The wind and rain goes on and on and on. There seems to be no let up at all. Just for a change, we didn’t have a named storm for this weekend but that didn’t mean it wasn’t wet and windy, far from it. In fact the readings from my weather station suggest we had higher wind speeds on Saturday than we did for either storm Ciara or Dennis.
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| Rainfall, High Wind Speeds & Temperature Records for February 2020 |
Individual gust speeds reached 34mph on Saturday moving them into my list of highest gust speeds. Indicating that it was windy all day, the average wind speed for Saturday was 8.8mph getting into sixth place in my top twenty list.
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| Wind Speed Records 2010-Date |
This means that with the strongest wind gust speeds of the year, we had no type of Met Office weather warning and no named storm. This February is rewriting my windiest day tables.
Of course it's not been only the wind but the associated rainfall this month that's breaking records. It’s been wet enough over the last week to move this February’s rainfall total up from third place into top spot in my table of wettest months since I began keeping records ten years ago.
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| Wettest Months 2010 - Date |
Based on the last 10 years the average rainfall for February is 40mm (1.6in) so this year we are three times above what we might expect. There's no wonder that there is lots of flooding around.
There is still more rain forecast before the month is out and the output from the weather models suggest it will be little different as we move into March and the beginning of meteorological spring.
This squirrel knew where to come to find some dry peanuts and sunflower hearts. He was probably checking out that supplies were adequate in case we get any of the snow which is forecast for parts of Yorkshire on Monday morning.
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Having waited for the two named storms to blow past I put up a plastic covered greenhouse (to house the windowsill plants at school) middle of last week. Weighed down with bricks and anchored to the fence I was still amazed to find it was intact with contents today! Like you I feel sure we have had higher wind speeds with the non named storms.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why some storms are named at all. I don't see the point. So far we've managed to escape without any damage. Fields are flooded with water though so I'm not sure when gardening will get underway. Almost 4 times our average February rainfall by Wednesday morning. Looks like another wet and windy weekend coming up.
DeleteInteresting data sir, are you using a weather station for all your readings, thinking about recording myself, unsure where to start.
ReplyDeleteI'm using a Davis weather station and Excel spreadsheets to store and analyse all the data.
DeleteThank you Mr. Garrett for sharing with us your insight on the weather and also showcasing the forecast data. I have always wondered why they name the storms too but I guess it’s easier to record and analyse when there is a name alongside it. I am awed by the way you have recorded the complete weather forecast through excel and created charts too for showing the variations.
ReplyDeleteIt took me some time to sort out a system for keeping the records but now I've got it all sorted out it's fairly easy. Thanks for commenting Andrea.
DeleteFarming is a risky business and weather is its greatest friend and foe. Yeah both put together. You have done a great job here especially for the farmers. Now they know when to put up a green house or have a harvest.
ReplyDelete