Our cold spell has come to a very abrupt end. It’s been the coldest spell of weather since December 2010. That spell in December 2010 was the beginning of the coldest winter in 100 years. To be honest the cold temperatures back in that December were colder than we’ve experienced so far this month.
Sunday, 11 December 2022 became our coldest day of the year as the temperature dropped to -4.8°C or 23.4°F. Rather strangely this temperature occurred just before midnight on Sunday after which the temperature lifted slightly.
However, as daylight broke the temperature remained below -3.0°C (26.6°F) and it’s struggling to get much warmer.
It’s been a mild start to November so far but it looks like we’re in for a few colder days starting today. Overnight and into the early hours of this morning the temperature fell to -0.5°C (31.1°F) giving us our first frost of autumn. It’s not warmed up at all and, as I’m writing this blog at 13:00, the temperature has only managed to reach 3.9°C (39.0°F) and it’s just beginning to rain.
We’ve had our first chilly mornings of the autumn this week. Early on Friday morning, the temperature got down to 2.9°C (37.2°F), and then on Sunday morning, even lower, falling to 1.7°C (35.1°F). That’s our lowest temperature since 08 April this year when the temperature fell to -0.3°C (31.5°F). I’m guessing a few places will have had a keen frost. We’ll have to see if our dahlias survived the cold mornings but in any case, I think it’s about time we lifted the tubers and put them somewhere frost-free for over winter.
It had to happen eventually as we couldn’t continue the spell of months with below-average rainfall. I suppose the rather wet end to September set the ball rolling and now the pattern has set in it doesn’t know when to stop. Of course, being a gardener I’m never happy about the weather conditions, and whilst I’ve complained about the lack of rain, the recent wet weather means all the prunings at the allotment due to be burnt on bonfire night will be well and truly soaked.
I had been in the process of writing a blog post saying how October was following a pattern similar to the rest of the year with temperatures a little above average and rainfall a little below average. Then everything changed. This was the forecast for Thursday.
The weather had to eventually turn cooler. After above average temperatures throughout July and August and a mild start to September, it was a bit of a shock to the system when a bit of chilly weather arrived this week. The breeze moved into a cold northerly to make it feel even cooler.
After a very dry summer, we have now moved into Meteorological autumn and we are still awaiting some proper rain. We haven’t had a good wet day since February. At home, two photos taken from the same spot show the difference between watering and not watering.
It has been a couple of weeks since my last blog post and, during that time some parts of the country have had some wet weather, albeit in the form of heavy showers rather than prolonged spells of heavy rain. That’s not the case here where we’ve missed any heavy showers.
We’re just coming to the end of a proper heatwave unlike the one in July that lasted just a couple of days. This one has been a proper heat wave with six days in a row having a temperature above 30° C or 86.0°F. It’s the first time I’ve recorded such a heatwave in August since I installed my weather station in 2010. On the 10th and 11th of August, the temperature reached 33° C or 91.4° F which is my record for August. I’ve added my weather station summary for August below.
I thought I’d do a bit of a blog about our hottest ever weather. After a very hot Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday the temperature on Wednesday returned to normal.
Monday became the hottest day of the year with the temperature reaching 31.4°C or 88.5°F. It moves into ninth equal place in my list of top twenty hottest days since 2010.
It’s the first time in 10 years that the average temperature for the first 5 days of June has been colour-coded blue on my monthly chart. However, it’s not the coldest start to the month as that record is still held by 2012. The average temperature after 5 days of June in 2012 was a very chilly 10.8°C (51.4°F) compared with 12.4°C (54.3°F) this year.
Last Saturday became our warmest day of the year with the temperature reaching a very pleasant 24.9°C or 76.8°F. However, it turned out to be a one day wonder rather than the beginning of a heatwave.
It’s been quite a while since we had a proper wet day. By that, I mean enough to penetrate into the soil rather than just wet the surface. In my mind, I reckon about 10mm or a little under half an inch in a day is the amount we need. The last time that we had 10mm or more rain in one day was back on 20 February.
When I last looked a couple of days ago the forecasts didn’t suggest we would be getting any frosts over the next few days. However, I noticed this morning that had changed and a frost was now forecast for Thursday morning.
I usually sow our tomato seeds at the beginning of April. This year was no different as I sowed our seeds on 08 April. We don’t have any heating at all in our greenhouse so in order to get quick germination the seeds are placed under a growlight situated in a spare room indoors.
We had some lovely mild sunny days towards the end of March giving us the warmest day of the year so far as the temperature reached 19.7°C or 67.5°F. However, it was just to fool us into thinking that spring had arrived as this week winter has certainly returned with cold frosty nights and snow showers by day.
I saw reports on social media that Saturday was the warmest day of the year in the UK. That wasn’t the case for us as the temperature refused to reach 15.0°C or 59.0°F.
February was a wet and windy month, but as we approach the middle of March the weather is much improved. So far no more storms and far less rain. You can see on the chart below that we’ve had a number of rain free days this month and the temperature is beginning to lift up a little bit too. All making it feel a bit more spring like.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 12 February to 14 March 2022
The weather turned spring like for Friday and Saturday. Storms Dudley, Eunice and Franklin brought plenty of gale force winds and plenty of rain. There’s a chance that this February could finish up as either the wettest, windiest or mildest I’ve recorded in 13 years.
As forecast storm Eunice followed close on the heels of Dudley. For us there was no doubting that Eunice was the worst of the two storms.
I think it’s worth pointing out here that my weather station is set up to monitor the wind speeds in our garden rather than compete with professionally set up weather stations. Hence the wind speeds I record bear no comparison to wind speeds mentioned in the mainstream media. I usually make a note when wind gusts exceed 20 mph. In summer gusts around such a speed will cause damage to plants in the garden. Fortunately, through the summer months, such wind gusts don’t occur regularly but through autumn and winter they are much more common.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve gathered together most of our seed stock for the coming season. It’s mostly our tried and tested varieties that we’ve grown before and which give us a decent crop providing the weather plays fair. However, every year we try a few new varieties to see if we can find something better than our normal varieties. This year we have decided to try the following:
Last weekend turned out to be a windy weekend with the arrival of storm Malik on Sunday morning. It brought with it the windiest weather for some considerable time. It certainly blew away the murky cloudy weather that had been hanging around for a few days. The highest wind gust that my weather station recorded was 40mph the highest since 11 January 2017 when a speed of 41mph was recorded. That puts it into 4th place in my highest wind gust speeds.
At the midpoint of the month we’re not doing too badly as far as the weather is concerned. It could certainly have been much worse. After that mildest January day on the first of the month we’ve had enough cold nights to bring the average temperature down to almost the average for this time in January. As it stands we are still a little bit above average.
You are probably aware of the huge underwater volcano that erupted in the Pacific Ocean close to Tonga on Saturday Morning (UK time). As far as I am concerned Tonga is on the other side of the world and I didn’t think it would result in any measurable effects by my weather station in the UK.
Temperature and Barometric Records for Saturday, 15 January 2022
I don’t think 2021 will go down in our records as a particularly good gardening year. It certainly finished better than it started. As you can see from the table on the right it finished in eighth place equal with 2019 with a slightly below average temperature based on the last 12 years.
That mild spell of weather over the first few days of the new year is behind us now. The temperature in the early hours of Thursday morning fell down to -4.4°C (21.0°F) which could easily be the coldest we will have this year.
Hot on the heels of the mildest December day I’ve recorded comes the mildest January day. New Year’s Day became the warmest January day of the last 10 years.
This blog records the local weather details near to my allotment plot in Wakefield. The details are gathered from a weather station which I set up in my garden during October 2009. Click here to read about set up.
Records of temperature, rainfall and wind speeds will be posted as recorded. A summary is posted each month on our website click here to view.
Click any chart image to view at 100%. Click on the magnifying glass to magnify and use the mouse to move the image.
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