Wednesday, 14 February 2018
Didn't See This Forecast!
Wednesday wasn't much of day to do any gardening. It was cold and dull all day with the afternoon temperature only managing 5.0°C (41.0°F) which is below average for the middle of February. I've now got my new greenhouse thermometer and in the sunless conditions it wasn't much warmer in the greenhouse at 7.3°C (45.1°F) in the middle of the afternoon.
Now, as I remember, the weather forecast on Tuesday went something like - a frosty start into Tuesday night with milder wet and windy weather arriving through the night. - That didn't happen and Wednesday morning produced the coldest temperature of the year falling to -2.9°C (26.8°F) as measured by my weather station.
In the greenhouse my new thermometer recorded a temperature of -3.2°C (26.2°F) only marginally different from my weather station. I know from past measurements that there's very little difference between outdoor temperatures and those in the greenhouse on very cold nights.
I'll have to have a look in the greenhouse to see if our seed potatoes that are chitting away in there have survived the keen frost.
Our coldest day of winter still remains 11 December 2017 at -3.2°C (26.2°F) and the coldest February temperature I've recorded over the last eight years was on 11 February 2012 at -5.9°C or 21.4°F.
Thursday, 15 February 2018
More On That Stratospheric Warming.
Wednesday produced another miserable February day. After a very cold frosty start the day really made no effort to warm up. It wasn't a day for gardening. We had some sleety rain in the afternoon for good measure.
Temperature, Windchill & Rainfall Records 12-14 February 2018
It would appear that the forecast stratospheric warming event has starting and is taking place through this week. We will have to wait a while to see what the changes are to our weather. They may be good or may be bad and also depend on your point of view. As a gardener I don't want a very cold spell of weather as I'd appreciate some milder conditions so I can start to sow a few seeds.
I have spotted these 2 explanations of the stratospheric warming event which explain better than I can the process that is occurring and its possible effects.
Click on this link to view the video
From The Met Office - Weather Forecast Plus Sudden Stratospheric Warning
Monday, 19 February 2018
Serious Pruning!
We've paid a couple of visits to the plot over the last few days. We wanted to get a couple of outstanding tidying up jobs done. One task was to cut back our buddleia bushes and the second one was to cut back a self sown hawthorn tree growing next to the plot greenhouse. The latter was going to be the more difficult job.
First job was the buddleia bushes.
In full flower summer 2017
It didn't take long to cut the bushes back to almost ground level but like all these types of jobs we're left with an enormous pile of clippings to deal with.
I'll recycle as many of these prunings as possible for pea sticks and the like for use through summer. The remaining odds and ends will go onto the compost heap. There aren't many sections of thick stems so I'm not anticipating much waste material. The main problem may well be that some of the prunings will root and grow when pushed into the ground when used as pea sticks even after they've just been left in a heap for a few months.
The second job of cutting back the hawthorn tree was a much trickier operation. The tree is situated alongside the greenhouse and I didn't want branches falling onto the greenhouse and damaging the glazing.
Ideally we'd have cut back the tree several years ago now but never got round to it. Without its canopy of leaves it doesn't look too large but in full leaf it is quite a specimen. It's loved by the birds so they are going to be disappointed although they don't use it for nesting in. It took some careful cutting back to try to ensure that the branches didn't fall onto the greenhouse.
By the end of the afternoon the job was done without any damage. It's left more large heaps of prunings which will need to be dealt with before the start of the growing season.
These trimmings will be dealt with in the same way as the buddleia ones except with a little bit more care as they are very prickly.
Tuesday, 20 February 2018
Might Move My Potatoes - Again!
I might just have to consider moving my seed potatoes for a second time since they went into the greenhouse to chit at the beginning of February. We've had a few milder days just recently but that might be about to change.
I've posted several times about the sudden stratospheric warming that took place a week or so ago. It seems like it's now planning to affect our weather. The computerised weather models are now predicting the setting up of a blocking system of high pressure, initially over the country, but then gradually moving north. The exact position of the centre of this high pressure system will have a pretty dramatic effect on our weather.
Image from web site http://www.wetterzentrale.de
The chart above shows all the 20 different model runs of the GFS (Global Forecasting System) for the temperatures at 2.0m above ground level. This is the output from the midnight run on 20 February. The whole model runs four times a day at six hourly intervals. Briefly the output shows some solutions give mild temperatures, above 10°C or 50°F whilst one colder solution goes for a temperature of -10°C or 14°F. The thick white line shows the mean value of all the runs. The chart below shows all the predicted variations in temperature for 06:00 on Wednesday, 28 February
Image from web site http://www.wetterzentrale.de
This week the daytime temperature is forecast to fall gradually from today's 8°C (45.4°F) down to 0°C (32.0°F) by next Monday, 26 February and it's not forecast to get above freezing for a couple of days. There will be several nights of fairly severe frosts should this forecast turn out to be accurate. You can see that there's good agreement regarding the forecast for just a few days in advance but then there becomes a large variation in temperatures beyond that.
I'll give it a couple of more days before deciding if I need to move my seed potatoes out of the greenhouse and summerhouse to somewhere frost free. As meteorological spring begins at the beginning of March the coldest spell of winter might arrive.