Wet and Cold

Note for Sunday 29th
Sunday was cold with temperatures below seasonal average. Rained on and off for most of the day.

From 2009 November weather

Note for Saturday 28th
The maximum daytime temperature today only reached 4.9°C the lowest for the month. More rain today too so we are now well in excess of the average rainfall for November. The meteorological office have warnings of severe weather for Sunday. Click here for details.
Note for Friday 27th
Our coldest day time temperature of the month.
Note for Thursday 26th
Temperatures back to average for November. Forecast is for colder weather by the weekend.
Note for Wednesday 25th
A blustery day with some sunshine and a few showers.
Note for Tuesday 24th
Cloudy and mild all day becoming windy and wet in the evening.
Note for Monday 23rd
More rain early morning then generally cloudy all day. We did have a few pleasant, but short sunny spells.

Mild spell continues

Note for Sunday 22nd
The mild spell of weather continues as a series of Atlantic low pressure systems cross the country.

From 2009 November weather

Note for Saturday 21st
The day started dull and misty. The overnight temperature back to around the seasonal average. Continued dull with outbreaks of rain in the afternoon.
Note for Friday 20th
Gale force winds relented overnight and the heavy rain forecast at one time didn’t materialise. Cockermouth in Cumbria has serious flooding problems. There are news reports of around 300mm of rainfall there in one day. Click here for more on this rainfall. That amounts to the average rainfall for Wakefield for our wettest 6 months of the year. I can’t image getting that amount of rain in one day!
I thought a trip down to the plot was needed today to see if the windy weather had caused any damage on the plot. I could see as we entered through the gates that our shed & greenhouse were at least still in their correct locations. A closer inspection confirmed both buildings had survived the gales with no damage. We were fortunate that only our enviromesh had been blown off our carrots.

From 2009 November weather

This was quickly replaced but using a few extra bricks to hold it down as I’m sure we’ll have much more windy weather this winter.

Note for Thursday 19th
Strong to gale force winds all day today but no rain. Severe flooding problems in Cockermouth, Cumbria reported on national TV.
The wind was from a southerly direction giving us the warmest day and night of the month.
Note for Wednesday 18th
Gale force winds in the early hours of the morning followed by rain. The Environment Agency has issued a flood watch alert on some part of the river Calder. Click here for details. More heavy rain forecast for Friday & Saturday.
Note for Tuesday 17th
Sunny and mild for much of the day. Clouded over late afternoon with light rain as darkness fell.
Note for Monday 16th
November is making up for the dry months of September and October. Today’s rainfall took us past the seasonal average for November.

Sunday gave us a lovely sunny day.

The forecast is for more rain to come.

From 2009 November weather

I’ve overlaid the hourly temperature recordings over the max & min temperatures. It shows clearly the high temperatures recorded in the middle of Friday night / Saturday morning on the 13th / 14th.

I’ve replaced wind speed with the average daily temperature in chart 1

Spring Cabbage - in November!

I saw on the local news this week that the Christmas sprouts are already ready and that they might be in short supply for Christmas dinner. I have a similar issue with my spring cabbage. In Late August I planted some spring cabbage Excel (plants supplied by Dobies) which have grown so well they are now ready to harvest. Rather than risk loosing them to the winter weather they'll be on the dinner plate this week.

From 2009 November weather

After Monday morning’s frost we had a superb sunny day. We made a trip to the plot to check for frost damage, pick some vegetables and cut back and protect our dahlias roots against anything winter might bring. That’s the plan. To my surprise the dahlia foliage was still green . I'd expected it to be blackened there was little sign of frost damage.

From 2009 November weather

A Cold Week

There is no doubt now, the mild October weather has gone to be replaced with colder November days. The first obvious signs of a frost were evident on the greeenhouse windows this morning.

From 2009 November weather

From 2009 November weather

The clear overnight weather has given the coldest night of autumn so far.

From 2009 November weather

Getting colder by the day

The temperatures for early November continue to be below average for both day time and night time.

From 2009 November weather

The average temperature and rainfall data is taken from MSN News and Weather

Green Green Grass

Over the last few weeks I'd used some soil to level out uneven paths on the plot and set out a new path to give access to our new raspberry canes when they are planted. I had a box of grass seed in the shed left over from re-seeding part of the lawn at home. Guessing that the seed would probably rot over winter in the shed I sowed it on the newly levelled paths. It wouldn't be wasted, I expected the birds to take the majority of the seed. I didn't give the seed much of a chance of germinating as it was the middle of October.

From 2009 November weather

We'd made a few visits since sowing the seed but nothing looked to be happening but on a positive note nothing looked to have disturbed the seed. The birds must have been finding tastier things to eat than old grass seed. Then a visit on Monday this week and the seed had germinated and my new path had a wonderful fresh green sward.

From 2009 November weather

I suppose it's just the mild weather at the end of the month. I'm pleased at the outcome though as the grass seed could easily have been left to rot in the shed. I'm hoping the grass doesn't need cutting before spring now. Gardeners are a difficult bunch to please!

Coldest day of Autumn

Graphs of November weather to date:

From 2009 November weather

The average temperature and rainfall data is taken from MSN News and Weather

Updated charts

November weather so far

From 2009 November weather

The values for monthly average are taken from MSN News & Weather

Record Rainfall

The weekend gave the wettest day since our records began, as forecasters like to say, but as this amounted to a little less than 2 weeks of records it is not too significant. Sunday also produced the windiest day since our records began.

Recent Rainfall

From 2009 November weather

The met office rainfall figures show some Yorkshire & Humberside stations recording in excess of 30mm of rain.

We did have a rare visitor taking a shower in the rain on Sunday morning.

For more information about sparrowhawks click here

Sundays wind and gust speeds

From 2009 November weather

My wind speeds are much lower than those recorded by the Met Office at Church Fenton where the highest recorded wind speed was 40mph with gusts of 55mph. So in our garden wind speeds above 5mph and gusts above 10mph represent windy weather.

It was windy enough to blow over our potted banana tree and bird table. The banana tree was blown over in a summer storm and the bird table is usually blown over a couple of times a year.

From 2009 November weather

Once the bird table was restored to its upright position on Monday morning our resident flock of sparrows were soon helping themselves to some breakfast.




If you look closely at the leaves of our banana tree you will see how they have been shredded by wind through summer and autumn.

From 2009 November weather

26th October – 1st November 2009
The last days of October were very pleasant but November has started much more like autumnal weather. For the record here is a summary of my records for last week.

From 2009 November weather

Rainfall today

The rain arrived early morning and fell until lunchtime. At least I measured some rain and November has got off to a wet and windy start.

From 2009-10 October