Friday, 07 February 2020
Frosty with Gales to Come!
We had just one day when the temperature fell below 0°C (32.0°F) in January. February has started off fairly mild too but we’ve already had a couple of below 0°C mornings this week. Not anything serious but cold enough to remind us that it is still winter.
Temperature Records 05-07 February 2020
It looks as though next week is going to provide us with the worst weather of winter so far. Beginning on Sunday we are set for a week of stormy weather with gale to storm force winds accompanied with heavy rain and the possibility of snow showers.
Forecast from https://www.tameteo.com/modeles/en-royaume
The weather model forecast above is from the ECMWF weather model for Sunday at mid day and, yes we are somewhere under that purple colouring indicating very heavy rain accompanied by gale force to storm force winds.
On a brighter note our main seed order from Kings seeds arrived a few weeks ago but we still had to sort out our potato varieties for this year. Our local garden centre always holds a potato day around this time of year. It’s possible to buy individual potato tubers and so we take the opportunity to buy 4 tubers of six varieties we either haven’t grown before or haven’t grown for a good number of years.
This year we’re trying Gemson, Maris Piper, Mayan Rose, Pentland Javelin, Sharpo Una, and Ulster Prince.
Trial Potato Varieties Chitting In Egg Boxes
For our main crop this year we are growing Apache, Casablanca, Elfe, International Kidney, Nadine, Osprey and Rudolph.
Main Potato varieties Casablanca, Elfe, International Kidney and Osprey
These have all been set out to chit in the summerhouse covered with fleece as some protection against night time frosts. We’ll be planting some early roots up in bags and boxes towards the end of February but our main potatoes won’t be going into the ground until the beginning of April. Well that's the plan!
Sunday, 09 February 2020
Storm Ciara Arriving
It's been windy and wet up to 10:00am on Sunday morning even before the arrival of storm Ciara. The worst of the storm is expected over the next 12 hours with the strong winds continuing on into Monday.
Rainfall, High Wind Speeds and Temperature Records 09 February 2020
The rainfall so far is 19.6mm (0.77in) the highest daily rainfall this year and it's forecast to continue raining for most of the day. There already reports of flooding in North Yorkshire. Whilst it's been very blustery we've had stronger gusts this month although the worst of the storm force winds are yet to arrive.
Needless to say we have no intentions of visiting the allotment today. After a few days of reasonable weather the plot was probably beginning to dry out a little bit but after all today's rain it will be back to square one.
Monday, 10 February 2020
Storm Ciara Gone and Good Riddance
Storm Ciara was at its worst here through the morning with gale force winds and heavy rain. The rain was worse than the winds and by the end of the day Sunday had become our second wettest day of the last 10 years with 40.4mm or 1.6in of rainfall.
Rainfall, High Wind Speeds and Temperature Records 09 February 2020
The worst of the storm was at 11:00am as the 'Squall Line' passed through. The temperature plummeted by 5°C, the highest wind speed of 31mph was recorded and the rainfall intensity for a few minutes was 77.8mm/hr or 3.1in/hr. Luckily for us it didn't remain at that intensity for more than a few minutes but certainly it did in other parts of Yorkshire resulting in some serious flooding.
By the end of the day the day's rain came to 40.4mm (1.6in) making it our second wettest day of the last 10 years.
Top 20 Wettest Days 2010-2020
Luckily we've avoided any damage from the wind and rain although we haven't checked for any damage at the allotment. A month's worth of rain in one day will not have done much to help the allotment dry out.
Rather worrying though this is the forecast for Thursday.
Forecast from https://www.tameteo.com/modeles/en-royaume+uni-ecmwf-94.htm
The wind doesn't look to be an issue but it looks like more heavy rain or possibly even snow!