Rahasane turlough near Craughwell in east Galway, pictured Saturday, August 23 2008. See the picture below to see what it should look like at this time of the year. The bottom picture shows Rahasane in winter – looks familiar ?
The most memorable thing about the summer of 2008 has been the rain. There has been some incredible flooding in Dublin- these pictures of the N3 look like scenes from a science-fiction movie. Similary in Cork and Carlow, a lot of damage and heartache has been caused by flash-floods surging through towns as rivers rapidly filled and then breached their banks.
Galway hasn’t really suffered as badly. Oh, we’ve had plenty of rain, all right. But the west is used to it, and the turloughs, rivers and streams are absorbing the rain just as they would in winter.
Rahasane turlough, near Craughwell in east Galway, pictured on September 5th, 2004.
And therein lies a problem. Some of the turloughs are already at winter levels. In August. In Oranmore and Oranbeg, the floodplains are near winter levels. The river Suck has already breached the riverbanks at the railbridge just north of the town – normally that happens just after Christmas. At Ballyforan, the river has spread out over the fields already – again, something that normally only happens in winter. And at Rahasane [near Craughwell], the biggest turlough in the country, it is full – that’s roughly 250 hectares of water that shouldn’t have shown up for another four or five months. Unless there is a sustained dry spell, the turloughs and rivers will stay full. Which doesn’t leave any room for the winter rains, when they arrive.
Dawn at Rahasane turlough, near Craughwell in east Galway, pictured on January 15th, 2006.
I’m kinda glad I live on a hill.
interesting. I live near here and didn’t think about it like that.