As a child, my mother frequently warned me always to be careful what I wished for as there was always a chance I would get my wish.  I should have remembered these maternal warnings when wishing for rain last summer as that wish seems to have been met with a vengeance this autumn.  This past week has been miserable with barely a dry hour.  Often the wet has been accompanied by fierce winds and most of the local sheep have adopted a permanent expression of sheer damp gloom.

This week coming promises to be little better so I'm taking no bets on a white Christmas.

On a more positive note today's Telegraph carries a review of a new book by Charles Rangeley - Wilson  who I have mentioned before.  This is an expansion of his recent TV series on fishing and despite a rather lukewarm review by Tom Fort promises to be an absorbing read as Charles is renowned for his ability to convey the sheer enjoyment of angling through his excellent prose.  What Tom questions is not the quality of the writing or the interest to be garnered from each page by why there's a need to go to such far flung places as the Amazon or Bhutan to pursue fish inconclusively when much better sport can be had in Hampshire or Dorset (a southerner, clearly).  Still, "The Reluctant Angler" is something to add last minute to the Christmas list.

I came across an article published in the  New Scientist back in October about the Ribble.  It seems that a grid of smart river sensors that monitor water depth and flow and can predict impending flooding are being installed on the river in the Dales.  It reports that network could give locals and government decision makers earlier warning of rising trouble.  Two of thirteen sensor nodes have so far been installed  along a kilometre stretch of the river locally and the rest of the network should be in place by the end of this year.

The final network will contain three kinds of sensor node.  Eleven will measure pressure from below the waterline in order to determine depth.  The other two will monitor the speed of river flow - one using ultrasound underwater, and the other using web cams to track objects and ripples moving along the surface.  Each node is smaller than a human fist  and powered by batteries and solar panels.  Each is also accompanied by a computer unit about the size of a packet of chewing gum, which contains a processor about as powerful as those found in a modern mobile phone.

The sensors communicate with each other and a base station through Wi-Fi and Bluetooth antennas and will be monitored by Lancaster University.

It doesn't take much imagination to think how useful this network could be to local anglers.  The sensors will give us information about the water level and flow in real time and from this we can deduce the ideal conditions to fish.  The web cams may also record the passing of fish and enable us to monitor the movement of salmon and sea trout up river on their spawning runs.  I shall try to find out more.

It's now time to don the wetsuit and go and check the livestock.  See you next week for a Christmas special.

Ian

A late update on the above info about river monitoring.  The installation is at Cow Bridge near Long Preston and you can actually see a video clip of the river here taken by the web-cam on 26 November if you go to this link http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/users/hughesdr/projects/river.wmv . It opens in windows media player.  Now, if only we could do that!

Ian