Monday 31 August 2020

Almost A Frost - In August!

Last night the temperature dropped to 3.9°C (39.0°F), almost cold enough for a frost. It's the coldest August night I've recorded in 10 years taking over from 31 August 2010, when the temperature fell to 4.6°C or 40.3°F.
Temperature Records 29-31 August 2020
August 2020 now holds the record for the highest and lowest August temperatures of the last 10 years. On the 7th and 11th, August the thermometer hit 31.2°C or 88.2°F.
Hopefully, tender vegetables, such as courgettes and beans, will have survived the cold early morning temperature.

Posted by Martyn at 09:51 2 comments

Saturday 29 August 2020

Cold For Summer

The last week has been cold, windy and wet. It seems like autumn has arrived rather early this year.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 23-29 August 2020
The week's rainfall amounted to 29.0mm or 1.14in with most of it falling on Tuesday from storm Francis. It's brought this month's total up to 65.8mm (2.6in) which is around average for August. It's put allotment visits on hold this week.

Friday was one of the lowest daytime temperatures I've recorded in August with the thermometer only reaching a maximum of 14.0°C (57.2°F) making it the third coldest August daytime temperature since 2010.
August Daytime Temperatures 2010 - 2020
I've circled in red the lowest Daytime temperatures of the last 10 years. The forecast for the next few days is for the cool daytime temperatures to continue but at least it should remain dry. I might be able to make a start on lifting some maincrop potatoes over the weekend if the forecast is correct.

Posted by Martyn at 09:53 2 comments

Monday 24 August 2020

Weather's Going Downhill

The weather has certainly gone downhill from those hot sunny days of the middle of the month. The last week has been much cooler with some rain on most days although it hasn't amounted to anything significant. The month's rainfall now stands at 37.8mm (1.5in) which is around average for August.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 18-24 August 2020
In the middle of the month, the average temperature was on course for being the hottest August I've recorded but with the cooler weather of the last week and the forecast of cooler temperatures for the remainder of the month, it's unlikely to hold on to that record.

Whilst we were visiting the plot, between the shower,s last week I had to spend some time sorting out an issue with the pond filter. The water flow through the filter is usually pretty high, but over the last few weeks the flow had been getting less and less. Cleaning the filter helped a little but never really returned the flow to the sort of level I was used to.
By Sunday morning the flow had almost stopped completely so urgent measures were needed to sort out the problem before the water quality had time to deteriorate. I cleaned the filter again, but this time it had no effect on the flow. I removed the pump from the bottom of the pond and removed all the debris that had accumulated around the pump. I checked the pump was working before replacing it in the pond and allowing it to sink to the bottom. There was still no improvement. I undid the connection where the water enters the filter and found there wasn't much of a flow which meant that the pipe connecting the pump and the filter was blocked. There was nothing for it but to remove the pipe from the pond and see if I could find the blockage. The pipe runs behind all the plants in the photo above so removing it isn't the easiest of jobs. All this was done between taking shelter from the constant showers on Sunday afternoon.
The fish didn't mind all this activity and thought it was time that they got something to eat. Luckily I managed to find the blockage which turned out to be an old gasket. I'm not entirely sure how it got there though.
Of course by the late afternoon once I'd sorted out the problem the showers died out and it was a pleasant enough afternoon.


Posted by Martyn at 10:29 1 comments

Sunday 16 August 2020

A Week of Storms and Torrential Rain?

Social media posts and the news have been full of details of the hot weather, storms, and torrential rain that have been around over the last week. I've got the impression that the whole country was affected by the storms judging by the pictures of lightning and flash flooding. A new term has even cropped up on the weather forecasts now "Tropical Nights" and apparently we're getting a lot more of them now than we use to. A tropical night is when the overnight temperature doesn't fall below 20°C or 68°F.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 10-16 August 2020
Our weather then didn't match up with the rest of the country. We certainly had a couple of hot days on Tuesday and Wednesday when the temperature made it to 31.2°C and 31.0°C respectively. That's 88.2°F and 87.8°F and high enough to get them into my list of top twenty hottest days. You'll see from the temperature records above that overnight temperature fell below the 20°C required for a "tropical night" and checking through my records we haven't managed to achieve that over the last 10 years. The nearest occasion was 01 June 2010 with 18.9 or 66.0°F.



As for the storms and torrential rain they never reached us either. In the garden, the lawn looks very autumnal covered in leaves and the grass turning brown through lack of rainfall. At the allotment too it's very dry.


These leeks at the allotment look very dry and they've been on the regular watering regime trying to get the young plants established. Strangely at the allotment, the grass paths continue to grow alarmingly quickly despite the lack of rainfall.

The forecast for today, Sunday was for some decent rainfall through the morning and afternoon but that once again has failed to materialise.  We've had some drizzly rain on and off all day ensuring that the ground is wet and putting any gardening on hold but, so far, only depositing 4.2mm or 0.17in of rainfall bringing August's total up to 9.4mm or 0.37in. Midway through the month, on average, we'd expect in the region of 25mm or around an inch of rainfall.

However, those hot days and a lack of rainfall are not a good gardening combination. There's more rain in the forecast for next week so I'm hoping we won't have to do too much watering. For record, purposes here is my table of the top twenty hottest days I've recorded.




Posted by Martyn at 19:13 3 comments

Tuesday 11 August 2020

Too hot for digging potatoes

We went to the allotment this afternoon (Monday) with the intention of digging up the rest of our trial potatoes. At home it didn’t seem all that hot but once at the allotment it soon became clear it was a bit too warm for digging up potatoes. The afternoon temperature reached 27.2°C or 81.0°F.
The tops of the potatoes are dying down now so the crop underneath isn't going to do any more growing.

I needed to change the crop protection for two of our beds. We had environmesh over our salad bed and normal netting over our new brassica bed. The better option was to have the Enviromesh over the brassicas to give some protection against aphids as well as cabbage white butterflies. It was hard work making holes, in our now rock hard ground, for the plastic piping supports for the netting covering our salad bed.

Besides swapping around the coverings on these beds we managed to do a reasonable amount of harvesting. We picked our first kohlrabi Ballot but we have no idea whether this is the right size for picking or not.

The intention is for this to be grated and added to our coleslaw mix. We also harvested cabbage and carrots both of which will be added to the kohlrabi in the coleslaw.

The forecast is for another warm day on Tuesday and Wednesday before temperatures fall back to normal towards the end of the week. I will probably leave digging any more potatoes until the weather cools down. We will probably have to do some watering this week as it’s been almost a month since we had any reasonable amount of rain.
 
Temperature and Rainfall Records 12 July - 11 August 2020
There is just the chance that we might get a thunderstorm which will save us from having to do any watering.



Posted by Martyn at 10:24 4 comments

Saturday 8 August 2020

Equal Hottest August Day!

Friday's afternoon temperature reached 31.2°C equalling our record high temperature for August.
Temperature & Rainfall Records 09 July to 08 August 2020
It equaled our highest August temperature set last year on 26 August 2019.

This week we dug up our early potatoes, Casablanca and International Kidney. As these potatoes were dug up,  I was surprised at how dry the ground had become. 
Potatoes - Casablanca
It seems like we've had a reasonable amount of wet weather, but it's been of the drizzly type rather than decent rain, resulting in the dry ground we've now got. It has now been a month since we had any decent rainfall.

It's come at a time when we’re trying to replant some of the beds at the allotment which have been cleared of early crops. We’ve already planted some dwarf French beans Safari. 

Before this latest spell of hot weather arrived we planted out some leeks received from D T Brown. They were good-sized plants and the were planted in the allotment the same day as they arrived in the post. Usually, we find we need to grow on plants from seed companies in pots at home before they're large enough to have a chance in the allotment.

It would be nice to think that we would be able to leave these new plantings to do their own thing but unless we get some decent rainfall they’re going to need regular watering to get them settled in. If some of the weather forecasts are correct this spell of hot weather is going to hang around for a week or so. However, they are suggesting there's a chance of thunderstorms early on next week so there is a chance we might get a good downpour to keep the plot watered.

Otherwise, it's watering cans at the ready.


Posted by Martyn at 11:10 2 comments

Monday 3 August 2020

One Day Heatwave - A Bit Unusual

I'm not sure that you can have a one day heatwave but that's what we had to end July with an afternoon temperature of 34.2°C or 93.6°F. A scorcher of a day to end the month prevented this July from becoming the coldest of the last 10 years by the smallest of margins just 0.1°C.

All month it has been a close run thing between 2020 and 2012 as to which would be the coldest month. This year has been marginally cooler than 2012 through the whole month but that final scorcher of a day tipped the balance in favour of 2012 remaining the coolest July I've recorded.
I'm not sure that one hot day is exactly what the allotment wanted. A few more nice warm days around the average for July and August would be more appreciated than the sudden burst of intense heat for one day only.

For the records that one day heatwave was the second hottest day I've recorded. As forecast today's temperature has returned to levels we are more accustomed to at the beginning of August more than 14°C (25°F ?) below yesterday's.

 
Posted by Martyn at 11:09 4 comments
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