Sunday, 22 October 2017
Brian's Late
I thought storm Brian was supposed to arrive late on Friday and into Saturday but that's not been the case here.
Temperature, Rainfall and Hi Wind Speed Records 20-22 October 2017
Brian made a late appearance as we moved into Saturday night and he's hung about certainly until lunchtime on Sunday. The wind hasn't been that strong here and couldn't be considered anything out of the ordinary for late October. The highest wind gusts (so far) haven't matched the ones of either Amelia or Ophelia.
It's remained remarkably mild so far this month and unless we get some cold weather during the last part of the month there's every chance that this will be the mildest October I've recorded since 2010. The current monthly average stands at 13.4°C (56.1°F) and the mildest I've recorded by the end of the month is 12.1°C (53.8°F)in 2014. The forecast doesn't appear to have a cold spell, so there's every chance of it finishing warmer than 2014.
Tuesday, 24 October 2017
Watercress Madness
The mild weather has continued over the last few days although we've had some rain since storm Brian left us. It hasn't been a great amount of rain but as the monthly total has now reached 29.6mm (1.17in) it wont be the driest October I've recorded. Last year, 2016, will retain that record with just 28.4mm (1.12in) of rainfall.
I posted towards the end of September that our experiment of trying to grow watercress in the pond had been rather successful. We wondered then how long the watercress would continue to grow as the colder autumn weather arrived.
The mild October temperatures have meant that it has carried on growing and continued its bid for pond domination. I had no choice but to clear some of it out of the pond. I'm not sure how much the heap of watercress shown above would be worth in those little supermarket bags but it would fill lots of bags. After removing the pile shown above there was still plenty left in the pond.
We've plenty left to add to our lunchtime sandwiches. I've noticed that some of the forecasters are now suggesting we might be in for a colder spell of weather as November begins. We might soon find out what happens to our watercress in frosty weather.
Friday, 27 October 2017
Dull and Mild
We've has a few rather nondescript days weather-wise. Over the last three days the high temperature each day has fallen from a rather unexpected high of 18.7°C (65.7°F) on Tuesday to a more normal 13.2°C (55.8°F) on Thursday. If the forecast are to be believed the downward trend will continue.
Temperature and Solar Radiation Records 24-26 October 2017
We didn't actually have any sunshine on Thursday (the yellow line needs to be above 120W/m2 to register as sunshine) and it was the dullest day of the month to date.
We did manage a visit to the plot on Tuesday. Over the space of a month the afternoon's tasks have changed completely. Harvesting doesn't take up much time now as most of the time is taken up with pruning and clearing away spent crops. I even started a little bit of winter digging.
One surprise is that our chrysanthemums planted into our perennial bed in late spring have grown really well.
Hopefully they'll provide us with some good cut flower material for a few weeks until we get a frost which will finish them off. Once that happens we're planning on cutting back the plants before digging them up and keeping the roots in the greenhouse over winter where they'll be protected from the worst of the weather.
Sunday, 29 October 2017
Windiest October Day
This month we've had storms Amelia, Brian and ex hurricane Ophelia but none of them matched Saturday’s high wind speed of 30mph. In fact, it's the first time I've recorded a gust of 30mph in October since starting my records in 2009.
Temperature and Hi Wind Speed Records for October 2017
Saturday was dull and windy in complete contrast to Friday which was sunny and calm. We made the most of Friday and had an afternoon walk around RSPB Old Moor.
Most of the "water" birds did their usual trick of staying well out of easy photographic reach but I managed a half decent shot of a wren and bullfinch around the bird feeders near the visitor centre.
The plan for Saturday had been to get a bit more tidying up done at the allotment but the gale force wind put us off and we decided to wait for some better weather.
Monday, 30 October 2017
Cold Monday Morning
The forecast was correct and Monday morning started off on the cold side with the early morning temperature falling to 2.2°C or 36.0°F.
That's our coldest October temperature for 5 years. On 30 October 2012 it fell to 1.8°C (35.2°F) but the coldest October temperature I've recorded was on 25 October 2010 with 0.2°C or 32.4°F.
On Sunday afternoon we visited the plot and I made a start on clearing one of the beds which over a number of years has been neglected and is in desperate need of refurbishment.
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The first job was to cut down this elder tree which was getting rather large. Once the tree was felled I seemed to have large elder branches everywhere.
It's going to be one of those jobs where things appear to get an awful lot worse before they get any better. The good news was I managed to get the tree cut down without damaging the greenhouse on our neighbour's plot.