Saturday
Showery with winds gusting up to 50 mph.
Tree debris on the path, including one upended tree.
Sunday
Sunny spells and showers.
Winds are not as strong.
The path has been mostly cleared.
The cool weather contrasts with the heat wave in Southern Europe.
Rain continues to fall in Abingdon. There were puddles at the sides of roads including Park Road.
The persistent rainfall had created a larger puddle inside one park entrance.
There was a deeper soakaway outside the other entrance.
Sodden leaves hung from trees.
Although I could not see rotting tree roots underground, something has given food to the toadstools that had recently risen in clumps. Somebody saw me taking this picture and asked me if they were edible. Toadstool / Mushroom identification is not my speciality so I said, ‘I wouldn’t risk it.’
Temperature went above 31 C as an alert was put in place telling people to take extra care in the sun.
I wonder about the risks of swimming in the River Thames. But I do know that not swallowing water reduces the risks of getting Weil’s disease.
It was a lovely sunny day. Whether that will help stop the spread of the Coronavirus no longer seems sure. The southern states of the USA, and Mexico and Brazil are still experiencing a rise in cases, and they get a lot of sun.
Government advice about bubbles, and numbers of people in groups, and whether you can hug people and go indoors with them is becoming very confusing, and changing by the day, and so we are better to stay alert. We, and not the government, are responsible for our own health.
W H Smiths re-opened today in Abingdon. A lot more businesses including pubs and restaurants and hairdressers can open from July 4th. However tattoo shops, nail and beauty salons, and gyms still have to wait for their go ahead.
Nail salons and tattoo shops were wearing PPE before the rest of us. It is ironic that they are at the end of the queue.
We went for a walk on Monday evening, and I took a picture of Abingdon Bridge. There was sunshine behind and dark clouds ahead. North Abingdon had a downpour, and South Abingdon got little or no rain.
On the walk we saw that Fabulous Flowers were set to reopen on Tuesday with a flower display over the door.
Parking rules must be tightening up again. On Lombard Street, all the parked cars had a Police Notice stuck to the windscreen.
Waitrose were handing out umbrellas for people in the queue. At the very end of April, the month is trying to make up for all the missing April Showers with one downpour .
With the shopping I got an Abingdon Herald. On page 22 is a message from the editor.The Herald has been hit hard by the lockdown in sales and advertising revenue. During the next six weeks they offer free delivery.
For May Morning (Friday, 1st May), Rotary Abingdon planned to have a choir singing on top of the Abingdon County Hall and a May Pole in the Market Place. This is postponed until 2021.
The large event in Oxford, that attracts thousand of people, has also been cancelled. However Oxford are having a virtual May Morning. People can join in by tagging their own social media posts with #MayMorning .
From 6am on May Morning you can see a Virtual May Morning live stream featuring: The Choir of Magdalen College, Oxford Horns of Plenty, Oxford University Morris Dancers, John Otway, and many more. The Choir of Magdalen College have recorded their parts individually, and through modern technology will be singing together. I don’t know how the Morris Dancers will dance together while apart.
Since the introduction of GDPR many regional USA websites have closed access to the UK saying ‘We recognize you are attempting to access this website from a country belonging to the European Economic Area (EEA) including the EU which enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and therefore access cannot be granted at this time.’
So it is not quite so easy to stay up to date with what is happening in Abingdon, Virginia. I have found the following news about the recent storms and floods and coronavirus pandemic from 2 days ago …
Mon April 13th 2020
Washington County, Virginia. is under a state of emergency due to severe storm damage, and widespread flooding.
Fire crews were conducting a water rescue on Woodby Lane in Abingdon on Monday morning after flooding in the area caused residents to evacuate.
Residents of apartments on Henderson Court in Abingdon, Virginia were evacuated after overnight rains caused flooding in the area.
Coronavirus Pandemic
Mon April 13th 2020
As part of efforts to ensure the wellbeing of the community, the Town of Abingdon will be closing its offices.
All playground facilities and pavilions with picnic tables are not available for the time being due to the coronavirus concerns. Outdoor pavilion reservations for sites owned by the Town are discontinued.
Other parks that are public are staying open with normal operating conditions as long as visitors follow proper social distancing guidelines.
An Abingdon glass company is supplying several hospitals in the region with an extra layer of protection from the coronavirus. Leann Meadows, owner and operator of Highlands Glass Co., said when she opened her residential and commercial business more than 10 years ago, she never dreamed she would be helping to save lives one day.
Following Storm Dennis, the level of the River Ock is at its highest level for several years. Data from https://riverlevels.uk/ock-abingdon-on-thames-abingdon-ock shows the last time it was this high, and higher, was 2014.
Water was spilling onto the lower road at Tesco today but not flooding much of the car park.
Property flooding is not currently expected. Although water has got close to some of the gardens on the Ladygrove Estate.
The Ladygrove Meadow Play Area is under water during half term week,
together with the exercise machines on the trim trail.
Flooding of low-lying land, and footpaths is expected to continue with river levels remaining high over the coming days.
The Environment Agency requests people to remain safe and aware of your local surroundings and avoid contact with flood water.
Meanwhile tree surgeons and roofers have been kept busy around Abingdon. The wind was not as strong as Storm Ciara (one week before), but there was a lot more rain.
This weekend Storm Dennis brought a lot of rain and some fairly strong winds. Another tree was coming down on the Ock Valley Walk as the ground softened and the winds blew.
There was a crash along Ock Street. The police and recovery vehicles were sorting it out at around 4 pm today.
There was damage to two cars, the windows of Sydenhams, and the pillar that helps holds up the upper storey above Sydenhams.
Storm Ciara was blowing today. There was a loud bang early on. Our first thought was that something had come crashing down from the roof.
But the bang was caused by Didcot ‘A’ Power Station chimney being demolished. The view down the River Thames from Abingdon has changed as a result.
The wind brought down some trees and branches. One tree had fallen between Trinity Church and the Abingdon School sports grounds. Fortunately the wind was from the South West and the tree fell onto open ground. Another tree on Bostock Road fell not onto cars or across the road but along the footpath and grass verge.
There was a tree and lots of branches down in the Albert Park.
A tree had come down over the River Ock along the Ock Valley Path.
A poplar in the Abbey Meadow had shattered.
A tree over the other side of the River Thames was split apart.
There was also a very heavy rain shower during the afternoon that lasted a few minutes before easing off.
That was followed by sunshine and a Rainbow (seen here over Abingdon Vale Cricket Club ground).
There was a hard frost on both Saturday and Sunday morning, and this Monday morning temperatures were at -2C as people set off to work.
The big cooling towers of Didcot A coal Power Station have been demolished, but the more efficient Didcot B gas Power Station was working hard – its lower cooling towers creating clouds of vapour.
There was cloud early in the morning.
The flood water from the River Thames appeared to be receding.
Sunrise showed through the clouds.
Frost can be seen on the grass and the dried stalks of riverside plants.
Flood pools had a film of ice but not thick enough for ice skating.
With a forecast of warmer days ahead, the possibility of ice skating in Abingdon looks remote. Later in the day the clouds cleared and temperatures reached 7C before cooling down by evening.