The condition of the ground determines how much rainwater seeps into the ground or runs off. The catchment area of the Cocker Beck is 12 square kilometres. The Beck is at best around 2.5m wide and 2.5m high!. The term the EA use is Soil Moisture Deficiency.
If the ground is saturated then rainfall will runoff into the Beck. If the ground is baked hard rainfall will also run straight into the Beck. The EA do publish weekly rainfall summaries which are useful in determining how much rain has fallen.This is published here
The EA also produce a detailed monthly report available here. There is a lot of info. Best place to start is section 3.1 and 3.2. As of end Feb 2023 the ‘drier’ month meant soil moisture deficit was higher than the long term average (the ground is drier (and so less ‘soggy’)).
Midlands_Water_Situation_Report_-_December 2023
Midlands_Water_Situation_Report_-_February_2023
Midlands_water_situation_report_December2022
Midlands_water_situation_report_October2022
Flag may invest in ‘probes’ to measure soil moisture content or ways to find where the water table is, but for now we are looking at recent rain levels to determine the ground condition. This involves (a) determining what period of time it takes for ground to react to previous rainfall (we have chosen 7 day and 14 day) and then (b) determining the level at which the ground would be classified as ‘baked hard’ or ‘saturated’ (the current estimates are shown on the graphs). The graphs below are set up to view on a laptop not a mobile.
Please let us have any comments / feedback.
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HISTORIC RAINFALL (Some data missing)
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RECENT DAILY RAINFALL
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