An enormous amount of precipitation fell in a short time in the east of England on Wednesday 12 June. It also rained quite a bit in the days before and after that. One of the most important arable areas in the country, where many vegetable crops are grown, has been severely affected by the rain. How is the damage picture?
The British media is full of the situation in the small town of Wainfleet, near the North Sea. More than 130 millimeters of rain fell there in just a few hours. That turned out to be too much for the river 'Steeping'. A dike broke, flooding hundreds of hectares of arable land.
Work will continue in the following week (with enormous pumps) to dry the area. Fortunately for the residents, no more showers are planned, but the damage has already been done. Approximately 600 houses had to be evacuated.
The precipitation is a disaster for farmers in the area. They were faced with an extremely dry situation, after hardly any precipitation had fallen since May 2018. There has also been a lot of rain this spring. This work suddenly came to a standstill at the beginning of June when a lot of precipitation fell, combined with stormy winds and hail.
Arable farming areas
The polder area 'The Fens', in the east of England, has been hit the hardest. A lot of potatoes, onions and other vegetable crops are grown in this area. In the south of The Fens (Cambridgeshire) 60 millimeters to 70 millimeters fell. "Since it was raining until just before the showers, the plots are now soaked," says an arable farmer. The damage appears to be minor at the moment.
Many grain plots have been destroyed by heavy rainfall and storms. Crops in the flooded part of Lincolnshire are expected to be lost. Even the higher plots are hardly passable. On social media, British farmers show how they try to enter their plots.
Damage picture
Just like in the Netherlands, the dry soil could withstand a lot of rain, so the precipitation did not immediately cause damage. The flooded area is relatively small. The weather will be important in the coming days and weeks. The area cannot handle any more rain. Heavy thunderstorms are again forecast for Tuesday, June 18 and Wednesday, June 19. A combination of high temperatures and moisture also means that phytophthora hotspots have been found in various places.
Natural disaster in France
English farmers are not the only ones who have to contend with bad weather. In the southeast of France, the rain and hail storm caused heavy rain a pity in orchards, grain plots and greenhouses. Local authorities estimate that 80% to 100% of the harvest has been destroyed. The storm has been officially declared a natural disaster, so farmers are eligible for financial compensation.