Thursday, 15 June 2017

Hot and Dry

Wednesday was the hottest day of the month as the afternoon temperature rose to 26.5°C or 79.7°F. It didn't take over the hottest day of the year which is still the 25 May 2017 when the temperature reached 28.6°C or 83.5°F.

 

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Temperature & Rainfall Records 01-14 June 2017

 

However, rainfall so far this month has been on the sparse side with only 24.0mm (0.9 in) to date. Following on from drier than average April and May the garden and allotment are certainly on the dry side and in need of watering. On the plot I thought that this month's rainfall might be enough to allow me to cultivate one of the beds that we want to grow some winter brassicas in. If you remember I posted a photo of the cracks in the ground due to the dry conditions.

 

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photo taken on 02 June 2017

 

The little bit of rain this month hadn't done much to help but at least I managed to get the cultivator to break up the surface of the soil.

 

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The cultivator certainly found the ground hard to work to the full depth of the tines so my next job will be to work over the bed using a fork to loosen up the ground below before hopefully using the cultivator to complete the job. I've got a few weeks left to get this done before our winter brassicas need planting out. We might even get some decent rainfall to help me out before then.

 

I've made a video showing the progress our potatoes are making on the allotment. They've recovered well from the frost damage they had in early May.

Sunday, 18 June 2017

A Whisker Away

Saturday was a whisker away from being our hottest day of the year as the temperature reached 28.3°C (82.9°F) but not quite managing to top the 28.6°C (83.5°F) on the 25 May.

 

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Temperature Records 19 May - 17 June 2017

 

The forecast is for more hot weather over the next few days with the chance that record set in May will be broken.

 

We had a couple of days away in the north east visiting Beamish Museum and Tanfield Railway.

 

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Beamish Museum - Pockerley Old Hall

 

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Tanfield Railway

 

We've got plenty of photos and video to sort out from our visits.

 

Monday, 19 June 2017

Hottest This Year

Sunday turned out to be a proper scorcher with the temperature soaring to 30.5°C (86.9°F) to become our hottest day this year.

 

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Temperature Record for 18 June 2017

 

We don't manage to make it into the 30's °C or above 86°F very often. Sunday was the seventh time since I started keeping records 7 years ago. It moved into fifth place in my all time highest temperature records.

 

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The forecast for Monday is for a repeat of the high temperatures so it may become the first time I'll record two consecutive days above 30°C.

 

We went to the plot on Sunday afternoon. It was far too hot to do any serious plotting and we spent much of our time there watering what is now a very dry allotment. I did trim up our kiwi plants which form a mixed fruit hedge with some gooseberries.

 

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It looked much tidier once the long straggly shoots had been cut back. I did spot a few surprises as I trimmed back the kiwi.

 

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Cherry - Summer Sun

 

I spotted this little bunch of cherries left on the tree. They must be out of the reach of the wood pigeons as they've devastated the rest of the tree including most of the leaves. Maybe I'll try to cover these few remaining cherries or the blackbirds will finish them off as soon as they start to turn red.

 

I didn't think that there were any gooseberries but underneath all the kiwi foliage I discovered some rather nice looking berries.

 

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I also spotted some kiwi flowers as I pruned back the long shoots.

 

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We have two kiwi plants, a male and female and as is usual only the female plant has produced any flowers. In which case it probably means that we won't get any kiwi fruits but who knows we may be successful one year.

 

Now I must be honest and say a good downpour would be much appreciated as it would save us an awful lot of watering both at home and on the plot.

 

Tuesday, 20 June 2017

A Triple Record Breaking Hot Day

Tuesday was a triple record breaking day as the temperature once again soared to 31.6°C or 88.9°F. Monday took over from Sunday as our hottest day of the year. It was also the first time I've recorded two consecutive days when the temperature has been above 30°C and it was also the equal hottest June day I've recorded since 27 June 2011.

 

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  Temperature & Solar Radiation Records for 18-20 June 2017

 

It's kept me busy updating my table of the top twenty hottest days. Here's the new updated version.

 

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It wasn't a day to do much gardening more a question of keeping as cool as possible.

 

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We did have a very quick harvesting session in our greenhouse to pick our apricots. As one had already fallen off the tree we took it as a sign that they were ready for eating. Still warm from the afternoon sunshine they tasted extremely good.

 

The forecast is for the weather to return to more normal temperatures so gardening activities may be about to return to normal too.

 

Wednesday, 21 June 2017

And It's Over

Tuesday saw our temperatures return to more normal June values with a maximum of 21.6°C or 70.9°F. It was a bit on the muggy side and after some lovely sunny days, the sun didn't put in an appearance at all on Tuesday. It did mean that we visited the plot and did a little bit of harvesting.

 

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We had a few of our apricots, picked on Monday, left over and together with some Elsanta strawberries and Glencoe raspberries they made a very nice dessert for dinner.

 

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Disclaimer

This weather site is operated as an amateur weather station site and should not be used as official data. I make every effort to ensure my data is as accurate as possible but I cannot guarantee that the data meets the requirements of the Meteorological Office or other professional weather monitoring organisations.

©M Garrett 2016