Tuesday, 08 August 2017
Settled, Unsettled Weather
Our current pattern of weather is usually described as unsettled in weather forecasting terminology. It's usually when conditions are such that low pressure weather systems dominate bringing bands of rain and wind in from the Atlantic Ocean.
Rainfall & Temperature Records 01-07 August 2017
As you can see from the temperatures above, our high temperature each day has been remarkable consistent, around the 20°C (68°F) mark, a little below average for early August. So unsettled weather can be settled in some respects.
On the allotment we've being harvesting some delicious Oullins Gage plums but I think I harvested the last ones on Monday.
Plum "Oullins Gage"
Their cropping season seems to be over in just a few days. The first few plums were picked on 27th July and the last on Monday 07th August. However, we did have a bit of a bumper crop, even if it was short lived, so lots of the 21kg (45lb) we picked are in the freezer for using through winter.
Our Victoria plums provide a follow up crop but they don't seem to be enjoying the weather conditions. Some are rotting on the tree before they have time to ripen.
Plum "Victoria"
The tree is overloaded with fruit so I'm hoping that some of the other branches that are bending under the weight of plums will have some fruit that manages to ripen.
Plum "Victoria"
They'll be a week or so yet before they're ready for picking. Perhaps an improvement in the weather would speed up that ripening process.
Wednesday, 09 August 2017
Wouldn't You Know It!
Tuesday turned out to be a wet day. The rain began around breakfast time, continued into the evening and through into the early hours of Wednesday morning. We didn't have a massive amount of rain it was just steady all day long. The total rainfall for Tuesday came to 15.2mm (0.60in) making it our second wettest day of the year. The wettest day of the year remains 28 June when we had 21.2mm (0.83in)of rainfall.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 07-09 August 2017
It was also on the cool side for August. It's a case of the maximum temperature shown by my weather station not telling the complete story as it reports the day's maximum temperature as 14.9°C (58.8°F), which indeed it was, but that was at 00:05 on Tuesday morning. The temperature fell as the night progressed and under dull and rainy skies during the daylight hours on Tuesday the temperature hovered around 13.5°C (56.3°F) mark. It's the coolest start we've had to August since 2010.
We'd visited the plot on Monday afternoon and thought it would be a good idea to lift our onions to help them dry off for storage through winter. Unfortunately, we've nowhere undercover to put our onions at the moment so Sue conjured up some makeshift frames to at least support the onions off the soil until we find somewhere more suitable for them.
As soon as we start to dry off our onions we get one of the wettest days we've had for a considerable time.
Friday, 11 August 2017
Coolest Start To August
Thursday was a decent day with long sunny periods and for once the temperature made it up to average for the time of year at 21.8°C or 71.2°F. However, to compensate for this overnight, Thursday into Friday the temperature fell to just 8.1°C (46.6°F) the lowest I've recorded this early in August.
Temperature Records 09-11 August 2017
The average temperature for the month at the 10 August 2017 stands at 15.6°C (60.1°F) which is the lowest, at this stage of the month, since I began keeping records in 2010.
In the greenhouse at home our tomatoes are ripening but only slowly about enough to keep us supplied with some for sandwiches at lunchtime.
Tomato - "Gardener's Delight"
Our main tomatoes are Gardener's Delight and Sungold, both cherry tomatoes, which we choose to grow because of their superb taste rather than quantity of fruit. I'm not sure whether they need a bit more sunshine or some slightly warmer temperatures to help them ripen a little bit quicker.