January Walk – Flooding – Patricia McLellan's Blog

After a day of heavy rain and not getting outside at all, I decided to go for a walk today and see if there was any damage nearby.

This storm is bad enough that it has received a name, “Gyda” and it is affecting a large portion of Norway from the mountain passes in the south to northern Norway. Roads through mountain passes are closed, airlines have cancelled flights, ferries in vulnerable locations have been cancelled, roads are closed due to flooding or landslides and basements have been flooded. In some locations people have been evacuated from their houses as rivers have gone over their banks. At the time of writing this blog, the storm is not over and it is expected to continue to rain at least until tomorrow, but I think the worst is over for us, at least as far as water levels are concerned.

We live on a rocky hillside and though there is a stream not far away, it is on the other side of a small hilltop so even when it floods it does not come our way. We almost always get a mild period in January, when the snow melts. If rain comes at the same time, and the ground is still frozen, the melting snow and the rain water only run across the surface and can not sink into the ground.

We got snow on the 24th of December and we have had several snowfalls since then. There have been nice stable winter temperatures and the snow has piled up.

The accumulated snow on our terrace. This picture was taken on 5 January 2022 at 3 pm, just after sunset.

When I got up on Wednesday, the 12th of January, it had already started to rain and it rained almost constantly all of Wednesday. The temperature eventually rose to about 8 degrees Celsius. With the warm temperatures, as well as the rain it didn’t take long for the snow to disappear. As you can see in the picture above, there was about 20 cm of accumulated snow when the rain started.

We live in an area with a lot of cabins and few residents. I decided on my walk to see what was the status of the area. As I went on my usual walk towards the woods, along a road that goes to some of the cabins, I noticed two cars driving partway along this road and then backing up. Oh, oh. Something must be wrong. As I continue along the road I notice that the water has been much higher and crossed the road, instead of flowing under it.

This car stopped, then backed up and disappeared. You will notice that there is a slight dip in the road at this point. You can see the water pouring across the road. There is an intersection here and there is one road that comes towards me and one that goes off up the hill. In the picture, both roads will be heading off to the right in the picture.

Let’s have a look at what has happened. We live in an agricultural area with farm fields. When the snow melts, or it rains a lot, the water will run to the lowest lying area and continue on downhill until it gets to the fjord. At some point in the past, the farmers owning these fields have put in drainage pipes and the stream has been put underground. This allows the farmer to have more cultivated land. Unfortunately, when the ground is frozen, melting snow water and rain can not go down to the pipes, but instead flow across the field.

Here the water is starting to collect, at the bottom of a ploughed field. Note that where the stream is flowing, the ground has not been ploughed. This will be deliberate. Probably once a year, most likely in January, this flooding will occur.

At this point, the stream is supposed to be underground, but as has happened before, when the ground is frozen, snow melt and rainwater run across the surface. There was quite a flow of water, and from various signs in other places, the water level was already retreating a bit. There isn’t much snow left, so there is just the rain water now.

Looking back the way I have come. There is not normally a stream here, even when it is raining.

Here is where the water running across the field joins the stream as it comes out of a pipe (the pipe is difficult to see but at the left in the picture). The water was flowing quite quickly. The stream heads off to the right, makes a few bends and has quite a few trees along it.

Here, the small stream has more water than it can hold and has flooded its banks. No major problem here as there is plenty of room for the water to spread out.

But the stream is supposed to go under the road here, into a pipe that takes it under the field as well. The pipe did not have the capacity to carry all of the water, so it started flowing across the road. The water flows from right to left in the picture. On my way back, I saw a tractor had crossed the stream, on the road, so it wasn’t that deep, but far too deep for an ordinary car. I went across the field on the left and was able to avoid the stream.

Here the stream has spread out and following its old pathway. In the rainy season, this little section is often very soggy. I’ve never seen such a large pool of flowing water here before. When the children were small, there was sometimes a patch of ice here that they could skate on.

Normally this channel is dry as the water would go through a pipe. But the old stream bed is still there and the stream can use it when necessary.

Here is it quite obvious that water flows were much higher before I came. You can just see the stream on the right. There has been some damage to the road here, but not very much.

The pipe on the left is carrying the water that has come under the field. The water was flowing very quickly and there was also water coming through a pipe, at about the center of the picture, from the stream in the picture above.

I continued on my walk, with the intent of going through the woods. The path was very soggy, but I had gumboots on, so my feet stayed dry. It was raining lightly, but I had rain trousers and jacket on, with a hood pulled up, so it was pleasant to be out in the fresh air. My walk usually takes me up the hill, then around some cabins, then downhill almost to the fjord before climbing uphill again. However, today I did not make the round trip, but ended up going back the way I came. There is a second stream that needs to be crossed twice and I decided not to cross it today.

My turning around point. In the summer, this small stream can be very dry, but today it was full. Usually, it is easy to cross, even when there is water in it, but today the water was flowing so quickly that I decided not to take a chance. If I lost my footing, I would get very wet. In addition, the path that goes down the hill on the other side was also a stream, so the walking there would not be pleasant at all.

I enjoyed my walk, in fact, these pictures were taken on two different walks, one at about 11 am and one at about 2.30 pm. Plus degrees, fresh air (even though it was wet) and something to take pictures of, made both of my walks very pleasant. In addition, I saw that there was no major damage even though car access to the cabin areas was a bit restricted.

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