It was a showery day when I walked on The Trundle on the South Downs near Chichester on Saturday 4th March. The back half of me, facing into the weather, got soaked as I walked up the hill. The sun came out again as I walked up the hill and dried off. I sketched on the north side of the hill, the brick hut near the masts sheltering me from the chilly westerly wind. As I walked back into the city centre, the sky darkened again as showery clouds rolled in; though the rain held off until I was on my way back home. These showers came with at least a temporary shift to more unsettled weather, with the low pressures taking a more southerly track. Good for rivers whose flows are predominantly dominated by surface run-off after rainfall. For groundwater, and groundwater chalk streams, however, this could be too little too late. Certainly for the Lavant: I found it still dry, but for a few puddles as I walked through East Lavant. There may yet be some flow if and if and when the rainfall during late January and February percolates through the soil into the chalk to raise the water table. If so, it's likely to be meagre and brief: groundwater levels are still well down after the dry winter and the window of opportunity for recharge is now closing. Weeds were beginning to grow in the riverbed. Daffodils were flowering along the bank in Sheepwash Lane, showing spring wasn't waiting.
According to the monthly hydrological summaries published by the Environment Agency and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, groundwater levels in the Compton House and Chilgrove House wells (both near Chichester) were
respectively at their 7th and 13th lowest levels in 122
and 181 records at the end of January. The level at Chilgrove was lower than it was at the same time in 2012; the last winter no-show of the River Lavant. That came after two successive dry winters. The subsequent pick up and about turn in water fortunes which came with the wet spring was very unusual. To assume it will happen again this year is wishful thinking. This entrry illustrated by photos from East Lavant (4th March), together with subsequent doodles involving daffodils, dipsticks and dowsers.
