August 15, 2022
By Jasmine Andersson & Alex Binley
There is a risk of torrential downpours, causing travel disruption and some flooding, the Met Office says.
Three days of alerts have been issued for most areas, ending on Wednesday.
Some parts of Devon and Cornwall have experienced flooding, after stormy conditions brought heavy rain showers and hail to parts of the South West.
Temperatures topped 34C in parts of the UK at the weekend and experts have said a lengthy period of rain is needed to end the drought declared in parts of England on Friday.
These areas include Devon and Cornwall, Kent and south London, East Anglia and the East Midlands.
Heavy rain is unlikely to ease the drought because rainwater struggles to permeate dry ground, meaning it will run off the dehydrated surface and lead to flash flooding in some areas, the Met Office said as it issued a number of weather warnings....
Soil Aeration Guide: How to Loosen Compacted Soil (click here)
This method is done before the deluge. It may still be necessary to seek shelter on higher ground.
There is a method of aerating the soil to allow absorption of compacted soil. Depending on the size of the land it can be conducted with commercial sized aeration tools, but, the UK has a lot of personal owners with yards that would suffer if the soil is not aerated. They can be a do it yourself person and take on the challenge of protecting the land their homes are built on.
There are all kinds of personal aeration devices, some come as shoes with spikes on the bottom. Others look like old time lawn mowers, but, the purpose is the same, to put holes in the ground so the rainwater can be soaked up and begin to recapture a healthy state to allow grass and trees and plants to hold the soil and soak up the water. Large amounts of water coming from the sky these days are tough to hold in the land and there are inevitable areas of flooding, but, when the deluge passes there is still land to soak up the water and end a drought. It is a small measure by any stretch of the imagination, but, if it becomes an areas past time to stem climate stress of the soils, it might be more interesting than anyone expected.
It is called a "lawn butler." In the USA there are stores that sell this type of equipment and this one in particular is "Ace Hardware."
If the UK home owner isn't empowered to conduct their own gardening this may be the exact time they should consider it. What can one homeowner do to stem local flooding. Probably not much, but, if a neighborhood and another neighborhood and another were to have an interest in the physics of preventing flooding and save soil, that could turn the tide on some of this.
The picture of the roller with spikes in it can be pulled by a tractor.
