It snowed

Saturday saw our first snowfall of the winter. It had been widely forecast for the last few days so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone. A few flakes fell early afternoon but nothing more than a dusting. It snowed for a couple of hours early evening and left us with around 25mm or 1” of snow, certainly nothing too serious.

This is the scene early Sunday morning. The forecast is for a sunny day with the temperature reaching 4°C so with a little luck some of the snow may melt away. Overnight we didn’t have the severe frost of the last two nights. The temperature fell to -2.1°C by 01:30 Sunday morning but then it warmed slightly rather than getting any colder. 

Glorious Sunshine but......

It was a glorious sunny day on Friday but it didn't manage to lift the temperature above 2.5°C. Out of the sun the ground remained white covered by frost all day.

Overnight Thursday/Friday set our coldest temperature of the year at -4.9°C but that record hasn’t lasted long as overnight Friday/Saturday saw a new low of -5.7°C (21.8°F) our lowest since 21st December 2010. It was low enough for ice to have formed on our pond.

Compared to last February this year is already colder. In 2011 we had just 5 hours below 0°C whereas this year we have already had 30 hours and that’s after only three and a bit days.

The forecast is for snow this afternoon so it seems that winter has really has arrived. The temperatures are supposed to pick up a little bit after the snowfall so it shouldn’t be around for very long.

Spoke too soon!

Lets move the temperature chart on just one day.

As you can see from the chart I spoke too soon about avoiding the forecast severe frosts. Thursday was a cloudy and cold day with the temperature managing a maximum of only 2.6°C. Late in the evening the cloud cleared and the temperature plummeted. 

By dawn on Friday the temperature had dropped to -4.9°C (23.2°F), that’s the coldest February temperature I’ve recorded. On the upside Friday is off to a bright sunny start.

I'm now glad I moved my seed potatoes for this year out of the greenhouse and into the garage as the overnight temperature fell to -5.2°C.

It will no doubt be quite warm in the greenhouse once the sun thaws out the frost but it’s the cold overnight temperature that governs the growing conditions not the daytime high. With light snow and bitterly cold temperatures forecast for the weekend my seed potatoes can stay where they are.

Spared so far

It was quite pleasant in the sunshine on Wednesday and it tempted me outside to do a little more work on the base for our summerhouse. The trouble is in winter this part of the garden is shaded from any sunshine and with the temperature around 2°C and in a cold easterly breeze it felt a little chilly. So far we seemed to have missed any severe frosts which have been forecast with over night temperatures for the last couple of days hovering just above freezing point.

Out in the cold

Tuesday saw the end of January and it ended on a cold grey sunless day. The breeze was out of the east and had a bitterly cold feel to it.

The wind direction chart for the month clearly shows that when the wind blows from the east then certainly in winter we get a cold spell of weather.

After all the hype about the mild January it’s turned out just a smidgeon lower than average as after a mild first couple of weeks the temperatures have varied more dramatically over the remainder of the month. Two cold spells, one in the middle of the month and the current one have offset the mild start.

Rainfall wise after lots of below average rainfall months last year, January has got 2012 off to a wet start with one third more rainfall than average 59.8mm against 43.8mm.

All our monthly data has been updated on our 2012 weather pages.

Chickened Out!

Monday was cold with just a little sunshine in the afternoon but it didn't do a lot for the temperature.

The forecast is for the cold weather to continue, certainly for the rest of this week, with night time temperatures plummeting very low over the next few nights to maybe the coldest of the winter so far. With this in mind I’ve moved my chitting potatoes out of the greenhouse and into the garage for a little extra warmth or should that be less cold.

As daytime temperatures even in the greenhouse are reaching only 5°C there wont be much chitting going on and I’d rather be safe than sorry at keeping the tubers frost free. On long cold winter nights my greenhouse doesn’t provide much frost protection.

Muffin Trials

Sunday was so different, not a hint of sunshine and cold with a high of just 3.1°C and the daily average coming in at 1.3°C. This weather may be with us a while, through into the second week of February if the forecasts are correct.

Last week I made some apple muffins which turned out well. I thought some may be nice with a little of our frozen fruit used in them. The apple recipe only made 8 muffins and I wanted to make a dozen sufficient to fill the muffin tray. There’s thousands of muffin recipes on the web so it was a matter of deciding which one. I settled for a blueberry muffin recipe except I intended to use some redcurrants to replace the blueberries.  I added the equivalent amount of de-frosted redcurrants as a first attempt to see if the muffins would turn out OK.

The ingredients:

2 eggs, 240ml milk, 120ml vegetable oil, 200gms sugar added to a bowl and mixed together.

375gms plain flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt mixed together.

The 2 sets of ingredients are added together and given a good mixing and then I added 175 gms of de-frosted redcurrants.

The mixed contents were shared between the 12 muffin cases and cooked for 25 minutes at 200°C gas mark 6

Next time I might try with 200gms of redcurrants especially as we still have plenty in the freezer.

RSPB Bird Count Saturday

Saturday was a cold crisp sunny day. It did cloud over in the late afternoon but otherwise it was a beautiful day for counting birds.

For once it seemed our feathered friends didn’t completely desert us for a couple of days as they usually do for the RSPB bird count weekend. These starlings found the temptation of a new fat filled coconut too much to resist.