severn bore

[sammmo]

When there is a severn bore, which way is the river running, upstream or downstream?
If the water is running upstream and the bore gets as far as gloucester which is around 50ft above sea level ,does this mean that the water is running uphill?

[ABerrant]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_bore

[sammmo]

thanks ABerrant.. read that.it says it runs against the current. but does'nt really answer my question..If anything it makes it moore odd, the fact it canrun uphill against a current..

[waterboatman]

If you think about it. It does indeed run uphill because it is being forced, it is not obeying the laws of gravity.

[sammmo]

thanks waterboatman,, I'v been in a few discussions at work about this and everyone try's to shoot me down its nice to see someone else thinks the same as me..

[waterboatman]

It's the facts sammmo. They can't argue with them.

[rowanwitch]

Severn bore website is really good....

[waterboatman]

Morning rowan. It certainly is!

[RATTER15]

If its running against the current, the current is obviously running down stream, the waves on the beach are still coming in when the tide is going out.

[RATTER15]

it is only the wave (Bore) that is running in the oppoisite diection not the river.

[heathfield]

Not so, Ratter. The current in the Severn reverses and flows up-river.

http://www.pol.ac.uk/...sight/riverbores.html

[sammmo]

heathfield thats a great answer..So in these circumstances water does indeed run uphill..

[heathfield]

It's not really 'running uphill', Sammmo. Water, (not counting other influences), will always try to achieve a level surface. The water level behind the bore is higher than the water level upstream ahead of the bore, so the water will flow upstream to try and become level. It wouldn't matter whether the river bed sloped uphill or downhill - that would still be the direction of current flow, from higher water to lower water

[sammmo]

I still can't get my head round this..water will always level out, but in these circumstance it actually does'nt otherwise all the water will spill over the banks at newnham as The River is lower there than maisemore..The Town of newnham is alot higher than the river so I cant actually tell you the difference in hight of the actual river between these places.. but i'm looking logically at this and under normal circumstances the river does indeed run downhill .

[DSJ]

When I was a teenager in Stroud, a group of us used to cycle to Epney to watch the bore from there. We climbed trees to get a good view but then had to scramble down quickly after the bore had passed because the water level rose at some speed. We could hear the roaring of the water as it came up the Severn.