Share a story of how you have experienced weather and/or climate at this place
We moved to our (mostly) off-grid house in Aug 2017 and noticed that our rainwater storage we use for all our needs has increasingly got to critical levels or worse.
The usual 165ltr/day/person rule of thumb used for typical Scottish households (https://www.waterwise.org.uk/save-water/) to size our tank won't take the 5 to 6 week droughts we seem to experience early in the year and has not enough volume to hold enough when we get intense rainfall. Both problems, lack of rain and increasing precipitation intensity, are worsening. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/press-office/news/weather-and-climate/2021/drier-european-summers-projected-under-human-induced-climate-change
Our water storage needs to be rebuilt to accommodate nearer 10,000 litres rather than the 4,500ltrs we have which in reality is only 3,700ltrs due to installation constraints. There is the tricky balance between too much standing water and not enough both of which can lead to health concerns. We're also off-grid with our water free compost loo (so lower per-person water usage).
Have you observed the weather, climate, or natural environment at this place changing over time?
Yes,
Concerned enough to take action
Have you done anything to prepare for or address climate and weather changes at this place?
Planned increase in water storage, planting shelter belts to lessen impact of weather and increase biomass in supporting the life here (human, flora and fauna).
*Originally submitted to the Highland Weather & Climate Story Map Commonplace Platform on 14 March 2023.
