Spring Flood on the Thames

March 28th, 2006 by Potato

It’s amazing sometimes how much the river can flood in the springtime. Fortunately, this year I remembered to take some pictures of the difference. I didn’t manage to catch it quite at the peak (when they were paging people over the public address system at the hospital because the parking lot was flooding out), but I did get within about 2 days, so the water level is pretty high!

Here’s a pair of shots of the bike path running under the bridge onto campus:

Spring Flood 06 Bridge
After Spring Flood 06 Bridge

And here’s a pair of the creek running behind my building (that during hot periods in the summer dries up completely):

Spring Flood 06 Creek
After Spring Flood 06 Creek

I don’t know how fast the water rises once the snow melts and those ice dams are removed, but you can see why they always warn parents not to let their small children play near the creeks and rivers in the early spring. Not only does it flood out some of those paths, but the water moving down the river moves a lot faster, too.

Posted in Everything Else, London Stuff | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Spring Flood on the Thames”

  1. Ben Says:
    March 29th, 2006 at 10:15 am

    My grandmother used to live in Chatham and being there a few times in the Spring I have to say the flooding was pretty incredible. There was a little creek not far from her house and it would expand a ridiculous amount. Once I saw it envelop an entire school field, the water was up near the top of the fence, so it was a good 4’ deep.

    Conversely, I’ve been to my aunt’s cottage in Muskoka in the fall once they’ve opened the dam and let about 20’ of water out. I think that takes it back down to about its natural pre-logging level. This is really amazing too because you can basically walk around on the lake-bottom and find all kind of neat things (though mostly mud and logs).

    PS, cool pictures

  2. netbug Says:
    March 29th, 2006 at 10:22 am

    learn2thumbnail o.O

    That said, the creek by my dad’s shop flooded one time I was there and onto the road for 4 square blocks. One industrious gent got in an innertube and went around the block about 7 times.

  3. Hayley Says:
    March 30th, 2006 at 5:52 pm

    Holy flood! The creek by my house can get pretty crazy in the spring, and i remember going down there with my Dad to check it out. The poor old man that lived in the house right beside the creek always got screwed because his basement ALWAYS flooded. Poor guy.