The lawns of Kew Gardens in Britain, home to the world’s largest collection of living plants, are yellow. Amid one of the hottest, driest summers ever, gardeners at this southwest London tourist attraction have carefully chosen how and when to irrigate the thousands of species of plants and trees that attract more than a million visitors annually. In Hampstead Heath, north of the British capital, officials surrounded several trees to protect them from the risk of fire.
In London – and most of England – the unprecedented heat has pushed plant life, infrastructure and population to their limits. Green leaves are falling before autumn. Rising temperatures are causing fires near London. Rail operators have issued alerts about deformed railway tracks. Pipelines reduced production due to rising temperatures.
“The color of the grass is a good measure of how much it has rained recently,” said Barnaby Dobson, Research Associate in the ‘Community Water Management for Liveable Life in London’ project at Imperial College London. It hasn’t rained heavily in London in weeks, which has become a strange concern for a city and country where rainy weather is an emblem.
London is very dry. Any grass that is not watered like yellow dust. No rain in the forecast either. 26C is nice today but I don’t know – I feel like a jacket more than Toronto. It might just be me. pic.twitter.com/LYhl3vNt0V
– Miniature Hogweed 🏳️ 🌈🏳️ ⚧️ (shawnmicallef) August 3, 2022
Outside the capital, there are already water restrictions. Southern Water will impose the first outdoor water use restriction, or irrigation, in southeast England on Friday in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Fines for non-compliance can reach around 1,200 euros. South East Water will impose a similar ban on customers in Kent and Sussex from August 12.
In London, the same restrictions can be offered. That decision rests with Thames Water Utilities, which is responsible for London’s water supply. The company said it is ready to implement water use restrictions if the exceptionally long drought streak continues. “We know that the water we have stored in our tanks will continue to decline, so if we do not receive close to or more precipitation in the coming months, this will put more pressure on our resources and may lead to the need for more water-saving measures, including So limitations,” a spokesperson for Thames Water said.
Dobson said the capital’s large reservoirs, which can supply the city for hundreds of days, are “at very comfortable levels” — they were 91 percent full at the end of June, before the heat wave, which is below average for the city. time of year, but still far from any possibility of a ban.
Savannah-like conditions are out in Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park today – although not many trees seem to succumb to stress.
And among the planes swarming north of the Serpentine, it felt at least 5 degrees colder. Weird zephyr.#the trees #drought # masterpieces pic.twitter.com/5pOoVHFoYS– Barbara Kiser (@barbkiser) July 31, 2022
“Unfortunately, climate models and forecasts indicate that such extreme weather could become the norm within the next 50 years,” said Richard Barley, Director of Gardens at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. This means that visitors may have to get used to seeing dry meadows that rely only on rainwater to survive. “Our priority now is to protect plants within living groups that have high conservation value or historical importance,” he said. Botanic gardens around the world already have to adapt their landscape management strategies to these new conditions. Keogh is no exception.”
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