No tags yet.
Heavy rains over Friday night and Saturday morning lead to extremely high levels in the Allander. The river breached its banks along Clober Road, and flooded the footpath alongside it, and came close to inundating the Industrial Estate. The tributary that drains farmland and woodland around Douglas Academy and Low Craigton that joins the Allander at the stone bridge also burst its banks and made local footpaths unusable and threatened to wash away one of its bridges.
According to the Met Office (http://ukclimateprojections.metoffice.gov.uk/media.jsp?mediaid=87868&filetype=pdf) temperatures in Scotland have risen by about 0.7– 0.8ºC in the past 35 years or so. Since records began 250 years ago, there has also been a general trend to higher rainfall over the winter months and a more recent increase in the proportion of winter rainfall coming from heavy precipitation events. These are undisputable observations about climate and climatic events that have affected our region, regardless of causality. Climate predictions for the future are more uncertain and will depend on how the world addresses climate change. By the 2080s central estimates based on medium emissions levels predict temperature in our region of Scotland will be around 2-3 degrees warmer in winter and 3-4 degrees warmer in summer, and rainfall although lower in Summer is expected to be around 10% higher in Winter. Given the predicted rise in temperature and the correlation between that and heavy rain events we need to be planning ahead for more and worse than was experienced over the weekend. This means things like considering the impact of further development, drainage and over-use of concrete surfaces in the entire Allander catchment area, and promotion of more natural and permeable surfaces, use of green roofs that reduce the rate at which surface run-off occurs, and local rain catchment features such as a ponds and water-butts.