Abstract
SOME interesting facts and figures relative to the recent rainfall and floods in the Thames Valley were given by Lord Desborough, chairman of the Thames Conservancy Board, at the meeting of the Board on January 13. In the course of his observations, Lord Desborough said that, following the drought which began in July 1933 and continued into August 1935, last year was the wettest year since 1924. The total rainfall, as determined from the twelve stations in the Thames catchment area, was 33-9 inches, that is, 5-66 inches above the standard annual average and greater even than that of the year 1894, which was the year notable for the unprecedented volume of a flood, recorded at Teddington as 20,000 million gallons during a 24-hour day in the month of November. On August 12 last, the flow was only 261,300,000 gallons, the lowest ever recorded on a single day. During the recent heavy rains, the flow at Teddington had reached 9,000 million gallons on January 3, as compared with 2,407 million gallons which was the standard daily average for the month of January. On January 13, the flow had fallen to 6,000 million gallons, which was still 1,500 million gallons above the figure at which the river ran bank high. Lord Desborough thinks the public can look forward with some confidence to a good supply of water next summer from the springs and tributaries, despite the fact that since the drought of 1933 there is still a deficiency of 4-27 inches in the rainfall, a fact which shows the severity of the drought. He alluded to various schemes which have been mooted for dealing with floods in the Thames and other areas, and stated that a scheme brought out in 1914 for dealing with the Thames floods was estimated to cost £3,000,000. The authorities concerned said they would prefer the floods. The cost at the present time would be about double that amount. As regards the construction of reservoirs to contain the surplus flow, the Queen Mary Reservoir of the Metropolitan Water Board, the largest they have, cost £2,000,000 and holds 6,600,000,000 gallons only about one day's flow under such conditions as have recently prevailed.
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Thames Valley Rainfall. Nature 137, 102 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137102a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137102a0