally belies what happened in Cumbria during November – where two to three times this amount fell.
The month started with strong winds and very heavy rain with some localized flooding – the full moon on 2nd November seeing this change in weather with our normal lows from the Atlantic – conditions more normally associated with October.
The rain continued to fall and two consecutive week-ends brought very stormy weather with strong winds, heavy rain and localized flooding leaving the ground saturated and water levels high. In between there was a mixture of breezy, showery days and others when it was pleasant and mild.
It was the warm winds from the south to south west bringing the especially mild conditions for most of the month with temperatures several degrees above the seasonal average which played an important part in what happened next.
Over the 18th and 19th November a deep low came in and with the warm air it was carrying a lot of moisture which came into contact with the cooler air over the Cumbrian Fells. Instead of moving rapidly across Cumbria as normally happens it became stationery on the coastal side of the Fells with its centre over the catchment areas for the rivers Derwent and Cocker, the wettest place in England. The rain that fell was an unprecedented deluge with just over 12 inches falling in a 24 hour period – England’s wettest day on record. All this fell on already saturated ground with lakes and rivers full.
The lakes overflowed with becks and rivers swollen into raging torrents bursting their banks in many places bringing extensive flooding which has been well documented. It has been said that this rainfall was of “Biblicalâ€
TF_geepster.
