At 4.30 am on Thursday morning (February 6) the Environment Agency’s automatic monitoring station at Marlborough recorded the River Kennet’s level at 0.72 metres and levelling off.
That took the river level significantly over the 0.69 metres level recorded on 17 March 2008 which has stood since then as the river’s ‘Highest recent’ level.
As low pressures systems continue to sweep in from the Atlantic towards the south west and west of the British Isles dumping more and more rain onto saturated down land and fields, the peak level of the Kennet at Marlborough has continued to rise.
After the heavy rain last Friday (January 31), the level rose steeply (see graph below) before levelling off again and then dropping back. But the level is still not back to what the Agency calls its ‘Typical range’ of 0.04 to 0.37 metres.
Click on graphs to enlarge them.
And with more rain to come in the next two or three days and no sign that saturated land is drying out or draining, the Kennet’s level at Marlborough may yet go higher still.
There must be something better at the end of recent rainbows.
