please empty your brain below
There are some path in the vicinity where the mud has a "platform" quality... The nett effect of this that shoes/boots with some tread will accumulate platform soles made of mud.

This should be added as a separate factor for SQ levels 6 and above.

Southern Heights (Light Railway) | 03.03.21 - 8:31 a.m. | #

We have a Bog Lane near us which is so named for a good reason. Just about got down to 6 now having been 9 for several weeks.

davews | 03.03.21 - 8:35 a.m. | #

Two posts in a day? You spoil us

Ian | 03.03.21 - 8:46 a.m. | #

I have been really disappointed this lockdown that unlike the previous ones it has been too muddy to take my dog for a walk anywhere but on pavements and paths. Last year it was wonderful walking in bluebell woods and even made lockdown enjoyable and have something to look forward to each day. The only thing to say about this current lockdown is the weather has generally been so bad sometimes I’ve been pleased to stay indoors.

Brian | 03.03.21 - 9:19 a.m. | #

This is the first use of the word desquelch with this meaning known to Google, although Nasa has used it with a different meaning. [pdf]

Alan | 03.03.21 - 9:20 a.m. | #

I would like the Squelch Quotient adding to the weather.

'Today is a 4 in SQ rising to 6 after the heavy band of rain from the west'

R2 | 03.03.21 - 9:41 a.m. | #

Ha! Reminds me of the short walk we once took along the New River near the M25, we came across a stretch which was definitely a 10. We walked it anyway, scared to death of falling in. Our footwear probably got a few depreciative looks in the pub afterwards.

H | 03.03.21 - 9:48 a.m. | #

Agreed, it's made a massive difference to this lockdown when compared to the glorious weather we had last spring. A downside for social distancing too, as the paved paths in parks got REALLY crowded as few people wanted to go "off piste" onto the muddy grass, to keep their distance.

After the snow in early February, the open space near me had an unpleasant mixture of frozen snow where the ground was harder higher up the hill, and quagmire at the bottom...

Mikey C | 03.03.21 - 10:47 a.m. | #

Brian & Mikey C- I'm with you. Wearing a pair of black builders' wellies through the streets of suburbia (or on the bus) before you can even get to the nice walks, does tend to put one off a bit.

Cornish Cockney | 03.03.21 - 10:52 a.m. | #

There is another quotient that needs to be factored into these sort of places too, the Midge Quotient. Because often when one is low, the other is high, and only at a few times in the year do both intersect perfectly to enable pleasant walking.

R2 | 03.03.21 - 10:55 a.m. | #

Not that long ago my local town council bought up a plot of land along one of the footpaths leading out of town to protect it from development after a new estate went up next door. It has since become a fairly popular exercise spot for the townspeople (including myself). The problem is that it's part of a floodplain with one of the town's main streams flowing through the middle of it. As you can imagine, most of the site has been in the 6-9 range for the past few months with a few paths requiring you to walk through a ditch with 5 inches of water in it. Only now is it starting to dry up again. I went there yesterday and only one of the ditch paths had you going through water. Even so, I still had a fair amount of mud on my wellies when I got home.

X-Plaistow | 03.03.21 - 11:50 a.m. | #

Always found Epping Forest to be the absolute worst for these kind of conditions - multiple '10s' when we went there a fortnight ago.
You go (naively) expecting Center Parcs and most of it is like the Somme!

MarcB | 03.03.21 - 11:53 a.m. | #

The trouble with a SQ is that it differs vastly depending on the soil type. Where I sometimes walk there are sizeable patches of clay which are currently still 9, whilst the rest of the tracks are between 2 and 3.

Also "safe for whitest plimsoles" may not be accurate - if it's very dry, the loose soil may discolour your pristine footwear !

ADS | Homepage | 03.03.21 - 12:54 p.m. | #

A cat regularly visits me, commuting a quarter mile across farmland, and always arrives with perfectly clean white feet.

kev | 04.03.21 - 9:08 a.m. | #

kev-
Picture!

oapski | 04.03.21 - 11:08 a.m. | #

There's more than something to be said for not wearing any shoes at all and well, wallowing in the joy of glorious mud oozing between your toes. Although this may be one to save for a summer downpour and coming over all hippy for five minutes.

Other than that, stuff the state of the blummin things. There's no such thing as the wrong weather, just the wrong clothes as someone in the news at the moment once said.
Life's too short to be pussy-footing around getting your boots dirty. If farmers and van drivers thought like that we'd have no grub and no one to (not) deliver it either. Pull yer sox up!

JP | 04.03.21 - 6:37 p.m. | #











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