Will More Extreme Weather Conditions Influence Where You Choose to Live?

chris_m

marksoton wrote: »

Agreed. But even after extensive and extremely polite PR and explanation the attitude doesn't change.
I've long concluded that some people are just plain selfish/ignorant.Or both.And you can increase that tenfold in central London.

Couldn't you try a few little white lies?

eg;
"But i don't flood"
"Yes but your neighbour down the road does"
"That's not my problem,how long you going to be here inconveniencing me?"
"Ah, but if we don't do the work there's a risk that you'll flood too in a few years time. Wouldn't you rather we do the work now instead of leaving it until after you've flooded?"

chris_m

Davesnave wrote: »

I think if a 7m rise happened, we'd all be long gone anyway!

I think that we'd have more to worry about if we got that much sea level rise - the sort of conditions that would lead to that will probably manifest themselves in dramatic weather/climate changes long before the sea rise got up to 7m.

Davesnave

chris_m wrote: »

I don't think that fluid dynamics is one of the more common skills

Flash flooding is something few understand until it hits them.

On the other side of our little valley is a farm, which is now owned by someone who rarely gets his hands dirty. When this chap came to the farm, he considered its situation, on the side of a slope and 20' above the stream to be 'safe.'

He forgot that under extreme rainfall every field entrance turns into a stream, and they all empty onto his lane!

Only the presence of a large pile of stone and a tractor with a bucket on the front saved his property.

marksoton

chris_m wrote: »

Couldn't you try a few little white lies?

eg;
"But i don't flood"
"Yes but your neighbour down the road does"
"That's not my problem,how long you going to be here inconveniencing me?"
"Ah, but if we don't do the work there's a risk that you'll flood too in a few years time. Wouldn't you rather we do the work now instead of leaving it until after you've flooded?"

I quite often do,and in many cases depending on the modelling it's perfectly true.

Some people are just short sighted though and don't want inconvenience now to protect them later. Besides which i've got a legal right to be there so stuff em!

kinger101

Davesnave wrote: »

I think if a 7m rise happened, we'd all be long gone anyway!

Just a few cm is all it takes when the right conditions come together.

I was in Dawlish Station on a night there was a huge storm surge in November 2004. The tracks were inundated and trains were trapped under nearby cliffs. It was obvious then that what happened 10 years later could happen at any time.

For some reason, 7 m was the default setting. Which is a bit extreme. But the Netherlands looks bad at even 1 m. Shame it doesn't have 10 cm increments.

But yes, I guess a rise of 0.5 m even can be very bad news if it coincides with a very high tide and a storm.

chris_m

kinger101 wrote: »

But the Netherlands looks bad at even 1 m.

Hardly surprising - considering that around 26% of the total area is below current sea level and another 24% is less than 1m above current sea level.

kinger101

chris_m wrote: »

Hardly surprising - considering that around 26% of the total area is below current sea level and another 24% is less than 1m above current sea level.

Not so long ago, much of it was under water anyway. Interesting map before and after reclamation here;



I guess the Dutch boy with fat fingers is going to be very busy in the future.

Even in low populated areas, this can be devastating to agriculture. Salt water can severely degrade arable land.

moneyistooshorttomention

Davesnave wrote: »

Flash flooding is something few understand until it hits them.

On the other side of our little valley is a farm, which is now owned by someone who rarely gets his hands dirty. When this chap came to the farm, he considered its situation, on the side of a slope and 20' above the stream to be 'safe.'

He forgot that under extreme rainfall every field entrance turns into a stream, and they all empty onto his lane!

Only the presence of a large pile of stone and a tractor with a bucket on the front saved his property.

Thinking of that - and I have been viewing properties over last couple of years or so that are some way up the side of a hill. Once I would have assumed their height up that hill so to say meant "safe". These days I look to see if the hill continues further up so to say and, if it does, start wondering if water would run down from that bit of hill higher than they are and straight onto their property (being an obvious obstacle in the way of the water continuing to head down the hill).

At the least - it occurred to me to take a very close peer at the state of walls last time I spotted a property in that sort of position on Rightmove - ie to see if I could spot signs of damp. I could - in every darn room.

moneyistooshorttomention

kinger101 wrote: »

Not so long ago, much of it was under water anyway. Interesting map before and after reclamation here;



I guess the Dutch boy with fat fingers is going to be very busy in the future.

Even in low populated areas, this can be devastating to agriculture. Salt water can severely degrade arable land.

Didn't we read recently about some progress the Dutch are making towards keeping their country safe from flooding? Trying to remember details....

If anyone can manage to figure out how to protect their land from flooding - then its the Dutch. I've got quite a healthy respect for them as a nation.

Slinky

Yes, flood risk is certainly something I will be considering if at some point we move in the future. Where I currently live, we were close to flash flooding about 16-17 years ago. One afternoon the heavens opened and a large amount of water was dumped. At this point I discovered we are the lowest point of the street, and it's not at all obvious from looking. We were scooping water out of the garage, another hour I think it would have been coming in the front door. Fortunately the rain stopped and we were OK, but some houses behind us weren't so lucky.


I'm always fearful now if we have prolonged rain.