British University Experiment Shows Risk of Flash Flooding After Drought
An experiment by a scientist at England’s University of Reading seeks to show how the risk of flash floods increases from heavy rain after a period of drought.
Dr Rob Thompson uploaded a video to YouTube this week showing that it takes longer for water to soak into dry grass after a heat wave than into wet grass or grass in normal summer conditions.
The experiment “shows just how long it takes water to soak into parched ground, illustrating why heavy rainfall after a #drought can be dangerous and might lead to flash floods,” the university said on its Twitter account.
The video shows three clear plastic cups filled with water, on patches of grass mimicking wet grass, “normal summer” grass, and grass after a heat wave. The wet-grass water drains quickly, while water in the cup demonstrating a normal summer trickles down slowly but steadily, and the “after heat wave” cup looks nearly stagnant.
“Damp grass takes 9 seconds, moist grass (more like normal in summer) 52 seconds, parched grass (most this year) looked likely to take at least 15 minutes … but I got bored,” Thompson wrote.
Credit: Dr Rob Thompson/University of Reading via Storyful
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyGmRaadsPE
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