ossettweather.com
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Spared so far
It was quite pleasant in the sunshine on Wednesday and it tempted me outside to do a little more work on the base for our summerhouse. The trouble is in winter this part of the garden is shaded from any sunshine and with the temperature around 2°C and in a cold easterly breeze it felt a little chilly. So far we seemed to have missed any severe frosts which have been forecast with over night temperatures for the last couple of days hovering just above freezing point.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Spoke too soon!
Lets move the temperature chart on just one day.
As you can see from the chart I spoke too soon about avoiding the forecast severe frosts. Thursday was a cloudy and cold day with the temperature managing a maximum of only 2.6°C. Late in the evening the cloud cleared and the temperature plummeted.
By dawn on Friday the temperature had dropped to -4.9°C (23.2°F), that’s the coldest February temperature I’ve recorded. On the upside Friday is off to a bright sunny start.
I’m now glad I moved my seed potatoes for this year out of the greenhouse and into the garage as the overnight temperature fell to -5.2°C.
It will no doubt be quite warm in the greenhouse once the sun thaws out the frost but it’s the cold overnight temperature that governs the growing conditions not the daytime high. With light snow and bitterly cold temperatures forecast for the weekend my seed potatoes can stay where they are.
Friday, 3 February 2012
Glorious Sunshine but......
It was a glorious sunny day on Friday but it didn’t manage to lift the temperature above 2.5°C. Out of the sun the ground remained white covered by frost all day.
Overnight Thursday/Friday set our coldest temperature of the year at -4.9°C but that record hasn’t lasted long as overnight Friday/Saturday saw a new low of -5.7°C (21.8°F) our lowest since 21 st December 2010. It was low enough for ice to have formed on our pond.
Compared to last February this year is already colder. In 2011 we had just 5 hours below 0°C whereas this year we have already had 30 hours and that’s after only three and a bit days.
The forecast is for snow this afternoon so it seems that winter has really has arrived. The temperatures are supposed to pick up a little bit after the snowfall so it shouldn’t be around for very long.
Saturday, 4 February 2012
It snowed
Saturday saw our first snowfall of the winter. It had been widely forecast for the last few days so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. A few flakes fell early afternoon but nothing more than a dusting. It snowed for a couple of hours early evening and left us with around 25mm or 1” of snow, certainly nothing too serious.
This is the scene early Sunday morning. The forecast is for a sunny day with the temperature reaching 4°C so with a little luck some of the snow may melt away. Overnight we didn’t have the severe frost of the last two nights. The temperature fell to -2.1°C by 01:30 Sunday morning but then it warmed slightly rather than getting any colder.
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Thaws straight away
Sunday was nice and sunny and the mildest day for a week or more resulting in Saturday’s snow thawing.
I’ve been having a go at checking some figures. I know that we’ve had some mild days this winter but we’ve now had a couple of pretty cold spells as well but it seems the description in the press and media regarding this winter is that it’s been a mild winter.
Well winter hasn’t finished yet and it’s true that in the middle of January “mild” was a fair description of winter at that stage. Since then things have changed quite a bit. I reckon that by 4th Feb an average winter temperature should be 5.28°C and our actual value is 5.26°C. So spot on average - so it’s now just a typical sort of winter that we’d expect to get more often than not. Cold days have come along and offset the mild ones.
Out of interest in the cold winter of 1963 the average winter temperature at 4th Feb was -0.31°C and taking 1989 as one of the warmest winters the corresponding average temperature was 6.71°C.
Monday, 6 February 2012
Like Clockwork
Monday wasn’t too bad with some sunny spells and the temperature managed a high of 6.8°C. There was no frost overnight Sunday/Monday so I thought our light covering of snow would have melted but where the sun didn’t shine the snow didn’t melt - or so it seems.
We’ve had another keen frost meaning Monday morning has started cold, sunny and frosty.
Unlike everybody else's snowdrops ours are just about to come into flower. It seems to me that they must be months late as snowdrops have been appearing in bloom on television and in newspapers for weeks now. Well not our snowdrops.
I’ve had a look back at last years snowdrop photographs and I was a little surprised by what I found. Last year we had a bitterly cold December one of the coldest on record although January and early February weren’t too bad. These are photographs from last year.
So it was the 8th February last year when our snowdrops managed to flower. Well this year’s buds are just about getting ready to break although I’m not convinced that they’re going to make it for Wednesday. We shall see.
Taken on the 6th February 2012 this year’s blooms are well on their way but are within a few days of last year’s flowering date. I’ll now see if our crocuses and daffodils flower around the same time.