Bone Dry in Languedoc - a cause for concern?

Blog
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Talk in the village at the moment is of how dry a Winter we have had and concern over how low the surrounding lakes and barrages are. Normally we would have 600mm of rain between September and March but this year we have had only around 250mm to-300mm.


The water tables are down below average level and when we do have rain there is usually a strong Northern wind which dries the land almost immediately.


We've been doing groundworks in our garden and the earth is so dry and the wind so strong that a huge amount of dust is driving our neighbours up the wall.Their skimmers are working overdrive. Mind you I'm not sure that is the worst of their problems this year...it really does look like we are heading for a drought so I can't see it being easy running a pool this year...even if one does top it up from the well...no good if the well is empty.


My friend's well only has 1.5m of water left in a 12m well and its not even anywhere near Summer yet.


I haven't been informed of water restrictions yet but I can see it coming soon...


Cereal farmers report early corn harvests being empty of corn, the flowers have simply dried out and turned yellow. Another interesting point raised here though...why are farmers pulling up vines and planting corn and wheat in a region with restricted water? I've been told vines can send their roots down deep to source water and can survive the stress of drought even producing great wine in some of those years, however it is clearly a problem for corn & wheat farmers. Over recent years here I've seen vines pulled up and replaced by fields of wheat...I'm guessing an EU subsidy perhaps?


Its the driest we've been in 20 years according to the Met Office and water supplies are down almost 60% in this area.


I know some of you had massive floods so are probably thinking so what at least you are not flooded like we were, that I understand but the lack of water affects people's livelihoods and very dry earth, low reservoirs and strong winds...it can only be a matter of time before we have another threat...that of the forest fire.


Having been brought up in one of the wettest counties in England (Lancashire - well it felt like it was always wet anyway) we love the dry sunny days here in Languedoc but now with all the talk in the village, even I am thinking...I'd better teach the girls to do a rain dance and take shorter showers!

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Please add moderately wet winter to my ost below.

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Southern Burgundy is lush and green. We had a moderately and being in the middle ofthe country and on the opposite side from the Atlantic coast, we have more stable weather.

The wind has been blowing a hooly for the past few days, but has died down now.

We are fortunate enough to have a forage which taps into underground rivers, so have a constant supply of water for the garden and topping up the pool, within any restrictions which might be in place.

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Looks like the girls rain dance was too effective....pouring down today.

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Just checked the meteo - we are due for rain on Monday and all of next week in fact...opportunity to test out how well the new pipework into my recuperator d'eau works...and fingers and toes crossed it doesn't increase the water into the basement drain before the foundations are repaired on 26th May!

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We had two years of fire bans, fortunately our well never went dry at even the worst of the dry periods.

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Oh and my neighbour now tells me his well is empty - the 1.5m last week has now gone.

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As suspected, today the Herault Department have taken emergency measures and due to the exceptional dryness have launched a ban on fires, burning garden waste, lighting bbq in forest park areas…everyone instructed to clear their gardens of dry weeds/plantation close to their house. Ban on fires in Herault.

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We are the opposite here. In fact the road surface has burst from below and gushed water from underneath resulting in the water company coming out to inspect and finding it is simply ground water doing it. Farmers in little valleys like ours have allowed field to go grass because the soil would have rotted, maize, sunflower or rape seed and anyway it is more like squelching than ploughing where they have tried.