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Monday, 21 November 2011
Another cloudy miserable day
Monday was like many of the days this month, cloudy and dull all day. As I made space for another week’s weather to be added to my charts I couldn’t help but notice the dramatic drop in temperatures at the end of November last year. The snow arrived as well. We were heading into winter without any hint of how the weather was going to turn. Temperatures fell and the snow arrived and stayed. This article in the local Yorkshire Post looks back at that spell of weather from last year.
Along with the rest of the country we didn’t expect the weather to turn as it did. I’ve just looked back at my blog postings for this time last year. My entry on the 21st November hinted there might be some cold weather on the way. How accurate that American forecast turned out to be.
That same American forecast doesn’t have any snow predicted for next weekend just wet and windy weather.
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Mixed messages
Tuesday was the umpteenth dull day of the month. It might have been a mild month but it’s certainly lacked sunshine. Once again it was mild keeping up our high average daily temperature for the month.
In the pond our water hawthorn (Aponogeton distachyos) has decided to flower. It normally starts to flower in late spring but has obviously decided a few late flower will do no harm, maybe due to the mild weather.
Down on the plot at the weekend it was a different matter. It might have been mild but it’s been damp and horrible even though we haven’t had a great deal of rain. This has finished off our crop of lettuce (Red Iceburg) which have turned into a soggy mush in the damp conditions.
It’s much the same story with our Flamenco strawberries. They're still doing their best to produce fruits but in the damp weather these are going mouldy before they ripen. Never mind I don’t really expect to be picking strawberries at the end of November.
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Unfrosted parsnips
Wednesday continued in much the same vein as the rest of the month, mild and cloudy.
We dug our first parsnips on the plot last weekend. I was a little dubious about digging a few roots to test for a couple of reasons. Firstly they hadn’t made their usual amount of top growth, a bit like this year’s potato crop, and secondly they haven’t had a frost to sweeten the roots.
I needn’t have worried as the roots were a decent size. I’m not going to suggest they were the largest specimens I've ever grown but they were plenty big enough. These Gladiator roots were completely free of canker which sometimes damages our crop. They tasted nice and sweet when cooked too. These roots have reminded me to place some straw around the remaining parsnips so that I can harvest the roots once the weather turns cold and snowy.
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Banana to sort out
Thursday turned out to be our second mildest day of the month with a daily average temperature of 12.4°C. This has only been higher on the third of the month with 13.6°C.
The mild weather has lulled me into a false sense of security and I've yet to provide any protection to our banana plant growing in our garden border. It suffered badly in last year’s severe winter and only after a long wait in spring did it manage to produce some new shoots from around the base of the plant.
So although this border is in the process of a makeover I’ll give the banana some protection for winter with some straw around its root to protect it from the worst of the cold weather.
Friday, 25 November 2011
Squally showers
A little bit of a surprise today we had some rain, well at least some showers. They were pretty well scattered throughout the day amounting to 3.6mm our wettest day since the first of the month. Despite these showers we are well short of our average November rainfall which is 63.7mm as we’ve now had just 21.2mm. Our annual rainfall for the year remains well below average too as by the end of November we would expect to average 578.1mm against our actual rainfall of 347.4mm.
Saturday, 26 November 2011
Windy and mild
Saturday produced another mild day. It’s the third day in a row that the temperature has managed to make it just above 13°C, well above what we might expect at the end of November. It was windy for most of the day with the strength of the wind picking up even more during the evening.
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Continuing windy and mild
Sunday was almost a replica of Saturday but with lots more sunshine. Gazing out of the window it looked a beautiful day with clear blue sky but the gale force wind took the edge of the temperature making it feel cold outside.
However this day last year marked the start of our very cold winter weather. The daytime temperature on the 27th last year managed just 0.7°C with a night time low of -4.4°C. Compared with today’s high of 13.4°C and corresponding low of 5.6°C we’re doing well. I’m hoping the reasonable mild weather will continue a while yet.