Herb Riddle's photos with the keyword: Drought

Anybody who knows me will also know that I take many photographs of this and its sister reservoir Dove Stone. Here we see this very low indeed as work is being carried out on the dam. Normally this point is well underwater.

A walk in these most strange misty conditions allows me to capture a glimpse of this Fog Bow at my local walking area. This is made up of Ice Crystals reflecting light. I have only seen this once before and that was in a very cold Sweden . In the foreground we can see that the reservoir is extremely low after many months of drought conditions revealing long submerged tree stumps. PiP More info here.

A very different view of my favourite reservoir here in Greenfield near my home in Oldham. After a year of fires and drought the reservoir is at an all-time low of water. In all my life of visiting here (55yrs at least) I have never seen it like this. I am stood some 400mts from the water intake but the river here is at least 50 ft below what it normally is, and that grows to some 100ft just some short distance down. As I stood here, after some torrential rain there were even boulders rolling along with the current and the sides were still crumbling into the water (the black peat water banks here are about 2mts high), I then made a hasty retreat back to the grass and trees above -where the water normally stands. PiPs

A Saturday walk brings me once again to my local reservoir which I have not seen for some months. I was shocked that the water was the lowest I have ever seen. This old tree stump is usually submerged under about 40-50ft of water here. You can see the normal water height almost touching the edge of the grassy bank on the right. Notice too my well photographed ‘One Tree’ standing proud. See PiPs. Again, I was informed that water from here is being pumped to other reservoirs near here then south. Essential full screen

A glimpse of one of our local reservoirs here, some weeks after possibly the driest year on record. We have had rains over the past weeks bur it might take years to fill this up again. I have never seen the levels as low as this in over fifty years. This is Lowers Swineshaw Reservoir, the accompanying PiP shows Higher Swineshaw reservoir on the same day. The second PiP shows the normal levels taken in 2020. A stranger told me, as I took this photo, that water was being pumped out of these reservoirs and being sent to southern England as their water shortage is worse than here. We have no official drought here in Lancashire. Enjoy your day