Murcian weather, Meteorological talk talk, it has been quite wet,and is very nearly, very wet
07 / 09 / 2010
Murcia, August 2010 was the wettest in 60 years
You're absolutely right, it has been a most peculiar summer.
We've had the hottest day in 25 years and now Aemet, the meteorological agency have confirmed that we've had the wettest August in 60 years.
The current meteorological year runs from the 1st October to the 31st September, so we still have a little more time to climb even further up the honours list, as 2010 is already in amongst the 15 wettest of the last 64 years, with rainfall 25% more than average year to date.
According to the head of area climatology, "the year has been quite wet " and we just need another good downpour for it to be considered "very wet" in weather office terminology." We need very little, then probably this is a very wet year globally in the sense that it is in the wettest years of all time series, " he elaborated..
Glad you got that bit.
He says we have already had an average of 690 litres per square metre throughout Spain in the year to date, but to really hit the big time we need that to go up to 770.
Well, he may have his way and reach the dizzying heights of "very wet" if the anticipated Gota Fria arrives, although we may have until mid-October before it hits us if the experts are right.
The Town halls have responded to criticism from Proteccion civil that they are not ready for a Gota Fria with a flurry of press releases announcing meetings and measures to assure their residents that they are making preparations, as with elections looming in the spring, nobody wants to give the opposition any unnecessary ammunition.
Aquagest, who have responsibility for water provision across much of the region have been busy cleaning out their scuppers, which according to the dynamic drain plumbing forum we consulted to find out what a scupper actually is, are the grids which prevent waste choking up the pipework.
( This could be opening a floodgate of our own , but please correct us if dynamic haven't quite got this right)
Cartagena proudly announced that they now have 8850 squeaky clean scuppers ready for flood action, and six teams still working to ensure that they stay clean.
They met today with proteccion civil and representatives from all the emergency services to ensure that all measures are being taken to prepare for the downpours should they come, an activity which is being repeated right across the region.
We spoke to Nash Warren insurance in Bolnuevo today to find out if most general insurance policies will cover Gota Fria damage and he assured us that in most cases they will. If the downpour is particularly severe, the insurance companies will be overwhelmed with claims and enquiries, and major events claims can end up having to go through a Consorcio which is a government body convened to deal with natural disasters , funded by all the insurance companies.
Inevitably there could be delays in making claims if there are large volumes of them to process.
He did make one little point that could be important to bear in mind, saying that an insurance policy is there to cover for unexpected happenings and will not be valid if the damage inside your property is caused by poor maintenance.
His advice very much echoed our own comments last week, the chances are that this rain is coming, so unblock drains, change broken tiles, fill in cracks with grout, make sure water has a natural escape route, buy a bag of sand, and check your insurance policy is still valid!
Photo archive, Aquagest workers in a hole
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