[Closed] How much FREAKING RAIN?!?

Agreed. But summer will come in time. That's what I'm clinging on to.

Yeah i'm starting to get a bit sick of it now as well, I've only had 3 dry days in the past month since i got my new bike where i did not have to wear goretex trousers and waterproof jacket/gloves - it's not so much the rain that annoys me as the amount of mud i have to clean off my kit after every ride, then wash the bike etc…etc…still good fun but the novelty is wearing a bit thin - I'd love a spell of nice frosty weather.

We are supposed to get nailed by Storm Imogen tomorrow; thankfully, I am off to London.

you do know that London is going....oh, nothing, never mind...

Yes, yes, I know. It's just that Cardiff is supposed to get the worst of it.

But last evening, I walked with my son along the Taff, and in 11 years, I have never seen it approach the levels it is at now.

Funny you should say that. Drove up to Ludlow yesterdan and back today, and flooding up there wasn't as bad as it was in South Wales.

However, it was pretty high, and there's a hell of a lot of raining falling currently. Should be fun tomorrow. I'm on a train journey.

It's getting really tedious now, and the wind. I know we aren't getting the worst of the storm up North but it's howling again out there.

Absolutely beautiful day today this side of the water and stupidly warm. I was quite surprised at how dry the trails were even up to the snow line. We are supposed to be getting this storm tomorrow though.

Imagine a half mile long site based on clay with 400 m3 of muck to move. The last few weeks have been testing to say the least.

It is bleugh down here.

Has mostly been sunny here today but that all came to a halt at 4 pm.

The garden is seriously squashy under foot.

The world needs oil. We put it in great big tankers ,ship it around the world, charge a fortune for it and entire economies are based on it.
The world also needs water. We have ****ing loads of it. Put it in a great big tanker ,ship it around the world and flog it.
Give it a bit of time and the locals of Dubai will be pissed off with boys from the valleys racing their Bugattis up and down the high street.

I have had standing water in my garden for 7 weeks now (mostly clay soil) and i reckon in that time we have only had about 4 totally dry days, i am in leeds.

Yep, totally had enough . . . counting the days until I can go back to Blue Ridge - picked their rainiest month but hey, [url= http://comfortinnofblueridge.com/WebCam.php ]they have sky[/url] 😀

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Thunder and lightning in Malvern in the last 20-minutes

This incessant wind is a drag. 😐

But summer will come in time. That's what I'm clinging on to.

So was I until Mrs MR almost gleefully unloaded her rainy summer 2016 prediction* onto my unsuspecting optimism.

*Claims the projected washout is supported by countless apps, Googling and maybe witchcraft. She may of course just be taking the pee.

I can't cope with winter in the north of England any more. I have a plan to move to Andalusia for the winter, just need to make it happen somehow.

Non-stop here in Skipton since November.

Depressing as hell. Glad the Mrs is Spanish so there's the option to bugger off to Spain in the near future.

A mate of mine, born and bred in the Lakes and well-used to inclement weather is talking about bailing out to Oz - he's just had enough this winter. Oz has the opposite problem of droughts of course.

Mind you, it's not like we've not been warned... various beardy types have been telling us for 50+ years this is where we'd end up but we decided that owning 4x4s was more important...

If all the Northerners disappear off to Spain, it'll sort out our overpopulation problem nicely, mind 🙂

I read something recently which pointed out it's the poorer countries which will be hit most by climate change and if it gets so bad that they simply can't live there anymore it'll make the current migration levels look like a picnic. It'll be interesting to see Farage's face when that happens 🙂

Jeez it's kicking off in Hampshire. 😯 Thunder is making me jump out of my skin, as is the lightening (no curtains anywhere for full effect). Pretty spectacular.

That's 40k m3 of muck btw.

Yep, never have I been so ready for summer/pissed off with winter! Relentless miserable weather. I'm in South Wales aswell.

It is hard to stay positive, isn't it.

Lovely sunny walk this morning, but pissing it down since about 2:00. Very wet going for swim and now the raindrop and wind is lashing against the house. Quite some noise...

We've basically spent all winter digging ditches and drains in the local park. It's fun, but also a bit depressing when the ground is totally saturated and there's not much you can do about it.

Trying to remain positive,I reckon it usually balances out.
We had a great Autumn,dusty trails in October in Lancashire,never known that before,reservoirs really low.It's just balanced things up by pouring down pretty much non stop since late November.Not sure where the non-stop winds have come from over the last few months..
Raining again this evening in West Lancs.

Frikin b'jezus..

Just driven my normal Sunday hack back up the A3 to Town for yet another stint... Can honestly say it was one of the most stressful drives I have ever had, and I've driven in Belgium too 🙄

Terrible rivers running across the roads and motorways, just windy as blinkin eva...

Awful..

Thunder and lightening now kicking off here in Surrey. Not long until the bridges in these parts become breached.

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Let it pour from the heavens, that hot dark rain! Bathe me in it's
pure sweet glory

One day the vampire children shall bask in the glory of a blood soaked downpour.

More Gin anyone

Getting pretty miffed with it ti be honest. None stop wind and rain in Darwen since I stepped off the plane from Greece mid October. Maybe a few dry and sunny days this morning till 1600 was nice though.
Luckily I have broke two ribs in a rib cage vs metal bed rail incident at work so don't feel as guilty not riding my bikes.

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water goes in the river, not in the sky

Luckily I have broke two ribs in a rib cage

Was on top of the South Downs today prior to the weather forecast of 2pm downpour. Wind was crazy strong and you could see the rain clouds drawing in from the south east, they looked biblical.
Got back down to my car as I literally felt the firsts spots of rain on my face, at 2:06 the heavens opened in a big way.

Chapeau, Met office.

Rain? Yes Please!

Today 42c
Tuesday 42c
Wednesday (A chilly) 41c
Thursday (Winter's on it's way) 39c
Friday 36c

Night temps down to 28c

Just to make you feel better.... I got back on Saturday morning from two weeks of glorious sunshine in Khartoum then Addis Ababa, fresh breezes and never too hot.

But I've got a chest infection and my bowels have stopped working due to rubbish hotel food and my suitcase still hasn't caught up with me. No office for me today.

Winter here in Munich has been warm... Maybe five out six days of proper snow, a few days of cold sleety rain. Other than that it's been rather warm... 14C today... January was so warm I wore shorts on one day despite there being snow on the ground..
The river rose crazily the other week with all of the melt water coming from the alps.

I can get used to this...

Not much rain but it's VERY windy down here on the Sarf coast. So much so I've just watched the Sith Hound do the same poo twice! 🙂

I'm flying back into Brizzle this afternoon. Forecast looks none too clever.
http://www.xcweather.co.uk/GB/forecast

What's the form for likelihood of landing? I've not flown into a storm before.

BRS has a 09/27 bearing runway so it shouldn't have much in the way of a cross wind to deal with. Any pilots around?

Its going to be a very interesting descent.. 😆

I'd try my back up technique of getting absolutely plastered and landing unconscious, only I then have to get on the motorbike and ride home to Malvernistan across the wind direction...

Wind gusting at 69mph?!?

Stoner, if the wind looks too unsafe to ride, you can always stay at our place until it becomes calmer. That's assuming your plane can land...

Stoner - if you get diverted to East Midlands, give me a shout if you need anything

Don't worry, I finally gave in and ordered mud tyres.. it'll stop raining as so as the parcel arrives.

Nothing out of the ordinary weather wise today in south wales, 50-70mph at Mumbles head, gets like that most big winter storms.

Cheers all.

There'll be some new creases in the easyjet Upholstery by the end of the day

Oh well, if it makes you lot any happier I'll be spending my day up on scaffolding in an attempt to stop even more water pissing into our house. You can exercise your collective schadenfreude at my expense, be my guests.

I reckon this is the last winter I can put up with in the grim North - hopefully next year winter we can spend most of it in that Greece, where it's still winter but it doesn't rain and have gale force winds every sodding day like the Isle of Man does.

Off-road is almost impossible now with all the rain here in Hertfordshire. Deep gloopy mud that makes the wheels spin out going up the smallest incline & a quagmire on all of the tracks. Even mud tyres ore of little benefit - apart from being narrower. What would have been a 20+ mi outing is now 10ish in the same time. Av speed 8MPH ish!!!!!

Still getting out but increasingly using minor roads to connect up the very few gravelly or well compacted bridalways.

Yup. Bought a new bike Oct 21st

Have not ridden it in the dry during the daytime since then. I know it's winter but give us a break PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE

Trying to remain positive,I reckon it usually balances out.
We had a great Autumn,dusty trails in October in Lancashire,never known that before,reservoirs really low.

I admire your positivity but when you say a great Autumn aren't you referring to a period of 2, maybe 3 weeks at most where it was quite nice - in the last 6 months of pretty much solid misery?

Yup. Bought a new bike Oct 21st

Have not ridden it in the dry during the daytime since then. I know it's winter but give us a break PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAS]MTB for xmas. Was very excited as had neglected MTB for years.

+1

MTB for Xmas, result - ecstatically optimistic!

Two outings since Dec 23rd. One that resulted in head to toe mud and an hour clean-up (enjoyed massively), other that resulted in a hard dismount on account of some soft algae on wet surface (does not want). Haven't been inspired since on account of endless wind and rain. Am wholly convinced it is the incessant rain that has softened my resolve and I'm not actually a gigantic wuss who is simply ill-equipped via over-inflated Conti Barons and hyper-inflated confidence.

I've not been out on the bike since November.

I've taken up archery instead. In the warm and dry. More beards though.

Having spent Boxing Day digging ditches in the garden to divert water out of my next-door neighbour's kitchen, now my [i]other[/i] next-door neighbour has come round to have a chat about the water that's getting a bit close to coming into her house. All very amicable at the moment but I imagine they're going to get snotty if I don't fix it soon.

I've just put a call into an agricultural drainage engineer, which is a bit bloody ridiculous frankly, but I'm not sure that I can physically dig big enough drains to deal with all this water by myself...

I admire your positivity but when you say a great Autumn aren't you referring to a period of 2, maybe 3 weeks at most where it was quite nice - in the last 6 months of pretty much solid misery?

We had more better weather than that, long period in September and an even better spell in October.

Autumn aren't you referring to a period of 2, maybe 3 weeks at most where it was quite nice - in the last 6 months of pretty much solid misery?

We had 5 weeks of awesome in the SW. Sneaky suspicion* that that's it until next October 😉

*Being British.

Autumn aren't you referring to a period of 2, maybe 3 weeks at most where it was quite nice - in the last 6 months of pretty much solid misery?

To be fair, mate and I did a fairly dry night ride around Bonfire night and ended up sat out in his garden with a drink afterwards because it was so stupidly warm.

Think that this payback has gone on long enough now though.

I usually complain about the lack of hills etc round where I live (North London), but it hasn't really been that wet

I cycled about 125 miles last week, about 100 miles of that was commuting. I got a bit damp on about 10 of those, and mildly moist on maybe 5. Didn't wear a waterproof once

It often felt grey or miserable but was never too shocking

Its been raining here on South Coast England pretty consistantly since mid/late Nov. Early Nov was remarkably dry. Had a lovely dry June 2015 as well. But the rest was pretty wet. School holidays are what bug me - when we go camping. Please change hols to earlier!

Interesting stats:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/summaries/2015

2015 UK Summer months were much higher rainfall than average (av taken 1981-2010), although yearly average was slightly lower, suggesting drier outside of summer (spring was lovely and stats show that).

You just have to grin and bear it and try and adapt. Carry on regardless 🙂

I'm currently trying to grow a pair and just head out into the storm on the mtb. Walked around Rodborough Fort earlier and struggled to stand!

I've spent the last month rediscovering my love of climbing at the indoor wall. Riding a bike in this is just too much mental effort. I've tried 3 times now over this winter to MTFU and ignore the weather, and each time I've relapsed into a state of depression, frustration, and misery. I give up. If we have a wet summer after this I'm getting rid of my bikes.

dazh - Member

I've spent the last month rediscovering my love of climbing at the indoor wall. Riding a bike in this is just too much mental effort. I've tried 3 times now over this winter to MTFU and ignore the weather, and each time I've relapsed into a state of depression, frustration, and misery. I give up. If we have a wet summer after this I'm getting rid of my bikes.

A lot of pretty hardcore mtbers I know - not the ones who churn up and down firetrails, but the ones who like to ride at a decent pace, or down steep tech trails, or send a few jumps - are just staying off the bikes until it dries. Not only is it beyond any point of being able to attack a trail, or land a decent jump, it's really wrecking the bikes and, perhaps even worse, it is wreaking havoc on the trails themselves.

It is nasty down here in Cornwall, getting 70mph winds and rain at the moment.
been rubbish since about October, Always raining and windy, trails are a muddy washed out mess.

A lot of pretty hardcore mtbers I know - not the ones who churn up and down firetrails, but the ones who like to ride at a decent pace, or down steep tech trails, or send a few jumps - are just staying off the bikes until it dries. Not only is it beyond any point of being able to attack a trail, or land a decent jump, it's really wrecking the bikes and, perhaps even worse, it is wreaking havoc on the trails themselves.

As a comparison, my local trails (QECP), I've not noticed any more or less bikers in the carpark for our Wed night ride overall this winter, compared to other winters or even the summer! We still get the same bikers out pretty much whatever the weather. TBF its not often chucking it down at the start of the ride, which I suspect would be what most are put off by. Its just wet trails. The trails we ride day/night/wet/dry are same, makes no odds, just change your tyres, bike, style, pace.

10 mins from Brizzle airport and we're being battered by strong winds and rain here, and the odd hail shower. Wind very gusty, I really wouldn't fancy being out on the roads on a bike in this. Seems the planes are still landing up there on top of the hill though. Another offer here of kettle and wifi if needed, and a van to take a bike if it came to that.

it's really wrecking the bikes and, perhaps even worse, it is wreaking havoc on the trails themselves.

it is wreaking havoc on the trails themselves

Still plenty to go at here in Calderdale, but it does require careful route choice. I have some sympathy though with people still riding. Conditions are so variable you'd need a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of the area to know where to avoid, and it changes very quick. Some of the trails you'd think were definite no-gos are actually ok and some others you'd think ok are completely washed away.

I was put off bothering with Pitch/Holmbury etc and just did a longer XC ride this weekend - even then blown off the bike on Hankley.

Mighty try QECP after superfi's comments - with H'head tunnel, and easy trip but always assumed that it was not a place for wet weather riding due to chalk?

wrightyson - Member

it's really wrecking the bikes and, perhaps even worse, it is wreaking havoc on the trails themselves.

I wish some of the riders round here would heed that advice. It's almost as though whilst in their bubble at work during the week they miss what's happening weather wise and still head out. Some of our local stuff will not recover any time soon...

Some great trails have been trashed. I'm sure new stuff will come and not all of them are beyond salvation, but a lot will never recover their previous glory.

There's no speed out there at the moment. Quite a few guys even bought road bikes. Sod that.

On the bright side, I did have an amusing mud slide on Saturday. Coming off cheeky trail with muddy bank down on to BW. Error attempting to turn ( 😳 ) half way down led to a slow mo, muddy slide. Fortunately no one else saw and was quiet funny!

I'm pretty pleased to have Afan close at the moment, though the volume of rains washed away some of the surfaced bits. local natural trails are rocky and open moorland for the most part, but the rocky bits are now streams and the moorland parts are slogs.

Crowdfunding for an indoor trail centre anyone?

Boarding now. If it all goes tits up over Bridlington, tell my bikes I love them.

THM - Swinley stay dryer but its flatter.
The chalk is ok as Superfii was saying on saturday when we were at FoD - its as it starts to dry out it gets really, really lethal!
Think trying to ride on lard....

Looks like we're on flood alert again in East Lancs. As the ground is already saturated its all running off, and the Irwell is about to go again. Its stopped raining for the time being. Please stay stopped, you bastard!!!! So bored with this weather now. Not half as bored as the people lower down who are still cleaning up the mess from the flooding at christmas 🙁

Cheers Hammy - lard was what was springing to mind! But must try QECP at some point.

I was surprised how dry things were on Sat morning compared with a year ago when I did a trailthingy event over much the same ground.

Still had some gloop, some perfect, some sand, some rocks, some slippy mud slopes, some roots - so lots to think about on top of the howling wind!

FoD was rammed and a bog fest yesterday - in hindsight QE would've been a lot less hassle and certainly more time to just ride rather than negotiate everyone else.
With the rain QE chalk is just moved out of the way by a decent tyre - Spesh GC or Chunky Monkey work best there.
Not going to be fun [s]when[/s] if it starts to dry out though - back to lard again....

Was [s]bitching[/s] discussing this at the weekend and realised I couldn't remember having ridden in short sleeves at all last year. We had a wee dry spell for about 3 weeks in Sept/Oct but it was far from warm.

Should have come to Cambusbarron in December - shorts and t shirts all round..!

Sorry I missed weekend - still half a house dug up...

I've just no idea how much it's actually rained since the Malvern weather website rainfall gadget stopped working last year... 🙁

It's been very dry through most of the winter here in North Wilts, it's really only in the last week that water levels have really risen. Actually, I'll qualify that, there's been damp, drizzly weather, enough to keep the ground rather soggy, but rivers like the Winterbourne that runs through Avebury was totally dry a month ago, now it's up over its banks in places, as is the Avon running through Chippenham.
Walking home this afternoon the noise of the wind through trees alongside the paths and roads was almost deafening as well.
Didn't hear any thunder, but the parish church in town got struck at dinner time.

I got out for 3hrs of sloptastic fun today, with the gusting wind it was a wet & dry ride all in one!

I use my bike recreationaly mainly, but i commute by train with the bike..only ten mins each side, so 40 mins a day..
I'm having to clean my chain up every weekend at the moment, lest I have an orange chain of shame, which is quite frankly ludicrous.

I wholly blame marget thatcher for this.