A Gardener's Weather Diary: November 2021

Tuesday, 30 November 2021

Freezing cold end to November – is it that unusual?

It’s been a freezing cold end to November. Sunday was the coldest day in the spell with the average temperature for the day coming in at -0.2°C or 31.6°F. However, not only was it bitterly cold we also had falling snow on two consecutive days.

I’ve done a bit of searching through my photos to see if I could find some of snow in previous Novembers. I had to go back to 2010 to find the photo below.

Photo taken on 28-November 2010

Sunday, 28 November 2021

Models were correct - we got some snow

It’s turned out that the weather models were correct when they forecast around a week ago we might get some snow. We woke up on Saturday morning to a light covering of wet slushy snow.

Tuesday, 23 November 2021

The first air frost of autumn

At dawn on Monday we had our coldest temperature of autumn. It was the first time the temperature had fallen below 0°C or 32°F since the beginning of May this year.

Monday, 22 November 2021

Sweet pea experiment

It’s been another mild week for the time of year. It’s also been a dry week with just a little bit of overnight drizzle on a couple of occasions. So far this month we’ve had just 12.6mm or 0.5in of rainfall. At this stage of the month, along with 2017, that makes it the equal driest November over the last 12 years.

Monday, 15 November 2021

Cardoons get the chop

It’s been a rather mild week with both daytime and nighttime temperatures a little bit above average. We’ve had a drop of rain but it’s fallen as drizzle, not proper rain.

Thursday, 11 November 2021

Over Wintering Our Patio Tubs

Tuesday turned out to be a lovely mild day for November. The temperature reached 16.6°C (61.9°F) and with very little wind it felt very pleasant. Whilst this sort of temperature is well above average for the early part of November it’s not particularly unusual. The highest November temperature I’ve recorded is 17.9°C (64.2°F) in 2015.

Temperature Record for 09 November 2021

Monday, 8 November 2021

Summerhouse Storage as the Weather Gets Colder

After a wet day to start the month the rest of the week has been reasonably dry. Although the daytime temperatures have been around average for early November, we've had a couple of chilly nights with the temperature falling to 1.1°C or 34.0°F around dawn on Friday morning.

Bonfire Night at the Allotment

Firstly, you may have noticed a lack of weather related posts recently. That's because Me and Blogger haven't been getting on at all well making writing posts a bit of a pain. I'm trying a new method with a Read More link to my full blog post written using WordPress.

Normally on Bonfire Night, we try to burn any rubbish we have laying around on the plot. We are allowed to have a fire at the allotment but they can only be lit one hour before dusk.

Not a bad October

For us, October hasn’t been a bad month weatherwise even though the last week was disappointingly damp. Generally, it’s been on the mild side with just a couple of chilly nights thrown in for good measure. It hasn’t been frosty enough to blacken our dahlias at the allotment and the job of lifting the tubers and storing them somewhere frost free remains one of our must do jobs at the plot.

With some decent weather through the first weeks of the month, we made good progress tidying up beds. We had enough rainfall through the first part of the month to convert our soil from its rock hard state, in September, to something much easier to dig although that might have all changed now following this week’s rain.

Temperature & Rainfall Records for October 2021

We'd have liked to get a bit more tidying up done than we have but I think we've done enough to allow us to make a good start next spring if the weather is reasonable. The beds that we will require for our early crops have all been cleared and dug over and should be ready for sowing and planting next spring.

We haven't managed a visit to the plot this week. On the drier days, we've chosen to taken Ruby on walks around Nostell Priory and Rothwell Park. It's noticeable on our walks that some of the trees are now beginning to show the best of their autumn colours.