Dorset Stour flooding progress.

River height. 10-19 Jan 2008

Two large pulses of rain, 17 mms on the 11 Jan and 25 mms on the 15 Jan finally pushed the river level over 350 cms into flooding. In between, low rainfall allowed the river to drop at the rate of 100 cms/day, very quickly for a large river. The first rise, to 330, was in response to 8mms on 14 Jan. The next rise, to 371, was in response to 25 mms on 15 Jan. When the river was below 350, it fell at 100 cms/day. When the river was above 350, it fell at 16 cms/day. The difference in rate of fall was caused by flooded fields in the flood plain releasing water to the river slowly. The existance of the flood plain also limited the rise of the river to 20 cms above 350. Without the flood plain, the rise would have been around 200 cms above 350. The graph shows the effectiveness of the flood plain in limiting flooding downstream. An analysis of the higher flood (385) of 3 Dec 2005 gives similar results.

Area flooded. 10-19 Jan 2008

Degrees of Flooding. The Dorset Stour floodplain, pictures centred on Eye Mead, SY 995-995. Eye Bridge in left foreground. 5 Mar 2006. River height=142. Fields 0% flooded. An example of zero flooding, (picture taken slightly from right of others) FL512. 13 Jan 2008. 1205 hrs. River height=358. Fields 50% flooded. FL523. 14 Jan 2008. 1213 hrs. River height=269. Fields 40% flooded. FL527. 15 Jan 2008. 1118 hrs. River height=338. Fields 30% flooded FL532. 16 Jan 2008. 0900 hrs. River height=361. Fields 60% flooded FL533. 16 Jan 2008. 1438 hrs. River height=371. Fields 95%. The flood plain is 1,000 meters wide. FL535. 17 Jan 2008. 1100 hrs. River height=363. Fields 80% flooded. FL538. 18 Jan 2008. 1147 hrs. River height=294. Fields 20% flooded. FL551. 23 Jan 2008. 1508 hrs. River height=231. Fields 10% flooded.

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