In video: how drought causes floods?

Drought is well known to aggravate the risk of forest fires, but she is also capable of causing the opposite extreme. the south of england, like France, is facing extreme drought with completely scorched and parched soils. L’university of reading filmed a small experiment simple and telling, in order to show the differences between the arrival of torrential rains on a moist, balanced and completely dry ground.

Demonstration of experience

• The first image, on the left, shows a very wet and green grass: the water from the glass is absorbed by an aerated and permeable soil in the space of just 10 seconds.
• The middle image shows a slightly damp lawn: the water in the glass is absorbed within a minute.
• The last image, on the right, shows completely yellow, parched soil, just like that of much of France: even after five minutes, the water in the glass is barely absorbed.

Some netizens and scientists felt that the experiment was skewed due to theair present between the glass in the first image and the grass: indeed, this allows the water to flow more quickly. But for all that, the video remains a very visual and concrete example that allows everyone to realize how the floods flash in case of heavy rain on dry ground. Totally waterproof, ventless, and hard as rock. cementsoils are unable to absorb water, which inevitably leads to runoff and flooding.