Bank Holiday Sunday, 25 August 2019
Summer Returns - Too Hot For Lifting Potatoes!
We'd had a couple of poor weeks of weather for August and it seemed like autumn had arrived already. Then, on Friday and Saturday summer returned. The mid afternoon temperature on Saturday afternoon reached 29.3°C (84.7°F), not high enough to be August's hottest day or make it into the top twenty hottest days, but the highest so late into August. However, it's worth noting that the highest temperature I've recorded late into the year was 29.4°C (84.9°F) on 13 September 2016.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 19-25 August 2019
I'd spent some time on Friday afternoon lifting potatoes and it was warm work.
The potatoes in the photo above are Casablanca which is a First Early potato but we've found that they produce a good crop when left in the ground and that they store well and can be used well into autumn. As the forecast was for Saturday to be even warmer, which turned out to be correct, I didn't fancy lifting the rest of the remaining rows of potatoes thinking I'd find a less energetic plot activity.
As I was lifting the potatoes I was surprised at how dry the ground was. My impression of August to date is that it had been a rather wet and windy month. The strength of some of the winds can be in no doubt as it's brought down one of our apple trees. The rainfall is a different matter. There's been plenty of media reports of flash flooding but we've been lucky to miss any such downpours. Our rainfall total to date for August is 33.4mm and if we don't have anymore rainfall this month that would make it the driest August of the last 10 years. So far we have had 15 days out of 24 with some amount of rainfall most of it in very small amounts which don't do much for keeping the ground moist. As you can see from the chart above we've had rainfall on 4 days this week but in total it only amounts to 1.6mm (0.06in) which is of no use in keeping the ground damp. Instead of digging potatoes I decided my time would be better spent watering a few crops.
In between coffee breaks there was still time left to do a little bit of harvesting on what turned out to be a hot Saturday afternoon.
Sunday is forecast to be even hotter so it might make its way into the record books.
Wednesday, 28 August 2019
Record Breaking Temperatures for August
After a drop of rain late into Tuesday evening, I think our current brief heatwave has probably come to an end. It was hot again on Tuesday but unlike the previous two days it didn’t get high enough to make it into the list of top twenty hottest days.
Temperature Records 22-28 August 2019
I think it’s probably safe now to publish an updated list of hottest days for the last ten years as it’s unlikely there will be any more additions this year.
The high temperatures late into August this year have been out of step with the previous 9 years when Augusts have definitely cooled off towards the end of the month rather than warming up like this year. The table below shows the colour coded temperatures, red to blue representing hot to cold, for the last 10 years .
August Daily High Temperatures from 2010 - 2019
It's easy to see how unusual it is to get a splash of red representing the hottest August days at the end of the month.
It's a little difficult to make out from the chart but 31.2°C (88.2°F) recorded on 26 August 2019 became our hottest August day taking over top spot from 01 August 2013 when the temperature reached 31.1°C or 88.0°F.
The heat has meant that any gardening activities requiring some effort, such as lifting potatoes, were put on hold waiting for cooler weather to arrive.
It seems that over the next few days the weather will cool down considerably as meteorological autumn begins on Sunday.