Dec wk 4

Thursday, 22 December 2016

Battening Down the Hatches

For a few weeks now high pressure systems have been in charge of our weather giving some settled conditions. All that is about to change as a low pressure system, named Barbara, moves in from the Atlantic bringing wet and windy weather.

We visited the plot to top up out supply of fresh vegetables and I wanted to make our cold frame a little bit more secure so it has a better chance of surviving the windy weather intact.

The cold frame moved to the allotment a few years ago, when we upgraded to newer wooden cold frames at home. It was in a much more sheltered spot at home and survived many gales without any damage. On the plot it is far more exposed to the elements and constant battering from the wind gradually loosens the fixings which hold the glass in place. Eventually this results in the glass panes falling out and breaking. In an attempt to stop this happening I’ve taken to cocooning the cold frame in environmesh to lessen the effect of the wind. The environmesh isn’t used for anything else over winter.

We have been storing our onions in the shed at the allotment. Conditions in the shed aren’t ideal as it gets too damp during winter and some of the onions had started to go mouldy. We decided to bring all the remaining good quality onions home and store them in the summerhouse. I’m not that convinced it will be much better for them in there but at least we will be able to inspect them more often removing any that start to deteriorate.

Onions - Sturon, Stuttgart and Red Karmen

It’s good to know that the hours of daylight are now starting to lengthen even if it only by a few seconds a day to start with. On Thursday, we left the plot at 15:00 and the sun had already disappeared below the level of the conifers that form one of the boundaries to the allotments.

I'm hoping that we don't get too much rain, in the wet and windy weather that's forecast, to make it too wet to work on jobs at the allotment.

Friday - Monday, 23-26 December 2016

Nothing Out of the Ordinary

The storms Barbara and Conor have been and gone over Christmas without too much of a fuss for us. It's been windy with a few showers too but nothing out of the ordinary for the end of December.

Hi Wind Speeds and Rainfall Records for 20-26 December 2016

It was the mildest Christmas day of the last six years with a high of 14.2°C (57.6°C) although that's not the mildest day of the month which was 07 December with 15.6°C or 60.1°C.

Temperature and Rainfall Records for December 2016

It might turn out to be the driest December of the last six years despite the rainfall over the last couple of days. With Boxing Day's rainfall included the monthly total stands at 22.0mm (0.87 in) and the previous record is 27.6mm (1.09 in)back in 2010. The forecast is for colder but more settled weather as we head towards the New Year so it's possible it may remain dry up to the end of this year.

I'm wondering if the strong winds have blown the last few quinces off the tree on the allotment. On our last visit there were only a few sorry looking quinces left hanging on the tree looking a bit like very sparse Christmas decorations. I need to pick up all the fallen fruits that have fallen around the base of the tree.

Quince - Meeches Prolific

I'll have to have a look to see if the resident blackbirds make any use of the fallen fruits as they make a good job of finishing up our windfall apples. Maybe their not into quinces!

Wednesday, 28 December 2016

Equal Coldest

The weather has certainly turned colder after a mild Christmas Day. Wednesday morning's temperature is the equal coldest of the year at -3.7°C or 25.3°F. It equals the same low temperature set on 16 February and 15 November this year.

Wednesday has started bright and sunny and the early morning sun is doing its best to melt the frost on the greenhouse roof but isn't doing too well.

There were some rather good ice formations growing on the greenhouse timber's. This was the best I could manage before my fingers became numb.

Thursday, 29 December 2016

Colder Than Forecast!

It's suddenly got really cold and frosty. It comes as a shock to the system, after a reasonably mild December, when the temperature falls below freezing.

Temperature Record for 28 December 2016

It was the first time this year that the average daily temperature was below freezing finishing at -1.1°C or 30.0°F. I can't remember recording another day where the minimum daily temperature number was equal to the maximum temperature number. The only difference was the minimum number had a minus sign in front of it. The low temperature was -3.7°C and the maximum 3.7°C. It obviously doesn't work in Fahrenheit where the equivalent temperatures are 25.3°F and 38.7°F.

Monthly Records for December 2016

Now I'm not going to go on about how cold Wednesday was as it looks like it will be easily beaten by Thursday. If you examine the records for the 29 December 2016, shown above, you can see that it has started off even colder with the temperature falling to -5.6°C or 21.9°F around dawn. It's our coldest start to the day since the 16 January 2013 when the temperature was -5.8°C or 21.6°F. Thursday looks likely to be our coldest day of 2016.

It moves into 13 place in my top twenty coldest days listing.

When it's as cold as this on a morning we have a sparrow tree as they wait in the crab apple tree for their turn to eat at the seed feeder.

However, this morning it wasn't possible to fill up the feeder as the top was frozen to the rest of the feeder making it impossible to refill with seed.

There was some seed in the feeder so once it warms up a bit I'll top it up. I put plenty of seed on the bird table so the sparrows shouldn't go hungry. The bird bath was filled up with hot water to thaw out the frozen water left over from yesterday. There's some ice formed on the pond which doesn't happen very often.

I don't think that we'll be visiting the plot as the ground at home is well and truly frozen.

It's now 10:30 on Thursday morning and it's warmed up to -3.3°C (26.1°F) so maybe I'll pop outside and see if I can fill up the feeder for the sparrows.

Friday, December 2016

An Afternoon in the Freezer

After an incredible cold start to the day on Thursday (-5.6°C or 21.9°F) I expected it to finish up with the lowest average temperature of the year. However, the coldness relented a little in the evening and Wednesday's -1.1°C (30.0°F) remained the coldest and the lowest average daily temperature since 17 January 2013 with -1.9°C or 28.6°F. Thursday’s low was the coldest December temperature since 22 December 2010 when it fell to -5.8°C or 21.6°F.

The freezing cold weather has brought with it some lovely sunny days. We decided to wrap up well and make an afternoon visit to RSPB Fairburn Ings.

In the afternoon sunshine it didn't feel too cold even though most of the ground was covered with the day's frost. Out of the sunshine it was very different with most of the water still frozen over in the middle of the afternoon.

Part of our walk took us along the banks of the River Aire where mist still hung over some lengths of the river.

It was as we walked along the path by the river that someone asked us if we'd seen the deer. It took a while to spot them as they were in the distance on the opposite side of one of the large lakes on the reserve. Cameras trained and lenses at full reach it was a job to see the deer clearly.

It certainly merged in with the background very well. It was the first time we had seen any deer on one of the nature reserves that we visit. There are always reported sighting of deer and occasionally a photo will be posted on Facebook but I certainly didn't expect to see one on a freezing cold December afternoon. It's easy to forget that Fairburn Ings was once a mining area and isn't far away from major cities like Leeds and Wakefield. Parts of the reserve still have signs of that industrial past.

As we headed for the visitor centre in the late afternoon the sun was already setting on what had been a very cold day.

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.