:00:03. > :00:08.If there's one thing we have plenty of in the North West, it's weather!
:00:08. > :00:11.And out there is one reason why. We're completely at the mercy of
:00:11. > :00:15.the Atlantic, and dependably, year on year, it chucks everything it
:00:15. > :00:19.has right at us. I'm Dianne Oxberry, and I present the weather. But you
:00:19. > :00:22.don't need me to tell you this year, it's been in a class of its own. In
:00:22. > :00:25.this programme, we bring together not just the BBC's own footage, but
:00:25. > :00:27.also some extraordinary pictures captured by many of you of the
:00:27. > :00:37.unprecedented weather events of 2012 as they unfolded across our
:00:37. > :00:38.
:00:38. > :00:41.We run through the meteorological records which fell like confetti.
:00:41. > :00:45.April has broken records for the amount of rain we've had right
:00:45. > :00:47.across the whole of the UK. We meet people whose homes and
:00:47. > :00:51.workplaces have been dramatically affected.
:00:51. > :00:55.This has got to be the worst year I can remember in the garden as a
:00:55. > :00:57.result of the weather. And we explore the science behind
:00:57. > :01:01.the turbulent weather and ask whether the changes in our climate
:01:01. > :01:11.might mean we need a fundamental rethink in the way we design our
:01:11. > :01:21.
:01:21. > :01:23.I'm on a rooftop at Blackpool's Pleasure Beach. It's the region's
:01:23. > :01:27.top tourist draw, but like everything else exposed to the
:01:27. > :01:33.weather, well, this year, the effects have been unprecedented. By
:01:33. > :01:38.midsummer, visitor numbers were down 18%. And Blackpool's hit the
:01:38. > :01:40.headlines several times this year as events had to be cancelled.
:01:40. > :01:43.We're live in Blackpool for the Olympic torch.
:01:43. > :01:46.I was actually here, presenting North West Tonight, when the
:01:46. > :01:49.Olympic torch arrived during that storm of June 22nd and celebrations
:01:49. > :01:52.had to be switched from the top of the Tower to the Ballroom for
:01:52. > :01:56.safety reasons. So a dramatic year, but let's remind ourselves just how
:01:56. > :02:01.turbulent it has been. I joined the region's Met Office advisor, Alan
:02:01. > :02:04.Goodman, to take a run through the weather headlines of 2012.
:02:05. > :02:07.So, Alan, a very busy year for a meteorologist. And you were at the
:02:07. > :02:12.heart of that decision to move those Olympic torch celebrations in
:02:12. > :02:16.Blackpool. So unfortunate, Dianne, that the
:02:16. > :02:19.wettest, windiest day of the summer happened to be that Friday in June.
:02:19. > :02:21.Winds touching up to 50 miles per hour, driving rain, conditions just
:02:21. > :02:25.too dangerous to go to the top of the Tower.
:02:25. > :02:28.But I can't remember a year when so many records have been broken.
:02:28. > :02:30.A year of records, particularly on the rainfall side, too many of them,
:02:30. > :02:33.unfortunately, for our comfort. Let's take a look at those
:02:33. > :02:37.headlines and let's take a look at some fantastic pictures sent in by
:02:37. > :02:40.some people who were caught up in those weather events of this year.
:02:40. > :02:42.The year started with a bang, a taste of things to come. Early
:02:42. > :02:47.January brought storm force winds, torrential rain, 2,000 houses in
:02:47. > :02:54.Cumbria without electricity. Things calmed down, and in mid-January,
:02:54. > :02:58.perhaps some dared hope they'd got away with winter. Not a chance, of
:02:58. > :03:02.course. In February, we got the first nudge that 2012 was going to
:03:02. > :03:07.be a record breaker. We had the iciest first half for 20 years,
:03:07. > :03:12.then the warmest second half for 15. Puny statistics compared with what
:03:12. > :03:17.was to come. By now, taken as a whole, we'd had an exceptionally
:03:18. > :03:21.dry 24 months. And how we might look back now at March as a fool's
:03:21. > :03:28.paradise. Sunbathers basked in 19 degrees in Manchester's Piccadilly
:03:28. > :03:32.Gardens. I'm enjoying the heat right now, as you can tell from my
:03:32. > :03:39.facial expression. It was the driest March for nearly 60 years,
:03:39. > :03:45.the warmest for 55. It hit the news. The good weather seems set to stay.
:03:45. > :03:48.The big question, just for how long?
:03:48. > :03:51.Well, as it turns out, Alan, not for very long at all.
:03:51. > :03:54.No. One of the weather highlights of the year, Dianne. A few days
:03:54. > :03:58.when we had a high pressure anchored right over the UK, caused
:03:58. > :04:01.by a nice block, the jet stream looping right round the UK and
:04:01. > :04:04.giving us ideal mid-spring weather. And we are going to be talking a
:04:04. > :04:09.bit more about the jet stream later in the programme, but it seems that
:04:09. > :04:14.2012 was just about to get into its stride. The wettest April on record
:04:14. > :04:19.tricked us at first. Not rain, but snow. Parts of the Peak District
:04:19. > :04:26.ground to a halt. 9,000 homes were left without power. Then the
:04:26. > :04:32.weather put down its true marker for 2012. Rain, followed by rain.
:04:32. > :04:37.On May 25th in Cumbria, 28 degrees. Little did we know that was as good
:04:38. > :04:43.as summer would get anywhere in the North West this year. Because next
:04:43. > :04:52.came June. We all remember the rain-drenched street parties for
:04:52. > :04:54.On the 16th, Elton John tried his hand at singing, too, at the
:04:54. > :05:02.inaugural concert at Blackpool's Tower Festival Headlands, abandoned
:05:02. > :05:06.due to foul weather. We've been told by the police that
:05:06. > :05:13.we have to come off and you have to file out, very orderly, and get out
:05:13. > :05:17.of here as quickly as possible, OK. Then the great storm of June 22nd
:05:17. > :05:22.and 23rd. Among the Lancashire villages hit by flooding, Croston,
:05:22. > :05:29.where the River Yarrow burst its banks. 70 homes were inundated, and
:05:29. > :05:31.for a time, Croston became an island, cut off by road. That was
:05:31. > :05:38.when the Olympic torch procession swept, wetly, through Morecambe and
:05:38. > :05:44.Blackpool. On the 28th, Kendal and many other places in south Lakeland
:05:44. > :05:50.were hit by flash floods. This was not only the wettest June, but the
:05:50. > :05:54.wettest April to June for over 100 years. It's depressing looking back,
:05:54. > :05:57.it's such a washout. Complete washout during June. Most parts of
:05:57. > :06:01.the North West more than double the average rainfall, amounts of rain
:06:01. > :06:04.in an hour that were far too much for the drains to cope with, so
:06:04. > :06:07.roads became rivers. And then July wasn't much better. Another wetter
:06:07. > :06:10.than average month, cooler than average, hardly any further fine
:06:10. > :06:20.days in there at all. So by the time August came around, we were
:06:20. > :06:22.
:06:22. > :06:24.On August bank holiday weekend, a record crowd of 60,000 turned up
:06:24. > :06:34.for Europe's biggest annual dance festival at Creamfields near
:06:34. > :06:43.
:06:43. > :06:48.Days one and two passed off as Two weeks of rain in just a few
:06:48. > :06:56.hours. Cancelled, mate. If you go on Creamfields, you might get half
:06:56. > :06:58.your money back, if you're lucky. For the first time in its 16-year
:06:58. > :07:02.history, the event was being abandoned. Other events cancelled
:07:02. > :07:10.included Cartmel Races and a music festival in Liverpool. Some people
:07:10. > :07:16.And just in case anyone had any thoughts of an Indian summer,
:07:16. > :07:23.here's September 26th. In Croston again. More than a month's rain in
:07:23. > :07:32.two days. In October, someone else took a pounding. Hurricane Sandy
:07:32. > :07:35.Did we hope, in early November, the weather had lost interest in rain?
:07:35. > :07:43.The new dousing of the 22nd, which forced evacuation of this hospice
:07:43. > :07:47.at Ulverston in Cumbria, told us not. And winter is still young. So,
:07:47. > :07:49.Alan, quite a year there. Quite a year indeed. Way too wet, nowhere
:07:49. > :07:54.near enough sunshine, and when it really mattered in the summer
:07:54. > :07:57.months, not warm enough either. Well, those headline events are
:07:57. > :08:03.only part of the story. As 2012 trod its soggy path, there have
:08:03. > :08:10.been more general changes. If, like me, you have a garden, you may have
:08:10. > :08:17.noticed a slimy invasion which has Gordon Baillie, head gardener at
:08:17. > :08:20.Arley Hall in Cheshire, took us to meet the invaders. If we come on in
:08:20. > :08:27.through here, we should be able to find just the sort of thing we're
:08:27. > :08:30.looking for. Never in 33 years of gardening has Gordon seen the like.
:08:30. > :08:39.Right, if there is one real villain in the garden, I'm hoping to find
:08:39. > :08:43.it around here. Ah, there we go. It's the slug. It's these little
:08:43. > :08:48.ones that really do the damage in the garden. Most people think it's
:08:48. > :08:51.the big ones, but the little ones eat far more for their size. Now,
:08:51. > :08:54.because of the wet weather, the population of slugs has trebled
:08:54. > :09:00.this year, and also the quantity of damage they've done has gone up
:09:00. > :09:04.equally as much. But not, as it turns out, at Arley Hall, where
:09:04. > :09:08.Gordon works. In the making of this film, we made a startling
:09:08. > :09:18.discovery: Arley, like some enchanted palace, even in this year
:09:18. > :09:18.
:09:18. > :09:21.of Slugmageddon, is a slug-free Now, here we have some young
:09:21. > :09:24.lettuce plants. Absolutely the slug's favourite, favourite food.
:09:24. > :09:27.Now, had we a slug population in this garden, these young plants
:09:27. > :09:32.would have been absolutely devastated. We don't have slugs
:09:32. > :09:35.here. Why there are not, I don't know. Do we have the world's most
:09:35. > :09:39.ravenous thrushes, are there hordes of hungry hedgehogs, is it the
:09:39. > :09:44.soil? To be honest, I don't really know, and I really don't care. We
:09:44. > :09:48.just don't have the slugs and that's what makes me happy. But in
:09:48. > :09:52.this year of foul weather, the garden is not without its villain.
:09:52. > :09:56.Now, we might not have slugs here, but one of the things we do have
:09:56. > :09:59.are rabbits, and this is the sort damage that they can do. Now, here
:09:59. > :10:03.we've got some young wallflowers which were planted out a few days
:10:03. > :10:06.ago and these have been absolutely murdered by the rabbits. We've had
:10:06. > :10:10.a rabbit explosion this year, mainly because the weather has been
:10:10. > :10:13.so poor that we've been sitting inside in front of the telly or in
:10:13. > :10:21.front of the fire, we haven't been able to get out in the evenings and
:10:21. > :10:23.go round popping off a few of them, as we would normally do. Safely
:10:23. > :10:30.behind rabbit-proof fencing in the kitchen garden, some wallflowers,
:10:30. > :10:37.like lettuces, survive. And this is what the wallflower should be like,
:10:37. > :10:40.if they haven't been getting eaten by rabbits. Many plants have been
:10:40. > :10:44.badly affected by the weather this year. Fruit trees in particular
:10:44. > :10:49.have been severely hit. These apple trees have had a very, very low
:10:49. > :10:51.crop this year. This was because the bees which hatched expecting to
:10:51. > :10:57.find the flowers ready for pollinating were too early, the
:10:57. > :10:59.plants had been held back, there were no flowers. This meant that
:10:59. > :11:03.the bees starved, it meant that the flowers didn't get pollinated,
:11:03. > :11:09.we've had no fruit on the trees and the yield of honey is down anything
:11:09. > :11:14.up to 90%. This has got to be the worst year that I can remember in
:11:14. > :11:19.the garden as a result of the weather. So a good year for slugs
:11:19. > :11:23.and a lucky year for rabbits. A changeable year for all of us. But
:11:23. > :11:31.what lay behind those changes? For a global look at the causes of the
:11:31. > :11:33.year of weird weather, here's In the spring of 2012, England was
:11:34. > :11:42.dry, reservoirs were dangerously low, much of the country was in
:11:42. > :11:45.drought, and I was in a parched aquifer somewhere underneath Sussex.
:11:45. > :11:49.A very, very serious situation. Our underground sources, our
:11:49. > :11:53.underground aquifers are very, very low.
:11:53. > :12:03.It seemed the only thing that could save us would be a highly unusual
:12:03. > :12:04.
:12:04. > :12:07.long spell of heavy rain. But you should be careful what you wish for.
:12:07. > :12:14.The worst drought since 1976 was followed by the wettest April to
:12:14. > :12:19.June on record. I'm going to find out what the scientists say are the
:12:19. > :12:22.reasons for this. I've equipped myself with a huge globe to put
:12:22. > :12:29.things in to perspective, and I'm going to see the people who are
:12:29. > :12:34.badly hit to explain to them why it happened.
:12:34. > :12:39.Away say that people who were badly hit, to explain to them why it
:12:39. > :12:48.happened. -- I will see the people. First stop, North Tyneside, hit by
:12:48. > :12:51.a flash flood in June. It was really surreal. It was a
:12:51. > :12:53.weird sight, you know, looking out your window and just seeing a man
:12:53. > :12:56.in a canoe like going down the street.
:12:56. > :13:05.So I've come to the exact same street to tell the residents the
:13:05. > :13:08.reason for the canoeists. And to do that you have to look at things
:13:08. > :13:15.with a global view, which is why I've got this here and, in
:13:15. > :13:19.particular, we have to talk about this - this is the jet stream. Now
:13:19. > :13:21.the jet stream is a ribbon of fast moving air about six miles up in
:13:21. > :13:24.the atmosphere that carries those weather systems, and it's a
:13:24. > :13:29.dividing line between the cold Polar air and the warmer across us
:13:29. > :13:32.and to the south of us. And it heads in the general direction of
:13:32. > :13:35.the UK because of the rotation of the earth, and it drives our
:13:35. > :13:37.weather according to Adam Scaife from the Met Office.
:13:37. > :13:41.The reason it's important is because the jet stream guides and
:13:41. > :13:46.carries storms across the Atlantic to the UK, so it's the first order
:13:46. > :13:49.thing that determines the UK weather.
:13:49. > :13:53.So the jet stream pushes bad weather towards us?
:13:53. > :13:56.Absolutely. But the fact the jet stream exists
:13:56. > :13:59.doesn't explain canoeing on the streets For a and have of North
:13:59. > :14:07.Tyneside. No, it was the way the jet stream behaved that was a
:14:07. > :14:14.problem, and I know some people in West Sussex who want to know more.
:14:14. > :14:18.I'm on my way to a place called Bracklesham Bay.
:14:18. > :14:27.One night in June they had a month's worth of rain, and the
:14:28. > :14:31.Sussex beach holiday village on the coast took the brunt.
:14:31. > :14:36.I got called out early hours Monday morning about 2/3 and I had to
:14:36. > :14:39.start evacuating people because it was flooding their chalets.
:14:39. > :14:42.So let's speak to the workers of the holiday park about the fact
:14:42. > :14:45.there's a pattern to the way the jet stream normally behaves across
:14:45. > :14:50.the year. In winter the jet stream is normally here, running across
:14:50. > :14:56.the Atlantic towards the UK. So we will, as you know, we'd expect to
:14:56. > :15:01.get some spells of rain in winter. This time things were different. So
:15:01. > :15:05.says Len Shaffrey from the University of Reading.
:15:05. > :15:08.So in 2012 the jet stream was much further south than we kind of
:15:08. > :15:12.expect. What it meant was that, you know, all the storms that normally
:15:12. > :15:17.hit the UK were going in to Spain and Portugal, and that meant it was
:15:17. > :15:19.much dryer in the UK than normal. Would that be any cause of the
:15:19. > :15:22.drought? Absolutely, because if you don't
:15:22. > :15:25.have the jet stream carrying wet weather systems to the UK, as it
:15:25. > :15:29.should have been in the winter and it's further south we end up dryer,
:15:29. > :15:32.and that's why at the end of our winter, the start of this year,
:15:32. > :15:38.there was so much fear about drought and what would happen if we
:15:38. > :15:43.had a third dry winter. And then when summer came around the jet
:15:43. > :15:47.stream was still too far south. Now in the summer we'd normally expect
:15:47. > :15:51.the jet stream to be north of the UK and that means that we're in
:15:51. > :15:58.that warm weather. We get spells of lovely warm sunshine. That's the
:15:58. > :16:01.plan anyway. And we know that didn't happen this year.
:16:01. > :16:04.Now the jet stream being further north of Iceland, storms that
:16:04. > :16:08.normally miss us were too far south and basically hit the UK, bringing
:16:08. > :16:11.really heavy rainfall and the flooding that we saw.
:16:11. > :16:15.So the jet stream was in the wrong place for us all year?
:16:15. > :16:17.Absolutely. And that's why all year long our weather hasn't fitted the
:16:17. > :16:22.normal pattern we'd expect. Basically, the jet stream was in
:16:22. > :16:26.the wrong place and it got stuck. But do the scientists have any
:16:26. > :16:35.theories about why it got stuck? That's the question being asked by
:16:35. > :16:37.one particular man in Devon. After a night of intense rain in the
:16:37. > :16:42.village of Yealmpton, near Plymouth, Alan Frame found himself trapped in
:16:42. > :16:44.his house. Yeah, I was leaning out of the
:16:44. > :16:47.bedroom window, waiting for the emergency services, just trying to
:16:47. > :16:50.get help. So the man in the green shirt, that's me.
:16:50. > :16:52.And what the villagers want to know is this.
:16:52. > :16:57.So why was the jet stream in the wrong position?
:16:57. > :17:00.Very good question. Twist it with me a little bit. So I want to go
:17:00. > :17:03.over towards North America. That's it, that's it. There we go. And I
:17:03. > :17:07.want to take you to the sea here, where we know the temperature of
:17:07. > :17:10.the sea here is higher than normal, and it has been for quite a while.
:17:10. > :17:13.The theory is that because the sea is warmer than normal the jet
:17:13. > :17:19.stream doesn't get that push north and actually will end up further
:17:19. > :17:23.south and take those weather systems across the UK.
:17:23. > :17:27.So if you influence the origin of the jet stream it's a bit like
:17:27. > :17:32.waving a long stick, you can have a big effect at the end of the jet
:17:32. > :17:40.stream, moving it away or on to the And the interesting thing is we've
:17:40. > :17:44.seen this before in the 1950s. Where does all the bad weather come
:17:44. > :17:48.from? The North Atlantic sea temperature
:17:48. > :17:54.went up in a similar way and at the same time there was a corresponding
:17:54. > :17:57.series of wet summers. That is one theory. Another theory relates to
:17:57. > :18:01.Arctic sea ice. You may have seen the reports this year about the
:18:01. > :18:05.fact that the sea ice melted to a degree that we've never recorded
:18:05. > :18:08.before, it was that low. One of the suggestions is that that
:18:08. > :18:12.change in the amount of Arctic sea ice has led to shifts in the
:18:12. > :18:18.position of the jet stream and then to changes in the kind of weather
:18:18. > :18:22.we get in the UK. But, of course, what we really want
:18:22. > :18:26.to know is what are the summers going to be like in the future?
:18:26. > :18:29.Well, it depends which of those two theories has the most effect.
:18:29. > :18:32.It's the relationship between those two and which is strongest that
:18:32. > :18:35.will determine what happens next. But, in principle, if the North
:18:35. > :18:40.Atlantic warming reverses then it could be that we flip in to the
:18:40. > :18:43.opposite regime and have hot dry summers in a decade or two from now.
:18:43. > :18:48.But what if it's the second theory, the melting of the Arctic ice which
:18:48. > :18:52.is the dominant factor? What happens then?
:18:52. > :18:55.We think that the decline in Arctic sea ice is part of man-made climate
:18:55. > :18:58.change. So as the globe warms up the amount of Arctic sea ice is
:18:58. > :19:01.just declining. And if it's that that's dominating the position of
:19:01. > :19:04.the jet stream then we're kind of going in to uncharted waters, and
:19:04. > :19:09.we're kind of going in to position where maybe, you know, the weather
:19:09. > :19:12.that we're experiencing during summer might be starting to change.
:19:12. > :19:15.What a year of weather it's been, and the answers lie well beyond our
:19:15. > :19:19.shores. Now if the North Atlantic cools down we might get our sunny
:19:19. > :19:29.summers back. But if it's all down to the melting Arctic sea ice we're
:19:29. > :19:35.
:19:35. > :19:38.just going to have to wait and see. So even with the best science we
:19:38. > :19:41.can't be entirely clear on what's driving changes in the weather.
:19:41. > :19:44.That makes forecasting tough but not as tough as dealing with the
:19:44. > :19:47.impact of the extreme conditions we've seen this year. I've been on
:19:47. > :19:50.a trip around the region meeting people who've been worst affected
:19:50. > :19:53.by this year's weather and it's becoming clear that changes in our
:19:53. > :19:57.climate will mean a dramatic rethink in the way we design our
:19:57. > :20:03.world. First stop: the flatlands of West
:20:03. > :20:06.Lancashire. I'm on my way to see arable farmer, Neil Webster.
:20:06. > :20:10.Omigoodness I hope he's farming rice, because that looks like a
:20:10. > :20:14.paddy field. Whams Farm, near Burscough, is next door to Martin
:20:14. > :20:19.Mere Wildfowl Trust, so you can see how high the water table is. Hi
:20:19. > :20:23.Neil I'm Dianne. Hiya. Y'alright?
:20:23. > :20:27.Yeah, nice to meet you. Passed some wet fields on the way up to here.
:20:27. > :20:30.Yeah, it's not so smart, is it. Neil, at 34, farms over 1,000 acres.
:20:30. > :20:34.Not bad for someone who left school with zero qualifications and no
:20:34. > :20:37.money. A success story brought to an abrupt halt.
:20:37. > :20:41.We've probably lost the best of 300,000 this year, due to wet
:20:41. > :20:46.weather. There's an old fellow down the road, he's 92, and he can never
:20:46. > :20:52.remember anything like this. Potatoes, carrots, wheat every crop
:20:52. > :20:57.has been affected. Neil filmed a burst dyke which he reckons caused
:20:57. > :21:04.one million pounds worth of damage to his and neighbouring farms.
:21:04. > :21:08.Waterlogged earth has rotted crops, left machinery wallowing.
:21:08. > :21:11.It's like the Battle of the Somme, innit, it's like you come out of
:21:12. > :21:16.the field and it looks like you've gone to battle with your farm, sort
:21:16. > :21:19.of thing, it's just soul-destroying really, it's hard. If I was like
:21:19. > :21:26.say, be in my fifties, I'd throw the towel in, I'd just say enough's
:21:26. > :21:32.enough, and this would the year that would finish it off. See,
:21:32. > :21:37.that's the problem, look. Acres and acres and acres, thousands of
:21:38. > :21:43.pounds, up the Swanee. Gone. He's been working round the clock. Not
:21:44. > :21:47.much time for his wife and three daughters.
:21:47. > :21:53.It's a bit lonely, I think they have been sad, particularly this
:21:53. > :21:59.year, he's that bit grumpier. We normally like having cuddles
:21:59. > :22:04.with him at night, before we go to bed.
:22:04. > :22:06.But he's never there for us to do Across the field, the Environment
:22:06. > :22:12.Agency are clearing drainage ditches. For Neil, it's too little,
:22:12. > :22:15.too late. The Environment Agency basically
:22:15. > :22:19.haven't done their job in cleaning the ditches out, so the water can
:22:19. > :22:21.run freely to the pumps to be pumped out, then we wouldn't have
:22:21. > :22:24.this problem that we've got today. The Environment Agency say they
:22:24. > :22:28.sympathise with farmers, and are working with them across the region
:22:28. > :22:34.to develop new and sustainable ways of draining the land. At least the
:22:34. > :22:43.family's farmhouse is on a mound, safely raised above the water table.
:22:43. > :22:46.In the village of Croston, 8 miles away, not everyone is so lucky.
:22:46. > :22:50.I wouldn't have been able to drive down here back on June 22nd.
:22:50. > :22:56.That was the day of the first great flood of the summer in Croston. 70
:22:56. > :22:59.homes inundated. Many were on Town Road. I'm on my way to see John
:22:59. > :23:06.Twinn, who back then allowed in the cameras. He had to move out for 13
:23:06. > :23:10.weeks. Hello John!
:23:10. > :23:17.Hello Dianne! Nice to see you can I come in?
:23:17. > :23:21.I have to say it looks immaculate. It does now, but in June after the
:23:21. > :23:24.flood it wasn't. Total devastation, I'm afraid. The walls had to be
:23:24. > :23:27.knocked back, all the way, all the plaster off, the furniture's had to
:23:27. > :23:32.be completely replaced. The smell, because it was sewage, black water,
:23:32. > :23:36.just everywhere, it was terrible. It filled the garden, too.
:23:36. > :23:40.This is our garden, that we woke up on the morning of the flood and it
:23:40. > :23:44.was about three foot deep in flood water. Got a new shed; the old one
:23:44. > :23:48.had to go. All the plants you can see are basically new, because we
:23:48. > :23:50.lost all those, and the lawn. The day we moved back in, we got a
:23:50. > :23:55.phonecall to say the flood alert was on yet again.
:23:55. > :23:58.That was the flood of September 26th. Now, two floods in three
:23:58. > :24:02.months, and a kitchen and garden full of sewage, focuses the mind.
:24:02. > :24:07.John has become an anti-flood campaigner. At the bottom of his
:24:07. > :24:10.garden lurks his chief adversary. Over this wall, we have the River
:24:10. > :24:18.Yarrow, which is normally a great river, but when there's a lot of a
:24:18. > :24:21.rain coupled with a high tide it becomes not so great. These walls
:24:21. > :24:24.that you can see were actually replaced after the 1987 flood, but
:24:24. > :24:29.this time the flood came up round the side of the walls and up
:24:29. > :24:32.through the ground. Here's a startling statistic, from
:24:32. > :24:39.the National Flood Forum: 20 years ago, 20% of insurance claims after
:24:39. > :24:45.flooding were for standing water. Now, it's 80%. That suggests we're
:24:45. > :24:48.getting more flash floods. The amount of development that's
:24:48. > :24:51.gone on throughout the whole of the Yarrow Valley, places like Buckshaw
:24:51. > :24:54.Village, the run-off from those properties, that's the water that
:24:54. > :24:57.comes off the rooves and the roads, and the concrete drives, goes
:24:57. > :25:00.directly into the river instead of soaking in like it used to do. And
:25:00. > :25:03.that means the river levels are really getting higher, on a more
:25:03. > :25:08.regular basis. The antiquated sewerage systems that we've got
:25:08. > :25:11.can't take it, they weren't built for it.
:25:11. > :25:15.The drains were designed to spew water straight into the river
:25:15. > :25:19.through metal flaps. The problem is with more rain, and more run-off,
:25:19. > :25:24.the river gets so high it keeps the flaps pushed shut and water can't
:25:24. > :25:26.escape. So we really need a rethink of how
:25:26. > :25:30.we look at getting rid of excess water.
:25:30. > :25:36.John's plan: a small dam upstream, to restrict the river's flow when
:25:36. > :25:38.there's too much rain. If the amount of rainfall continues
:25:38. > :25:43.to increase, you're going to have to think about fundamental things
:25:43. > :25:45.like redesigning the flow of rivers. Absolutely. What we need to do is
:25:45. > :25:51.create a floodplain upstream. This'll prevent the river levels
:25:51. > :25:56.being so high at time of flood, and that way prevent it happening again.
:25:56. > :25:59.Fifty miles north of John's house, the wettest part of England.
:25:59. > :26:03.The Lake District fells are beautiful, but many are made of
:26:03. > :26:06.non-absorbent volcanic rock. Pour water on them, and it comes
:26:06. > :26:12.sheeting straight off again which is what happened in Kendal on June
:26:12. > :26:16.28th. Kelly Meyrick, who owns a beauty salon, and her husband Ian,
:26:16. > :26:19.were shopping in the town centre. The sky went black
:26:19. > :26:22.The rain started to come down incredibly quickly, never seen
:26:22. > :26:25.anything like it, and the roads were flooded within a few minutes,
:26:25. > :26:31.and that's when you got the call from the salon.
:26:31. > :26:36.What did they say? I said: is the salon flooded, and
:26:36. > :26:39.they said it's much worse than that. The ceiling's collapsed.
:26:39. > :26:42.They raced through flooded roads to get to the Castle Green Hotel; The
:26:42. > :26:48.Green Rooms salon, tucked round the back, has a flat roof which caved
:26:48. > :26:53.in under torrential rain. Sam King was working at the time.
:26:53. > :26:56.Hi Sam, tell me what it was like. Yes, it was really terrifying.
:26:56. > :26:59.was just doing my sister's treatment and all I could hear was
:26:59. > :27:03.just this gush of water, came outside the treatment room and next
:27:03. > :27:05.thing I knew the ceiling fell in on me. It just nearly took me out,
:27:05. > :27:07.really, it was quite painful, like it just went everywhere.
:27:07. > :27:10.How did you feel? I cried!
:27:10. > :27:13.I bet! I just didn't know where to start,
:27:13. > :27:16.didn't know what to do. It was just water everywhere...
:27:16. > :27:19.And how do you feel when it rains now?
:27:19. > :27:22.We move everything out of the way! We just don't want anything to get
:27:22. > :27:24.damaged in here again! Some experts think a bit of
:27:24. > :27:31.redesigning wouldn't go amiss in the fells. All that sheep-cropped
:27:31. > :27:35.turf does little to hold back cascading water. It may be time to
:27:35. > :27:38.introduce belts of longer vegetation to slow the flow.
:27:38. > :27:41.Before we end our tour, spare a thought for the last remaining
:27:41. > :27:46.umbrella-maker in the North West. You'd think that at least for this
:27:46. > :27:48.tiny factory in Stockport, the rain would have brought booming business.
:27:48. > :27:51.But Richard Stretton creates corporate branding, for customers
:27:51. > :27:54.who want to impress clients with fancy days out, on the golf course.
:27:54. > :28:01.With the weather, and the recession, there haven't been many of those
:28:01. > :28:03.this year. Everybody likes to say to me,
:28:04. > :28:07.because it's been so wet, that I must be a multi-millionaire.
:28:07. > :28:10.But unfortunately, sadly, that's not the case.
:28:10. > :28:17.Turnover has in fact shrunk, and Richard, like the rest of us,
:28:17. > :28:21.dreams of sun... So there we have it. I can't
:28:21. > :28:24.remember a year like it and I guess lots of us are hoping we won't see