Some unseasonal rainfall

2007 is shaping up to be quite a year; we'll never forget it. April was a hot and dry month, and all the preceding weeks were dry(ish) as I prepared for the London Marathon.
Almost from that time onwards though it seems, it has rained and rained and...
Last week came crunch time though when heavy rain fell and the ground could no longer sponge it up.
Northern and central England had already been hit by flooding. Those places had not even had time to recover when more rain fell. One day in particular the forecaster warned people to expect 4 to 5 inches of rain. I have never heard of such a thing and doubted if it was possible. It was possible! As I write, Tewkesbury, Upton on Severn and Gloucester are all flooded badly - this is July remember. Tenbury Wells has been flooded on two separate occasions by the Teme escaping and causing trouble in the main streets of the town. This caused me to pay attention as Tenbury is downstream of Ludlow and of course Knighton. I have watched for word of Knighton but it has not been mentioned on the news, luckily. Hard to believe that the town has escaped flooding; it just doesn't appear on the medias' list of important places whereas Cotswold towns and smart Worcestershire villages are 'real'.
Word came this morning from Rosie via a text message that they were on holiday in a youth hostel in Northumbria. Apparently the journey was not without incident as the car was actually floating at Bucknell near Knighton. Sally has surprised me by sticking it out and continuing. Most impressed.
Locally the weather has been less scary though my friend Pete has told of an epic cycle home through the floods to get back from Swindon to Chippenham. On Saturday we visited Lacock to see what the water looked like and the road was flooded badly at Lacock Abbey and at Reybridge where the water was too deep for Land Rovers! Upstream of Chippenham the road was flooded at the Maud Heath causeway crossing of the Avon at Kellaways. I visited Kellaways on Sunday and although the flood had receded it was still deep enough to be unwise to drive a normal car through and the tide mark of mud left behind suggested that it had been two feet deeper!
Beanacre, Melksham and Bradford on Avon all had their own flood problems. Not sure whether the waters have reached Bath yet or if the excellent wiers at Pulteney Bridge and Newbridge have prevented any bad inundation.