Dales Conditions This Week?

[jasonbirder]

We're in the Midlands...so difficult to know what the situation is like up there...but we had got a mid-week trip planned tomorrow...
What are Water Levels like (I know heavy rain is predicted)
What trips might be do-able?
Thanks alot...

 

[stevejw]

We've had rain on and off for some days now. However actual rainfall details are available here.

 

[Pitlamp]

Yes, conditions are generally wet here in the Dales. It's now in the state where any moderate weather event can bring rivers up fast. (This happened on Sunday afternoon for example). There is a fair dose of rain due this evening (Tuesday). Rivers may be high by Wednesday morning. I'd plan for a trip in somewhere unaffected by flooding.

 

[Pitlamp]

Update - Tuesday tea time. Been a very wet afternoon at Clapham and rivers are high. There's more to come this evening apparently. Look at the VisBot on the CDG website in the morning for absolute rainfall figures in this area over the preceding 24 hours.

 

[Pitlamp]

Update; early Wednesday morning the gauge had 26 mm in it from the preceding 24 hours. It really is pretty wet in the Dales at the moment.

 

[Pitlamp]

After a glorious weekend it's back to normal here in the Dales on Monday morning. 10 mm of rain overnight, cold and very draughty. Light dusting of snow on Ingleborough above 300 metres. Feels like winter!

(Just mentioning the above because the CDG site is currently down.)

 

[seddon]

KMC and Committee Pot were both fine yesterday; perhaps surprising given the standing water in the fields...

Lots of flooding *potential* rather than actual flooding at the moment; which just makes it more dangerous, of course!

 

[braveduck]

Drove up Friday afternoon. The valley was fooded  from Keighley to Settle.
The floods are as bad as I have ever seen them since 1960.
Two fantastic dry sunny days followed.
But now Monday heavy rain again so flooded fields will now be topped up again.

 

[Daz_of_caving]

Water levels were fine (quite high) in Easegill and Valley entrance this weekend

BIG risk of flooding I think :yucky:

 

[caving_fox]

Lost Johns on Saturday was low ish. Probably not low enough to make Monastry feasible, but according to my knowledgeable companions, not far off. The Leck Master Cave was fine. Although the foam was scarily high up the walls.

 

[Alex]

Pasture Gill was wet on Saturday but passable. (Though I did not go past the 5th pitch)

 

[bren]

Am planning a trip to great douk and sunset on Monday - any advice on how the water levels will be.Have looked at the forecast but not sure about the hydrology etc. Should we just head over to mistral instead and play in the mud? thanks

 

[dunc]

Great Douk and Sunset are both active stream passages, both of these originate from stream sinks so given the already wet ground conditions any rain forecast for the day you're heading underground could cause water levels to rise fairly quickly.

 

[Alex]

BraveDuck, I cant recall a time when at least one field was not flooded this year, even when it had not rained in a while. Looks like that area is turning into swamp land.

 

[bren]

more settled weather required then!! looks like a trip into easegill then.cheers

 

[Cave Mapper]

more settled weather required then!! looks like a trip into easegill then.cheers

Both Sunset and Great Douk drain fast, which which means that water levels can rise and fall quickly. You don't need a period of settled weather before your trip, what you need is for it not to rain heavily on the day. They would have both been fine today, it's been sunny all day.

 

[TheBitterEnd]

I was down both Sunset and Great Douk on Saturday, after rain all day on Friday and most of the week before. Both were fine, Great Douk had a bit more water than Sunset, but then there are more inlets and it's lower down the hill.

 

[bren]

thanks for that guys

 

[Pitlamp]

Interesting comment Alex - what about the great drought of April to June this year? We had some of the best diving conditions since 1984 in the Dales.

If the fields were flooded then they're not "fields" they're "lakes"!

 

[Alex]

I seem to recall there water there all year round the previous year, though I could be mistaken.