High and dry: How aerial reservoir images reveal toll of warm weather
SIGNS OF a possible upcoming drought continued as aerial images showed how high temperatures reduced a oncebrimming reservoir into a small stream of water.
Although showers hit the UK yesterday, pictures of Howden Reservoir in Derbyshire taken the day before captured its large basin dried out under the sun.
It comes after water levels in Yorkshire Water’s reservoirs were lower than normal a week ago after three months of warm, dry weather.
Usually filled with more than 1.9m gallons of water, the reservoir’s capacity levels reduced over the course of May, when rainfall levels were at a record low.
The dry spell came to an end over Tuesday night into yesterday as rain and thunder returned for large parts of the country throughout the day.
The reservoir sits behind Howden Dam which was took a 12 years to build at the turn of the 20th century.
The dam is of solid masonry construction, and 117 ft tall, 1,080 ft long, and impounds 1,9m gallons of water, from a catchment area of 5,155 acres.
Several men died building the colossal dam and are buried at a nearby church.
Its design is unusual as it includes two of the totally
Affinity Water, a company based in Hertfordshire.
enclosed stone bellmouth overflows – locally named ‘plugholes’.
The tourist hotspot is the lowest of three dams in the Upper Derwent Valley in Derbyshire.
Meanwhile, bottled water was being sent to vulnerable residents on Tuesday after dry weather and high demand caused another reservoir to almost run dry. Affinity Water in Hertfordshire said its storage reservoir north of Watford has almost run empty due to the “exceptionally high demand”.
There has been exceptionally high demand for water.