ossettweather.com
Tuesday, 08 November 2011
In the dark
I suspect along with lots of the rest of the country we were in the dark all day Tuesday. The gloomy conditions didn’t lift all day. The temperature didn’t change much day or night varying from 9.2°C at its coolest to 10.2°C at its mildest. How different the last two days have been since such a beautiful day on Sunday.
The graph above shows temperature and solar radiation starting Sunday and ending midnight on Tuesday. Plenty of sunshine on Sunday then it disappeared. It’s generally accepted that a solar radiation reading of 120 or more is needed to be judged as sunshine. We’ve been a long way short of that for a couple of days now.
Wednesday, 09 November 2011
A ray of sunshine
Wednesday produced another dull and gloomy day without any sunshine. This rose was the nearest thing to sunshine in the garden. It did remain dry all day but everything outside still seemed wet and soggy. The temperatures during the day are around normal for the time of year but with all the cloud the temperature doesn’t fall much over night which is making November a mild month so far.
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Still gloomy
Thursday continued the spell of extremely dull and gloomy weather. It was another day without a hint of sunshine. It did attempt to rain a couple of times but it didn’t amount to anything and we had a daily total of just 0.4mm. The average daily temperature remains high, not because of any pleasant mild daytime temperatures but because this thick blanket of cloud maintains the temperature overnight.
No sunshine recorded after last Sunday and once the temperature recovered from a cold start to Monday morning it’s hardly varied day or night since.
Friday, 11 November 2011
The gloom continues
Friday produced no let up in the dull, overcast and damp conditions of the last few days.
From the chart Friday probably turned out the dullest day of the whole week with the solar radiation hardly managing the 50 mark. However as you can see from the chart Saturday has dawned with clear blue skies and sunshine.
Saturday, 12 November 2011
Sunshine returns
Saturday was the day the sunshine returned. After a gloomy week with not a hint of sunshine, Saturday was a pleasant change with almost unbroken sunshine from dawn to dusk. The temperature managed just over 14°C in the afternoon, pretty mild for November. Although we are not quite to the middle of the month the average temperature for the month is certainly above average.
At the moment we are below the average for the warmest November ever recorded in the Central England Temperature Record, but well above the expected average, and also above last year’s November which started off mild and finished off with a very cold spell.
Sunday, 13 November 2011
For one day only
Saturday’s sunshine was for one day only as we returned to dull, damp weather again today. Not much rain fell but it seemed wet all day.
Last year at this stage in November the weather got much colder for a week or so before we fell into a bitterly cold spell for the remainder of November and the whole of December. This year the forecast at the moment is for milder conditions to continue for the next couple of weeks at least.
Monday, 14 November 2011
Pumpkin pie lifts the gloom
The gloomy weather continued on Monday without the slightest hint of any sunshine. It was dry and a little cooler than the last few days. It’s rather odd that such lousy weather is producing such a mild November. It’s not due to any especially good daytime weather more the fact that overnight temperatures are almost the same as daytime temperatures due to the thick blanket of never ending cloud.
I decided to use one of our Crown Prince squashes to make a pumpkin pie, something we had never made before. There are plenty of recipes on the Internet but many use tinned pumpkin and shop bought pastry. A combination of a BBC Good Food and Jamie Oliver recipes gave me enough of an idea what to do.
The Crown Prince had been stored in the greenhouse and was in excellent conditions. The squash was cut up and roasted in the oven. There was plenty of uncooked squash left over which I've frozen to use later. I’ve no idea if it’s possible to freeze squash but I’ll find out now.
Cutting up the squash is certainly the difficult bit. It was just a matter of blind baking the pastry case, making the filling and cooking for 45 minutes. The end result was certainly different but very tasty. It still seems a little odd using a vegetable - although botanically it is a fruit -even though I know it’s a very sweet one to make a dessert.
