Extreme Weather

I keep hearing myself tell people that I’ve never seen the moor as wet as it is right now. I’m sure I’ve said that at other times but there’s been a genuine conviction in my voice this week. I’ve really meant it. It feels like the water table has risen to above ground level. There was a huge amount of water pouring down Backstone Beck today. For most of the spring and summer, there hasn’t been much more than a dribble.

There haven’t been many days of extreme weather this year, certainly no great extremes of temperature, but the long period of dry weather at the beginning and then this current long period of wet weather at the end has been unusual. It was, first, the almost total lack of any wet days and now, the dearth of dry days, that has been extreme.

There’s water everywhere. It’s hard to imagine the moor ever drying out again. But it will. Balance is invariably restored in the end.