:00:08. > :00:11.Well come to a special Inside Out about the drought. Don't be fooled
:00:11. > :00:16.by the rain in the region, it may have been wet, but the dry winter
:00:16. > :00:21.caused problems for many parts of the country. Tonight, we ask,
:00:21. > :00:25.should the north-west be helping other regions? Any amount of water
:00:25. > :00:28.that falls here should see Cumbria using this as a commodity or
:00:28. > :00:34.natural resource that can be traded in the same way Saudi Arabia sells
:00:34. > :00:40.oil. We investigate why some people are still facing drought conditions
:00:40. > :00:43.even after a month of heavy rain. All that rain as still not
:00:43. > :00:47.replenished our hidden underground water suppliers. And we discover
:00:47. > :00:53.what lessons we can learn from the Spanish who had to import water
:00:53. > :00:57.from the French. That experience years ago in Barcelona forced
:00:57. > :01:07.everyone to think -- change how they think about water at every
:01:07. > :01:17.
:01:17. > :01:22.Here in the north-west we have had more rain in the last six months
:01:22. > :01:25.than any other region in England, say the Environment agencies. It
:01:25. > :01:28.means the reservoir levels are so high there is no need for a
:01:28. > :01:38.hosepipe ban. So if we are doing so well, is it time to consider
:01:38. > :01:43.
:01:43. > :01:48.selling water to other areas facing The north-west has plenty of water.
:01:48. > :01:57.Our reservoirs are 88% fall and he in Cumbria we have more water than
:01:57. > :02:03.we need. -- here in Cumbria. This is Seathwaite, a hamlet nestling in
:02:03. > :02:11.a valley just south of Keswick. And this place is the proud holder of
:02:11. > :02:16.the title, the wettest place in England. On average, they get about
:02:16. > :02:22.140 inches of rain water every single year. Back in the floods of
:02:22. > :02:25.2009 they got a whopping 12 inches in one day, and that is wet. The
:02:25. > :02:29.Environment Agency called it a flood they would expect to see only
:02:29. > :02:32.once in an 1,000 years. Hundreds of thousands of people fled their
:02:32. > :02:37.homes as water poured into their communities, wreaking havoc with
:02:37. > :02:46.bridges and roads. It may have been a road event, but this county still
:02:46. > :02:50.gets more rain than practically So given the amount of water that
:02:50. > :02:53.falls here, should and Cumbria be using this as a commodity, and
:02:53. > :02:58.natural resource that can be traded in the same way that Saudi Arabia
:02:58. > :03:02.cells or ill? It might sound like an absurd idea but it has had
:03:02. > :03:09.serious consideration in the past - - the way that Saudi Arabia sells
:03:09. > :03:13.its oil. This report from the Environment Agency in 2006 looked a
:03:13. > :03:17.London. The scheme would run for three and and 50 miles per would
:03:17. > :03:23.cost in the region of �15 billion. That is eight times more expensive
:03:23. > :03:29.than developing the water system in the south-east. In the scheme, --
:03:29. > :03:32.in the eventual time passing, the scheme was dusted off. But then he
:03:32. > :03:37.came back after Boris Johnson asked in the Daily Telegraph what we
:03:37. > :03:42.could not bring a surplus rain from the mountains to irrigate and
:03:42. > :03:48.refresh the breadbasket of the country in the south and east.
:03:48. > :03:53.nothing is impossible. There is definitely no shortage of water in
:03:53. > :03:56.the Lake District. I don't see why it shouldn't be looked into.
:03:56. > :04:00.wouldn't mind us sharing our water with the rest of the country?
:04:00. > :04:05.at all. They can have as much as they want. Yes, because we have so
:04:05. > :04:11.much of it here. Way you are standing now can sometimes be a
:04:11. > :04:19.river. Beneath my feet, a river. You can get stuck and stranded
:04:19. > :04:22.The I guess if there was a wait to get water to another part of the
:04:22. > :04:32.country with a shortage, you would welcome it. The Yes, I would swap
:04:32. > :04:37.
:04:37. > :04:41.that. In a heartbeat. Yeah, for a As a trade-in option, it appeals to
:04:41. > :04:45.Cumbria County Council's Cabinet minister for the environment of
:04:45. > :04:50.Transport, Tim Knowles. I think it is a good concept and it would be
:04:50. > :04:57.incredibly expensive but from the point of view of Cumbria, you have
:04:57. > :05:02.to think very hard about the impact on the environment in reducing the
:05:02. > :05:06.amount in water systems. How do you see it working? We would have to
:05:06. > :05:13.work out the cost per litre, and that would be on top of the massive
:05:14. > :05:18.investment necessary to move water 300 miles away directly south to
:05:18. > :05:27.London. That would be a big cost. Of course, Cumbria has been giving
:05:27. > :05:32.its water away for over a century To the untrained eye, this stretch
:05:32. > :05:37.of water looks like one of the many lakes that forms the Lake District.
:05:37. > :05:47.But it is not. It is entirely man- made, or in the sense that two
:05:47. > :05:50.
:05:50. > :05:52.lakes were joined together to As the cotton mills of Manchester
:05:52. > :05:57.powered the Industrial Revolution, the local corporation realised they
:05:57. > :06:02.needed a better water supply and turned to Civil Engineer John
:06:02. > :06:06.Bateman to come up with a solution. His idea was breathtakingly simple.
:06:06. > :06:15.He would let gravity do the work to pull the Lake District Water down
:06:15. > :06:23.hill to Manchester. A concrete and masonry dam was built. And an
:06:23. > :06:30.aqueduct, or pipeline which runs for 96 miles, and has no pumps. The
:06:30. > :06:34.water trickles along at walking pace. This is the River Lune, deep
:06:34. > :06:38.in the heart of Lancashire. This is part of the aqueduct. It is halfway
:06:38. > :06:47.along the water's journey, and by the time it reaches this point, it
:06:47. > :06:49.has been travelling for about 18 hours. From here, it flows south,
:06:49. > :06:53.skirting the Forest of Boland before heading into Greater
:06:53. > :06:57.Manchester. When it was built, the engineer saw this as a way of
:06:57. > :07:00.quenching their thirst of the Industrial Revolution. 55 million
:07:00. > :07:07.gallons a day flow along the pipeline, and after a day and a
:07:07. > :07:11.half, the water finally reaches its destination. Here, at Eaton Park
:07:11. > :07:15.reservoir in north Manchester, from where pumping stations send it to
:07:15. > :07:20.factories and homes -- Eaton Park. But that was not the end of the
:07:20. > :07:25.ingenious plan. By the late 1920s, he could not supply enough water
:07:25. > :07:29.alone to Manchester, so another reservoir was created in the Lakes.
:07:29. > :07:33.Man is changing the face of nature. Through the centre opening in the
:07:33. > :07:36.giant new dam, water is still running. Soon it will be stopped
:07:36. > :07:46.and the village of Mark Dale and the farms on the roads in the
:07:46. > :07:54.valley will be submerged between a It took six years to build the dam
:07:54. > :07:59.at Haweswater, and then Smardale was submerged. In times of doubt,
:07:59. > :08:09.it's mostly -- ghostly remains can still be seen, as his video from
:08:09. > :08:10.
:08:10. > :08:13.1984 shows. They are still So, if engineers from a century ago
:08:13. > :08:18.can leave us with a legacy that still works today, how difficult
:08:18. > :08:21.can it be to transfer water from here to the south-east? The friends
:08:21. > :08:25.of the Lake District think that before anyone considers that, water
:08:25. > :08:32.company should be looking at ways to better preserve the water we use
:08:32. > :08:35.and educate people in ways to save and collect it. The overriding
:08:35. > :08:40.concern is just the practicality and the amount of money that would
:08:40. > :08:44.be involved. It is perfectly feasible to have a national water
:08:44. > :08:46.network but it costs so much money and it seems we would be much
:08:46. > :08:51.better off doing other things that would be more sustainable. You
:08:51. > :08:55.could use the money for water meters for better shower heads to
:08:55. > :08:58.reduce water in their home which means they would not be so much
:08:58. > :09:02.money spent on infrastructure and it would be more sustainable.
:09:02. > :09:06.United Utilities, the group which manages the water in the region,
:09:06. > :09:11.told us a national water grid light the gas and electricity network
:09:11. > :09:16.would not be feasible because the water is too heavy and expensive to
:09:16. > :09:19.move over long distances. They said they regularly talk to other water
:09:19. > :09:29.companies and have no immediate plans to share water with other
:09:29. > :09:32.
:09:32. > :09:35.So what is going on with the National weather and water supply?
:09:35. > :09:39.We live in a country where complaining about rain is a
:09:39. > :09:44.national pastime, but we have this drought. How serious has it all
:09:44. > :09:48.become? We sent meteorologist Nik Miller from the wettest of the
:09:48. > :09:58.driest areas in England, and along the way he had some myths to
:09:58. > :10:09.
:10:09. > :10:15.The Lake District is England's wettest place, and looking below,
:10:15. > :10:19.the word drought is the last thing that comes to mind. It is rain rich,
:10:19. > :10:23.and the reservoirs, have billions of litres of water. And on an
:10:23. > :10:27.island where it has not stopped raining for the past few weeks, how
:10:27. > :10:31.come so much of England is in drought? The met Office is now
:10:31. > :10:34.looking into what is behind the apparent change in our climate. The
:10:35. > :10:39.first place they are looking is the jet stream that carries rain
:10:39. > :10:42.bearing weather fronts across the Atlantic. The jet stream has tended
:10:42. > :10:46.to be displaced a little further north. By the time the weather
:10:46. > :10:50.fronts push south into the part of England in particular that is so
:10:50. > :10:54.short of rainfall, they are running into a high pressure so not really
:10:54. > :10:58.doing the job we want them to do, which used to add a decent of --
:10:58. > :11:02.amount of rain on top of the water levels. At this time of year we are
:11:02. > :11:06.competing with nature for water. Everything around us has embarked
:11:06. > :11:09.on spring growth. You do not get England's green and pleasant land
:11:09. > :11:13.without it. But whilst everything around us is turning green, and you
:11:13. > :11:18.can see the river filling up, what you don't see in some parts of the
:11:18. > :11:22.country is even more important, and that is underground. And it is the
:11:22. > :11:29.water underground, not reservoirs, that supply 75% of the most
:11:29. > :11:33.populated parts of England. 150 miles south of Windermere, and I am
:11:33. > :11:36.in drought territory in the East Midlands. I am visiting the
:11:36. > :11:41.National Geological Survey in Nottingham where they are
:11:41. > :11:44.constantly monitoring the level of England's ground water. Using data
:11:44. > :11:49.from thousands of boreholes, they have created an underground map of
:11:49. > :11:52.Britain. If you look at the map, the areas in green, the chalk,
:11:52. > :11:56.running up into Lincolnshire, to Yorkshire, down the south of
:11:56. > :12:01.Britain, round the south-east, it is a really important aqua follow.
:12:01. > :12:05.That only gets recharged by rainfall in the winter and we have
:12:05. > :12:09.had to relatively dry winters so we have not had the recharge we would
:12:09. > :12:12.normally expect. Groundwater levels have remained normal in the north-
:12:13. > :12:19.west but as you move south-east, they have dropped in volume by a
:12:19. > :12:22.third. In the last couple of years only four months have been
:12:22. > :12:28.significantly wetter than normal, including the April just gone,
:12:28. > :12:32.which delivered record rain. To really find out how low our ground
:12:32. > :12:38.water stocks are, I joined Andy Mackenzie and his team last week to
:12:38. > :12:42.do a survey. This is the South Downs, in droughts, one of the
:12:42. > :12:48.driest parts of England. And below me, the most important source of
:12:48. > :12:54.ground Walker -- water. Today we will find out how far we have to go
:12:54. > :12:57.down to find that water. It is effectively a giant pressurised
:12:57. > :13:02.sponge full of water which the Victorians tapped with Wells like
:13:02. > :13:08.this one at Chilgrove. The water would normally be about 20 metres
:13:08. > :13:12.below ground level. This is the exciting bit. How far down are we?
:13:12. > :13:16.It is looking promising. I can see a reflection towards the bottom of
:13:16. > :13:19.the wealth but we are only at about 30 metres below where we started.
:13:19. > :13:24.Before long we passed the point where we would normally find water
:13:24. > :13:28.and the camera keeps descending. One of the interesting things is
:13:28. > :13:32.that you are seeing really dry walls in the borehole. So if there
:13:32. > :13:35.was any Recharge happening, you would see moisture, or at least on
:13:35. > :13:39.the camera the walls would be glistening slightly, but they are
:13:39. > :13:44.dry. So even though it has been pouring with rain, that rain down
:13:44. > :13:48.here has not made a jot of difference yet. No, he hasn't. It
:13:48. > :13:51.would take some -- it would take weeks, or probably amounts of water
:13:51. > :13:57.to infiltrate, but it's not going to, it will get taken up by the
:13:57. > :14:03.plants. We are just coming up to 34.4. That is the surface of the
:14:03. > :14:07.water. So how does it compare with how well it has been before?
:14:07. > :14:13.have 180 years of records. This is the 5th or 6th driest we have seen
:14:13. > :14:17.in April. So that is pretty low. The last major drought was in 1976
:14:17. > :14:21.when one dry winter was followed by a very hot summer. Now we are
:14:21. > :14:24.saying save water because we will need it. People were forced to
:14:24. > :14:29.queue in the streets to get water from standpipes. This drought is
:14:29. > :14:33.different. It is not hot and sunny. It has been pouring with rain. Yet
:14:33. > :14:36.we are being told we could be in drought until Christmas. No one is
:14:36. > :14:40.saying that all the rain we are having is making a difference, of
:14:40. > :14:43.course it is. We had one of our wettest April some there have even
:14:43. > :14:53.been floods, but that rain still has not reached where many of us
:14:53. > :14:56.
:14:56. > :15:01.What the Victoria started with Welles was soon expanded to exploit
:15:01. > :15:05.the resources of the aquifer in a bigger scale. This is activated by
:15:05. > :15:15.South East Water, supplying millions of customers from pumping
:15:15. > :15:21.stations. Down there, that is the precious water. It is a very
:15:21. > :15:25.serious situation, our underground aquifers are very low. We see them
:15:25. > :15:30.flowing at higher levels and think everything is OK with the rivers,
:15:30. > :15:38.it is not the case. All-time low levels, we have to pump down to
:15:38. > :15:42.levels like never before. Full-time Lowes, even worse than 1976?
:15:42. > :15:47.think it is, I think it's more widespread across the various
:15:47. > :15:52.regions and our greatest fear is that we have a third dry winter.
:15:52. > :15:57.The level of recharge in alt ground water is a third lower than it
:15:57. > :16:00.should be after a two dry winters in a row. We have come a long way
:16:00. > :16:06.from the Lake District and it seems we are further from the soaking
:16:06. > :16:11.rain falling above ground. Down here, it is winter rain which
:16:11. > :16:21.matters. If we don't get enough next winter, then we are all
:16:21. > :16:22.
:16:22. > :16:26.heading into the unknown. So what options do we have if there is a
:16:26. > :16:32.third try winter? There are no shortage of people offering advice,
:16:32. > :16:36.but do we have a strategy in place? We asked David widely to
:16:36. > :16:41.investigate, and he starts his story in a part of the world where
:16:41. > :16:50.they are used to these problems. A place where we may get tips on
:16:50. > :16:54.living with dry weather conditions. This church has to tear in this
:16:54. > :16:59.valley in northern Spain for more than 500 years, but I shouldn't
:16:59. > :17:03.even be able to be here because this is the bottom was over -- of a
:17:03. > :17:09.reservoir. That's by is normally submerged and the thousands of tons
:17:09. > :17:13.of water are normally here. Spain is going through its worst drought
:17:13. > :17:17.for 70 years. Reservoirs are drying up and forest fires have been
:17:17. > :17:21.raging in other parts of the country. Look at the waterline in
:17:21. > :17:26.this reservoir. Look how high it should be and look where it is,
:17:26. > :17:33.just below the trees is where the water should be. That is incredible.
:17:33. > :17:37.Can Spain give us a glimpse into an uncomfortable future? Four years
:17:37. > :17:45.ago the situation got so bad the taps in Barcelona almost ran dry,
:17:45. > :17:49.and the City was forced to ship in suppliers from France. It is 3 1/2
:17:49. > :17:54.million residents in Barcelona who have had to completely change their
:17:54. > :17:59.attitude towards water. I find it incredible that something as simple
:17:59. > :18:06.as water had to be transported in tankers into Barcelona. What was
:18:06. > :18:10.that like? It was a first, as far as I know. Luckily it never was on
:18:10. > :18:15.a massive scale for a long time, but before that there was a
:18:15. > :18:19.sensation that it was not going to be easy. If the drought continued
:18:19. > :18:24.for much longer we would have rations and things would be
:18:24. > :18:29.complicated. How have you heard that it your life star in the
:18:29. > :18:34.climate we in? Week became conscience -- conscious of how
:18:34. > :18:39.precious water was and with the emergency measures more so. The
:18:39. > :18:44.children became very aware of it, they had an easier time adapting to
:18:44. > :18:48.turning the tap off all the time. They became the water police.
:18:48. > :18:53.Through simple measures, such as turning off taps and having time
:18:53. > :19:00.Towers, -- showers, Barcelona is now on its way to becoming one of
:19:01. > :19:06.the world's leading cities in saving water. People who use just
:19:06. > :19:11.107 litres a day, compared to 150 in the UK. Across the city they
:19:11. > :19:16.have also tried using water from showers to flush toilets as well as
:19:16. > :19:19.recycling the water in Barcelona's famous fountains. This isn't the
:19:19. > :19:23.first and went be the last time Barcelona has face drought, but
:19:23. > :19:30.that experience four years ago forced everyone to change the way
:19:30. > :19:34.they think about water on every level. This place was the answer.
:19:34. > :19:40.They built this massive desalination plant. It is the
:19:40. > :19:45.largest in Europe. By taking sea water from the Mediterranean, the
:19:45. > :19:50.plant can produce 180 million litres of fresh water every day.
:19:50. > :19:59.That is still only a 5th of the city's needs, so it is used as a
:19:59. > :20:03.stop gap when reservoirs are low. TRANSLATION: the city is much more
:20:03. > :20:07.secure because of this plant but it is not total security. It allows us
:20:07. > :20:14.to function between rainy periods, and if there is a drought the plant
:20:14. > :20:18.can produce more. After building Europe's first desalination plant,
:20:18. > :20:23.40 years ago, Spain is now a world leader in the technology. However,
:20:23. > :20:30.it is not a perfect solution, the water produced here is very
:20:30. > :20:34.expensive. This plant uses enough energy to power a small town.
:20:34. > :20:38.Unlike Spain, which uses most water for agriculture, this is where we
:20:39. > :20:44.use most of ours, generating electricity in power stations. Most
:20:44. > :20:50.of the rest, around 40 per cent is used in homes and gardens. However
:20:50. > :20:57.we used to much, more than many developed countries. As head of the
:20:57. > :21:02.water resource firm, it is this man's job to find answers. We have
:21:02. > :21:06.already got one big desalination plant near London. That will be
:21:06. > :21:10.really important for suppliers in London. I think the likelihood of
:21:10. > :21:14.Seymour desalination plants in England is quite high. You don't
:21:14. > :21:22.want to rely on desalination, though. Very expensive and produces
:21:22. > :21:27.a lot of carbon. We are at this picture ate -- picturesque set of
:21:27. > :21:32.locks, is it an issue for water companies to transfer water to dry
:21:32. > :21:39.parts? The Victorians started transporting water, and it
:21:39. > :21:43.underpins how we deal with water now. A in the future, moving water
:21:43. > :21:48.around even more, with greater connectivity within the country and
:21:48. > :21:53.now works, is going to be part of the answer. Connectivity is the new
:21:53. > :21:57.buzz word. Are we talking about a national grid of water? As far as
:21:57. > :22:01.electricity is concerned, if somewhere is producing electricity,
:22:01. > :22:05.you don't get blackouts in other parts, why should we have
:22:05. > :22:09.restrictions in some parts? We are not talking about a national grid
:22:09. > :22:15.in the same way, water is very heavy to move and very expensive to
:22:15. > :22:20.move. If you have water and move it from the north to south, you can
:22:20. > :22:24.have crowds and the North. You don't want to rely in its exclusive
:22:24. > :22:31.live. If desalination has problems and we should not rely are moving
:22:31. > :22:35.it, what is going to happen if we have a third dry winter? Difficult
:22:35. > :22:40.to say but we would be in a bad place. We have never worked out the
:22:41. > :22:47.consequences of three dry winters in a row. We have never had it. You
:22:47. > :22:51.would be expecting measures to try and conserve water. There would be
:22:51. > :22:56.pipes in the streets, water suppliers would be cut off. They
:22:56. > :23:01.would have to take buckets to stand pipes. It could be tens of
:23:01. > :23:06.thousands of people involved. There is no strategic national plant, as
:23:06. > :23:10.far as I know, to deal with three dry winters. I would like to be
:23:10. > :23:16.proven wrong, I would like to think we have a plan but I don't know of
:23:16. > :23:21.one. The plan is based on a hope that it rains. It is a very poor
:23:21. > :23:27.strategy for dealing with a risky business. Is there a strategy or
:23:27. > :23:30.not? Caroline Spelman is the environment secretary. We have to
:23:30. > :23:34.have contingency plans, drought is a natural phenomenon which can
:23:34. > :23:38.happen at any time. We have seen it coming and have been planning for
:23:38. > :23:42.it. What we are putting in place other measures to deal with that.
:23:42. > :23:47.Things like the temporary restrictions on non-essential uses
:23:47. > :23:50.of water in domestic settings are something that we planned to do in
:23:50. > :23:57.order to conserve water and make sure we don't have to move to more
:23:57. > :24:03.stringent restrictions later. billion litres of water, a quarter
:24:03. > :24:06.of a water, has lost every day. Is that acceptable? We need to
:24:06. > :24:10.encourage the water companies to reduce leakage and the government
:24:10. > :24:15.has made that really clear. Shouldn't the targets be more
:24:15. > :24:19.stringent? Germany and you lose 10 percent of the water. It is the
:24:19. > :24:23.economic regulator who set the targets. It is our challenge to
:24:23. > :24:27.meet. The government is also pushing water companies to do more
:24:28. > :24:33.to connect suppliers across the country. Caroline Spelman says we
:24:33. > :24:38.need to think differently about the water we use. When you go to a dry
:24:38. > :24:42.country and you explain to them, in a country like ours, we used to
:24:42. > :24:48.drinking water for everything. We wash our clothes in it, flush our
:24:48. > :24:52.toilets, wash up with it, they are sometimes quite surprised. Can you
:24:52. > :24:56.guarantee, if we get a third dry winter, we will not have water
:24:56. > :25:00.rationing and standpipes in the street? I am not deluded into
:25:00. > :25:05.thinking I can tell you how much rain we will get, and it is far too
:25:05. > :25:10.early to tell yet whether we will have the wet winter we need, but
:25:10. > :25:15.whereas it is most unlikely we will have standpipes this year, if we
:25:15. > :25:20.have another dry winter, that becomes more likely. Given the
:25:20. > :25:24.recent heavy rain and floods in the UK, talk of standpipes may sound
:25:24. > :25:28.extraordinary, but as they have discovered here in Spain, the world
:25:28. > :25:33.is changing. Climate change and and is expanding population means the
:25:33. > :25:38.demand for water will increase and even if the rain comes this winter,
:25:38. > :25:44.pretty soon we will have to start thinking of drinking water has the
:25:45. > :25:48.precious and scarce natural resource it really is. So, drought
:25:48. > :25:53.measures in other areas. What I want to know is what is the
:25:53. > :25:59.forecast in the north-west over the next week? Diane, can you promise
:25:59. > :26:02.us and the Sun? I am sure you will be satisfied with the Sun today,
:26:02. > :26:05.be satisfied with the Sun today, really nice, and tomorrow half of
:26:05. > :26:08.the day will offer you more. Over the next couple of days, the
:26:08. > :26:14.sunshine becomes much more bearable as the cloud cover stars to take
:26:14. > :26:19.hold. It is not just about how it looks but how it feels as well. The
:26:19. > :26:25.warm air we have had today, the 17 Celsius that he will have tomorrow,
:26:25. > :26:30.it will be a thing of the past. We will see the cold air pushing him,
:26:30. > :26:37.everywhere. That is how it progresses over May, looking at
:26:37. > :26:44.April, a very wet month. Unsurprising the the wettest places
:26:44. > :26:49.were in Wales and the south-west, 291 mm of rain, breaking long-term
:26:49. > :26:55.records there. We in the north-west, we are famed for living in a wet
:26:55. > :26:59.part of the world. How did we shape up? I would say around 90 per cent
:26:59. > :27:04.of our weather stations reported above average rainfall, which bodes
:27:04. > :27:10.well in drought conditions. We had to look to Cheshire for the
:27:10. > :27:15.significant record-breaker, would fit in Cheshire, 134 mm of rain.
:27:15. > :27:20.This is against the long-term average of 54. You can see why we
:27:20. > :27:25.smashed the record. The weather, it always surprises you. If we look
:27:25. > :27:29.back to last year, 12 mm of rain last year. Who knows what is going
:27:30. > :27:37.to happen as we head through the next couple of months. I can tell
:27:37. > :27:41.you, over the next 12-24 hours, though. Many parts of the North
:27:41. > :27:46.West will have clear weather. Temperatures could fall away to
:27:46. > :27:52.around three or court degrees. Showers in the southern parts,
:27:52. > :27:56.towns and cities will see six or seven degrees. There will be some
:27:56. > :28:00.spells of sunshine around, though. I cannot promise they will linger
:28:00. > :28:04.throughout the day, we have an area of rain which will try and move on
:28:04. > :28:09.towards the day. The further north, the brighter the skies and the more
:28:09. > :28:13.sunshine you will have. You will see some up until lunchtime, but
:28:13. > :28:17.here comes the Rain Again. It will trundle north and try and push
:28:17. > :28:22.everywhere as we head through the afternoon. As it takes hold some of