Friday - Monday, 21-24 October 2016
A Dry October Means Lots of Tidying Up
There hasn't been much to report on the weather front now for the last week or so. It seems to be in a bit of a rut although it's not an entirely bad rut. It's been mostly dull and cloudy with a few sunny intervals now and again. We've had the occasional shower but it has remained mostly dry.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 18-24 October 2016
Despite the rain shown on the above chart October has been reasonably dry with only 28.0mm (1.10ins) of rainfall making it the driest October of the last seven years at this stage of the month. It's also been coolish with only 2012 having a lower average temperature this far into the month.
The dry weather has given us chance to get some tidying up done on the plot. We've even made a start on a couple of those areas that have been neglected for a little too long.
The pile of rubbish was getting bigger and bigger and eventually I couldn't do much more until a little bit of space was created by burning some of our chopped down conifer, elder and laurel. It had to be a careful job to make sure the flames didn't spread too far and get out of control. It was a case of getting rubbish burnt while it was still dry as, most of the time we were at the allotment, the threat of a really heavy shower never seemed far away.
We were lucky to get only a sprinkling of rain as the shower gave us a near miss. It was dark by the time we left the plot leaving just the dying embers of the fire to burn away through the night.
The embers were still warm the following afternoon.
Tuesday - Sunday, 25-30 October 2016
Catching Up
We decided to make the most of the dry weather over the last few days and have some days out. For the last few days the weather has been milder but mostly cloudy and windy at times.
Temperature, Rainfall and Sunshine Records 23-29 October 2016
We headed north for our outings to Richmond Castle, Beamish Museum and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. On Thursday at Richmond Castle it was windy making it feel pretty cold.
Construction of the castle began in around 1070 and it's still possible to climb up to the top of the 30m (100 ft) high keep to get some brilliant views of the river Swale. The only problem was in the wind it was difficult to hold the camera steady to get any good shots. At times it was more important just to hold on to the camera to stop it been whipped out of your hands and over the side.
The wind had abated for our next trip to Beamish Museum in County Durham. It's an open air museum on a site covering about 350 acres with a 1900's pit village, a 1900's town, a railway station and a 1940's farm forming some of its main attraction. As it was school half term holiday the museum was very busy and some of the shops in the town were no go areas as there were long queues outside. The shops sell traditional sweets and cakes and there's a fish and chip shop in the pit village which had long queues outside as visitors waited to buy their fish and chips. I noticed that there weren't any queues at the dentist's in the town.
Our third day out was to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It was certainly the best of the three days as we even managed a little bit of sunshine and with only a gentle breeze it felt fairly mild. We seemed to have caught the moors at their autumnal best.
Into the afternoon the blue skies and sun disappeared and the moors took on a more moody appearance.
We arrived back home with lots of photos to sort out and plenty of video to edit. Still we'll need something to do now the dark nights have arrived. No doubt our photos and video will eventually be posted to Facebook, You Tube and Zenfolio.
Monday, 31 October 2016
A Lovely Day To End The Month
Monday provided a lovely end to the month with a decent amount of sunshine, even if it was a bit hazy at times, and an afternoon high temperature of 16.3°C (61.3°F) only beaten on the fourth day of the month with 19°C (66.2°F).
Temperatures & Rainfall Records for October 2016
I'm aware that there are lots of reports about it been a mild October but I'm not that convinced. Based on average temperatures for October that I've recorded over the last seven years, this year was a little below average at 10.6°C (51.1°F) with 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015 coming in with higher average temperatures. The seven year average temperature I've recorded for October is 11.0°C (51.8°F).
We have had a dry October here with only 28.4mm (1.12ins) of rainfall against an average of 49.4mm (1.94ins). It's meant that we've managed to get lots of tidying up done on the plot. I had another large bonfire at the allotment on Monday and managed to burn an enormous amount of dry rubbish.
The flames and smoke went straight up as Monday was a very calm day. In fact it was a rather unusual day in that the highest wind speed for the day was only 1.0mph and I've never had a zero recording. Only on three other occasions over a seven year period have I recorded such a low value. The other three days were 21 March 2012, 02 September 2014 and 30 August 2015.
The forecast is for it to turn much cooler for the first part of November. Gloves and scarves at the ready!
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