February has got off to a fairly cold start with temperatures generally below average. It's not been exceptionally cold but daytime temperatures haven't managed to live up to what we might expect.
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| Temperature Records for February 2018 |
It's that time of year when as gardeners we're getting that rather irresistible temptation to start sowing some seeds. I'm trying hard to resist and I'm planning on restricting any February sowings to some broad beans, leeks and maybe some early potatoes in sacks. All these will be sown in the greenhouse and they'll grow on in there until some warmer weather arrives. That's my plan.
However, there's another reason why I ought to wait a while before sowing too many seeds. There's a sudden stratospheric warming supposedly taking place this weekend. I'm not going to go into details of this event but if you would like to read about it in more depth there's an article about it here. The end result is that this phenomenon may change our weather pattern and set us up for a cold end of February and early March. As with all weather predictions there's no certainty in the outcome. Certainly anything needing some warmth like tomato seeds will be remaining sealed in their packets for a few weeks yet.
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Oh. Wow. Martyn. I've never heard of this. Thank you. Your link is grand. I see I'm a bit on the cooler side. I see our high temp for Monday is predicted to be 61F which may set records for low highs. The sudden stratospheric warming seems to localized over the UK, our forecast discussion does not mention it. I will be spending some time reading about it today and watching the north European temperatures this weekend. My son is presently on business in Amsterdam. Please keep us posted. This is so intriguing.
ReplyDeleteI think the warming event has happened or is happening. Unlike most weather forecasts it not obvious whether it's happened or not. Easy to tell if it has rained or not but not so easy to tell what is going on in the stratosphere. Disappointingly cold by day here. We've not managed 50°F so far this month. No snow here though. Gardening is on hold.
DeleteShucks I've already sown some tomatoes. Sounds like they are going to need to be given house room for while yet!
ReplyDeleteAll seems very uncertain about the outcome. It can take days, weeks or months for something to happen. Apparently the cold March weather in 2013, we even had snow, was possibly down to a SSW inJanuary. I’m still trying to resist the urge to start sowing.
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