Rain Bomb

That is how this catastrophic downpour has been described to me. It happened a year or so ago and was confined to the catchment of this small valley. Rain measurements just a few miles away recorded nothing excessive on the night of the storm which I believe lasted about 2 hours. Locals described the noise of hundreds of buckets being emptied simultaneously on their roofs. The massive cobbles and boulders,pehaps of 5 or 6 tons were mobile on the stream bed and the associated rumble was deafening. The valley sides upstream are steep and smooth so run off to the river was near instant. It was what the hydrologists describe as a 1 in x hundred year event. It did considerable damage to the small hydro scheme. Civil engineering is one big fight against nature and there is only ever one winner.