Getting Worse

It hasn't been a good start to November and Sunday turned out to be the worst day of the month so far. It was the coldest day of the month with the daily high temperature only making it up to 6.9°C (44.4°F) and turning in a daily average of 4.6°C (40.3°F). So far the temperature hasn't fallen below 0°C (32°F) here but there are reports of snow falling on higher ground. Just to make matters worse we had light rain showers on and off throughout the day.

Over the last week or so we've been out photographing colourful autumn trees on the North Yorkshire Moors and at Thorp Perrow arboretum. In our own garden we have a little acer tree which is doing its very best to compete with the big boys.

Obviously autumn comes a little bit later in our garden as the acer hasn't lost any of its leaves yet.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Cold For Bonfire Night

Saturday was another cold day with the day's high temperature only making it up to 8.1°C or 46.6°F. To make matters worse a bit of a strong northerly breeze had arrived making it feel worse than it was. We weren't desperate for any fresh vegetables so we decided to give plotting a miss.

Even on this plot of temperatures over the last month it's easy to see how the temperatures have suddenly fallen since the beginning of the month.

I did get another chance to do a bit more video editing of the filming at Thorp Perrow arboretum.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Sunny But Cold

We had a decent amount of sunshine on Friday but it did little to improve the temperature which remained stubbornly below what we might expect for the beginning of November.

It did give me a chance to do a little bit of video editing of our visit to Thorp Perrow arboretum on Thursday.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

A Cold But Colourful Day Out

As forecast November has started on a chilly note. With night time temperatures down to 1.8°C (35.2°F) and day time temperatures hovering around the 10°C (50°F) mark it feels like autumn has really set in. Not only that but the clocks have gone back so it's dark by 16:00. On November 10 in 2015 the thermometer hit 17.9°C (64.2°F) so we can occasionally get a nice warm day even in November but in contrast on 28 November 2010 it fell to -7.6°C (18.3°F) one of our coldest nights.

We haven't let the cold weather put us off getting outside. Last week we made the journey to Thorpe Perrow arboretum only to find it extremely busy as it was the school half term holidays. We left and visited Richmond Castle instead. However, we thought this week would probably be the last week that the trees would be in their autumn prime and made a return journey.

We thought that the trees might be just past their best, which I think they were, and had lost lots of leaves but they were still putting on a good display of colour. With the calm weather of the last few days the leaves have remained where they have fallen creating a colourful carpet of leaves under the trees.

It was a bit of a shame that the skies remained overcast all day. Some blue sky would have done wonders for some of our photos.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

A Lovely Day To End The Month

Monday provided a lovely end to the month with a decent amount of sunshine, even if it was a bit hazy at times, and an afternoon high temperature of 16.3°C (61.3°F) only beaten on the fourth day of the month with 19°C (66.2°F).

Temperatures & Rainfall Records for October 2016

I'm aware that there are lots of reports about it been a mild October but I'm not that convinced. Based on average temperatures for October that I've recorded over the last seven years, this year was a little below average at 10.6°C (51.1°F) with 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015 coming in with higher average temperatures. The seven year average temperature I've recorded for October is 11.0°C (51.8°F).

We have had a dry October here with only 28.4mm (1.12ins) of rainfall against an average of 49.4mm (1.94ins). It's meant that we've managed to get lots of tidying up done on the plot. I had another large bonfire at the allotment on Monday and managed to burn an enormous amount of dry rubbish.

The flames and smoke went straight up as Monday was a very calm day. In fact it was a rather unusual day in that the highest wind speed for the day was only 1.0mph and I've never had a zero recording. Only on three other occasions over a seven year period have I recorded such a low value. The other three days were 21 March 2012, 02 September 2014 and 30 August 2015.

The forecast is for it to turn much cooler for the first part of November. Gloves and scarves at the ready!

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Catching Up

We decided to make the most of the dry weather over the last few days and have some days out. For the last few days the weather has been milder but mostly cloudy and windy at times.

Temperature, Rainfall and Sunshine Records 23-29 October 2016

We headed north for our outings to Richmond Castle, Beamish Museum and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. On Thursday at Richmond Castle it was windy making it feel pretty cold.

Construction of the castle began in around 1070 and it's still possible to climb up to the top of the 30m (100 ft) high keep to get some brilliant views of the river Swale. The only problem was in the wind it was difficult to hold the camera steady to get any good shots. At times it was more important just to hold on to the camera to stop it been whipped out of your hands and over the side.

The wind had abated for our next trip to Beamish Museum in County Durham. It's an open air museum on a site covering about 350 acres with a 1900's pit village, a 1900's town, a railway station and a 1940's farm forming some of its main attraction. As it was school half term holiday the museum was very busy and some of the shops in the town were no go areas as there were long queues outside. The shops sell traditional sweets and cakes and there's a fish and chip shop in the pit village which had long queues outside as visitors waited to buy their fish and chips. I noticed that there weren't any queues at the dentist's in the town.

Our third day out was to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It was certainly the best of the three days as we even managed a little bit of sunshine and with only a gentle breeze it felt fairly mild. We seemed to have caught the moors at their autumnal best.

Into the afternoon the blue skies and sun disappeared and the moors took on a more moody appearance.

We arrived back home with lots of photos to sort out and plenty of video to edit. Still we'll need something to do now the dark nights have arrived. No doubt our photos and video will eventually be posted to Facebook, You Tube and Zenfolio.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

A Dry October Means Lots of Tidying Up

There hasn't been much to report on the weather front now for the last week or so. It seems to be in a bit of a rut although it's not an entirely bad rut. It's been mostly dull and cloudy with a few sunny intervals now and again. We've had the occasional shower but it has remained mostly dry.

Temperature & Rainfall Records 18-24 October 2016

Despite the rain shown on the above chart October has been reasonably dry with only 28.0mm (1.10ins) of rainfall making it the driest October of the last seven years at this stage of the month. It's also been coolish with only 2012 having a lower average temperature this far into the month.

The dry weather has given us chance to get some tidying up done on the plot. We've even made a start on a couple of those areas that have been neglected for a little too long.

The pile of rubbish was getting bigger and bigger and eventually I couldn't do much more until a little bit of space was created by burning some of our chopped down conifer, elder and laurel. It had to be a careful job to make sure the flames didn't spread too far and get out of control. It was a case of getting rubbish burnt while it was still dry as, most of the time we were at the allotment, the threat of a really heavy shower never seemed far away.

We were lucky to get only a sprinkling of rain as the shower gave us a near miss. It was dark by the time we left the plot leaving just the dying embers of the fire to burn away through the night.

The embers were still warm the following afternoon.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

A Look Around the Plot

The weather hasn't varied much over the last few days. It's been mostly cloudy with a few sunny spells now and again with light showers mixed in for good measure.

Temperatures have been very slightly below average with the rolling average monthly temperature remaining at 10.6°C (51.1°F) for the last eight days. It's rather unusual for it to have remained unchanged over so many days.

We're used to dodging the showers when we visit the plot. It's become a regular feature of our visits. Below is a short video looking around our plot as we tidy up as much as we can before any winter weather arrives.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett