Waterworld.

The Shire today might reasonably be described as a watery wonderland. Several of the lanes were deluged with fast flowing water, as well as voluminous ponds where there ought to have been only tarmac. In fact, there were considerable quantities of quite deep water – both running and resting – in places where I’ve never seen the stuff in all the years I’ve lived here. I’ve known the lane outside my house flow like a river a few times, but only for an hour or so during and after a heavy downpour. Today it was a river when I got up, and it was still a river at twilight when I was topping up the bird tables.

Being ever the rationalist, I tried to work out a possible reason for it. The best I could come up with was:

1. We’ve had a wet autumn and the ground is fully saturated.

2. We had four days last week which were dry but very cold, and the land turned hard with frost.

3. On Friday night we had a substantial fall of snow which added several more inches of water-in-waiting.

4. Last night the temperature rose and the snow melted quickly.

No doubt the land couldn’t take any more, and so a very considerable quantity of water headed downhill towards the river where it belonged. The lanes just happened to be on its line of travel.

Seeing so much water in places where it shouldn’t be is interesting but also disturbing, because if this is being caused by climate change there’s probably worse to come in the not-too-distant future. Being the sort of person who is unavoidably inclined to be constantly looking ahead, this adds another worry to the ones already here.