When will we see the red boards disappear?

Blackfeather said:
Novice Thames boater here so be gentle.

I see that the area around Henley/Wargrave is still largely on red boards. The levels seem to have gone down to near normal so when is the stream likely to subside to safe levels in the panel's experience?
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I don't think the panel has that sort of experience. This winter season's experience hasn't been seen since 1947 and not (m)any powered boaters can either remember using the river or what it was like then.

It's probably safe to say that the River won't be useful until Easter at least. Even when the Reds have gone to Yellows, they're still be challenges to negotiate, fallen trees, flotsam and jetsam (some of distasteful type), not to mention some infrastructure damage.
 
Difficult to be sure but probably at least a few days more yet. Flow rate at Maidenhead is down to 106 cumecs this morning which we haven't seen since mid December. My bet is we'll be off the boards by the end of the month assuming there is no more significant rainfall.
 
I've been wondering about this; the river at Hurley and close by is on reds. The EA level data shows the level to be 1.91, with lowest summer levels noted as being 1.9. The river looks pretty low as well - so why still having weirs fully drawn? On the other side I drove down the Hambeden valley yesterday, and the water coming off the fields was enormous. One side road between Fingest & Skirmett was flowing full width & appeared to be a river if you didn't know it was a road.
 
ianc1200 said:
I've been wondering about this; the river at Hurley and close by is on reds. The EA level data shows the level to be 1.91, with lowest summer levels noted as being 1.9. The river looks pretty low as well - so why still having weirs fully drawn? On the other side I drove down the Hambeden valley yesterday, and the water coming off the fields was enormous. One side road between Fingest & Skirmett was flowing full width & appeared to be a river if you didn't know it was a road.
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Level and flow not neccesarily related you can have high flow (red/yellow boards) and a normal level, there is still lots of water coming down but the EA are able to exert some control on it, now that it is back within the banks :)
 
ianc1200 said:
I've been wondering about this; the river at Hurley and close by is on reds. The EA level data shows the level to be 1.91, with lowest summer levels noted as being 1.9. The river looks pretty low as well - so why still having weirs fully drawn? On the other side I drove down the Hambeden valley yesterday, and the water coming off the fields was enormous. One side road between Fingest & Skirmett was flowing full width & appeared to be a river if you didn't know it was a road.
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I think our reach at Hurley is very much an oddity, due to the locks being 100yards apart the river just shunts through and out again so the weirs are open just to get the flow through and out as quick as possible whilst thankfully we don't get the same magnitude effect on level that others do.
 
I suppose that's the great safety factor in being there, certainly has been up 5' at Henley & 9" at Hurley at times. Looking at the fields around here most of the low lying lakes have all but disappeared, but there's such a large amount coming down the Hambeden valley, if replicated elsewhere, means there's some way to go yet.
 
Chris_d said:
Level and flow not neccesarily related you can have high flow (red/yellow boards) and a normal level, there is still lots of water coming down but the EA are able to exert some control on it, now that it is back within the banks :)
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I asked a lock keeper about that once and his answer stuck in my memory...
The primary role of a Lock and Weir Keeper is to maintain river levels.
Each lock keeper maintains the level above his weir, by adjusting the flow through the weir, which is a controllable dam.
After a flood, once the level is back within normal limits, they start to close the weir, keeping the level within normal limits.
The level (above the lock) will then look the same as it is in the summer, but the flow is much faster.
He said to imagine the river was a bus... An empty bus looks the same as a full bus, but as more passengers get on the bus it gets heavier... As the bus drives past you it looks the same whether it is empty of full, but if you we're to check how much a full bus weighed compared to an empty bus you would see the difference...
 
shades said:
I asked a lock keeper about that once and his answer stuck in my memory...

He said to imagine the river was a bus...
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In that case, can we ask the EA for a new timetable, so that we get less buses (flooding) in the river and more in the summer (to avoid the draughts)...

:D
 
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