Peak Cavern flooded today

Pete K · Mar 14, 2019

I popped up to see Irene and T-Pot at Peak Cavern today. Things are a little damp in the showcave! They were kind enough to let me have a roam around which was great, as I've never had the chance to take pictures of the showcave and river in flood before. T-Pot said stick some pics on here, so here you are. Not a great day up at Speedwell either, where I had a chat with John earlier in the dark as their power was out.
More pics on Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/?/peakinstr?/albums/72157707568947884
Vids on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/I7FWslhk8mQ

paul · Mar 14, 2019

There is a lot of water about with water gushing over Derwent Dam and the River Derwent is as high as I've ever seen it while driving over the bridge at Darley Bridge earlier.

alastairgott · Mar 14, 2019

I need to get used to my new natural water gauge, the river that flows through Wilmslow. It seemed to be higher than "usual" this week and Judging by the way my clothes stuck to me ALL morning one day this week (and my socks were wet). I would say that it's been quite wet!
Sorry Moose, might delay what I had planned this weekend!

alastairgott · Mar 16, 2019

Still in flood today, apparently lumbago hasn?t been ?open? since Tuesday and those that work in peak don?t think it will be open tomorrow either. But still looks good with the lights beaming underwater.

Apparently on Tuesday the water decided to go straight for the cave mouth rather than bother with the swine hole, so had a waterfall going over the lip towards the resurgence. And the river was spitting water out at the end of the path making getting wet even more inevitable!

Sounds great!

pwhole · Mar 16, 2019

There's a marked difference in water colour between Slop Moll and the Peak Cavern resurgence - very interesting, in the light of current research - there must be much less sediment being dragged through the Slop Moll route. John Gunn's just mentioned that the depth gauge below Goosehill bridge is always well worth recording, as he can work out flow rates from it. He's estimated 3070 litres/second from Pete's photos.

Pitlamp · Mar 16, 2019

That's very wet!

I reckon the great flood of 21-12-91 was bigger though. That one stopped all the Manchester to Sheffield traffic in Castleton for several hours and the water came up to the base of the windows at the Three Roofs Cafe in the village. An insane amount of water was coming directly out of the Vestibule that day. After the water went down, the (inward opening) inner gate was jammed shut by massive heaps of boulders which had been hurled against it.

We've not exactly been basking in sunshine in the Dales today; both Jingle Pot and Hurtle Pot in Chapel-le-Dale are resurging as I type. If I was clever enough I'd post some photos from this afternoon on here (or in the Dales area of the site). But evidently I'm not. :-\

Pete K · Mar 16, 2019

With more rain still falling here, I might try to get to Peak again tomorrow for a follow up. I have already screenshotted the rainfall gauge as of about 5pm today.

pwhole · Mar 17, 2019

If you do, can you get a shot of the Peakshole Sough tail, as it's not quite visible in those shots? There's usually a boil-up a couple of metres downstream in wet weather, but I'm interested to see if that water is another shade of brown altogether - or clearer at least. And whether the water inside is much higher than usual.

Pitlamp · Mar 17, 2019

We need a webcam on this area.

Peregrina · Mar 17, 2019

alastairgott said:
Still in flood today, apparently lumbago hasn?t been ?open? since Tuesday and those that work in peak don?t think it will be open tomorrow either. But still looks good with the lights beaming underwater.

A whole week of easy tours the jammy gits.

Might have to go and see it now, it's always interesting in wet conditions.

Pete K · Mar 17, 2019

Pitlamp said:
We need a webcam on this area.

Yes, I miss the Hitch N Hike updates and pics that Shaun used to do. Caver funded webcam?

Pete K · Mar 17, 2019

I ran up again today between hail storms.
Looks to have dropped round 10cm today since the photos on the 14th. Interestingly, it is the Peak water that now seems clearer than that from Slop Moll.

14th March:

Peak Flood 14-03-19 (9) by Pete Knight, on Flickr
17th March:

Peak Flood 17-3-19 (5) by Pete Knight, on Flickr

Looked at Peakshole from the footpath and it does not appear to be a different colour, or have any noticable input for that matter.

Peak Flood 17-3-19 (7) by Pete Knight, on Flickr

I expect a bit more of a rise in water levels later today following the heavy rain yesterday.

Peak Flood 17-3-19 Weather (1) by Pete Knight, on Flickr

More pics added to the original album in the OP: https://www.flickr.com/photos/peakinstruction/sets/72157707568947884/with/33527074118/

alastairgott · Mar 17, 2019

Tpot will probably be reading this, but can he tell us when the water drops again?

6days of flooding so far, is this the longest time it's been flooded for?

T pot 2 · Mar 18, 2019

Still flooded this morning. Speedwell cavern now open for public tours. If no rain today we should be back to normal by later today. Tpot

mikem · Mar 18, 2019

1991 seems to have been a one day event:
https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=11284.0

Unfortunately the nearest river gauge doesn't have complete records, but Chatsworth gauge shows Derwent at 8th highest year in Dec 1991 & six of the top ten were from 1998 to 2OO2 (with June 2OO7 & Nov 2OO2 being by far the highest):
https://nrfa.ceh.ac.uk/data/station/peakflow/28043

The Derwent did show a much bigger peak on Saturday than either Thursday or Friday.

Cave_Troll · Mar 19, 2019

I wonder whats back in the resurgence sump

Peak Cavern flooded today

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