Still no real rainfall in your area?

[peterf]

I personally don't have moisture problems in my potato and leak patch. I've been using a mixture of leaf mould (from the nearby woods) and dry grass as a thick mulch and it's always moist underneath.

i'm pleased for ya PP,I have a third of an acre to irrigate and spuds are a thirsty crop.

on a small scale you may get away with it.but for it to be moist underneath a thick mulch you need to have already recieved the moisture into the ground.and be careful with the dry grass mulch it will rob your soil of nitrogen no end.

i'm pleased for ya PP,I have a third of an acre to irrigate and spuds are a thirsty crop.

on a small scale you may get away with it.but for it to be moist underneath a thick mulch you need to have already recieved the moisture into the ground.and be careful with the dry grass mulch it will rob your soil of nitrogen no end.

whats these leak things you grow?tell me more and i may have a go at them.

Edited July 27, 2010 by peterf

[PersianPaladin]

i'm pleased for ya PP,I have a third of an acre to irrigate and spuds are a thirsty crop.

on a small scale you may get away with it.but for it to be moist underneath a thick mulch you need to have already recieved the moisture into the ground.and be careful with the dry grass mulch it will rob your soil of nitrogen no end.

Heh..a thick hay\straw and leaf mould mulch act very well to keep moisture in. They're used as part of permaculture beds even in arid desert areas.

The nitrogen issue isn't a problem; since the nearby trees and mixed-clover bed work with beneficial fungi to move it through the soil.

[Terminal Moraine]

Well a short term whoopsea as far as the forecast went. Much further south than they predicted which they admitted too this lunchtime so today's rain didn't turn up while the day before's was a lot more active than predicted. Two lemons two days running.

Anyway the weeds have enjoyed the recent rainfall as has the hedges. Can't see any more rain here for a few days. I was briefly wondering if we'd get too 100mm's again.

Likewise, Pit. I should have known better than to expect significant rainfall just because the forecast seemed confident of it. No matter how likely it looks 'On Paper', this summer seems unable to deliver any useful rain, or at least that's been the case since the second week in June. It's looking more and more likely that July here will be the driest since 1999.

[❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️]

I thought i had accidentally entered the gardening thread.

[Iceni]

For the first time in 2 months my location was in the right place at the right time — got a good old fashioned downpour which should have filled the butts and soaked the veg.

It only lasted about an hour but nice bright reds and yellows radar in both bursts. Phew!

Heh..a thick hay\straw and leaf mould mulch act very well to keep moisture in. They're used as part of permaculture beds even in arid desert areas.

The nitrogen issue isn't a problem; since the nearby trees and mixed-clover bed work with beneficial fungi to move it through the soil.

Exactly what I'm going to do first thing tomorrow — except mine's 2 y/o fine wood chip — all I've got. I'll probably put a sprinkle of blood fish and bone on first just in case it's bad for the soil nutrition.

[sunny scunny]

For the first time in 2 months my location was in the right place at the right time — got a good old fashioned downpour which should have filled the butts and soaked the veg.

About time hey.My area has had a few short, heavy showers this afternoon,which is a surprise as they normally miss by a couple of miles

[The PIT]

Rain shadow effect here just the odd bit of drizzle and no measurable rain. Some beefy showers prior to reaching Sheffield which reformed again several miles east of here.

[ZONE 51]

Here its looking like auturmn! the golden leaves in their thousands, of this is because of increasing drought conditions, the trees are dropping leaves to save the what their is of moisture, the trees cant afford to let the water go to external areas so saves it inside, the river wey and thames in weybridge are getting to 2006 levels, but then there was downpours and storms from mid july and through on to auturmn.

[Iceni]

Here its looking like auturmn! the golden leaves in their thousands, of this is because of increasing drought conditions, the trees are dropping leaves to save the what their is of moisture, the trees cant afford to let the water go to external areas so saves it inside, the river wey and thames in weybridge are getting to 2006 levels, but then there was downpours and storms from mid july and through on to auturmn.

The Poplars are shedding their leaves like they would in late September. Looks very autumnal in places down the lane.

[summer blizzard]

Here its looking like auturmn! the golden leaves in their thousands, of this is because of increasing drought conditions, the trees are dropping leaves to save the what their is of moisture, the trees cant afford to let the water go to external areas so saves it inside, the river wey and thames in weybridge are getting to 2006 levels, but then there was downpours and storms from mid july and through on to auturmn.

That happened here in 2006, by the end of July my two silver birch trees had shed pretty much all their leaves. In regards to this year, many leaves were turning yellow towards the end of June, however for the moment the trees seem to have only shed a small amount of their leaves.

[soupsurfer7]

It's been quite a poor summer here in Wales, with July having nearly twice the avergage monthly rainfall..... feel free to take some of our water The rivers are very high especially in mid wales. We havn't had half decent weather since late may/early june . Heres hoping for a nice august

[ZONE 51]

i dont know what the water reserves are like in the se/ea they not said about any drought worries yet here in surrey ,but the rivers are very low all grass straw and auturmn effects good enough for the next box office hit ,so if u are making a movie and need auturmn leaves and trees as your background then weybridge is the place. 3or4 wks of little rain and it be concerning, wont b long until the news say something(SE/EA)

[Iceni]

i dont know what the water reserves are like in the se/ea they not said about any drought worries yet here in surrey ,but the rivers are very low all grass straw and auturmn effects good enough for the next box office hit ,so if u are making a movie and need auturmn leaves and trees as your background then weybridge is the place. 3or4 wks of little rain and it be concerning, wont b long until the news say something(SE/EA)

Just spoken to the farmer and he says he's finished harvesting his barley about the time when he'd normally be gearing up to start it — about 2 weeks ahead.

Grim reading about animal feed grain crops — yields down 20–30% in some places — in fact Russia may not be able to export any wheat at all, so that means milk and meat's going to go up in price this winter. Some people think it might be enough to tip the country into a double dip recession. We aren't so far away from being medieval peasants at the mercy of whatever the weather throws at us after all.

Thank god for my veg plot.

Edited July 31, 2010 by Iceni

[Thundery wintry showers]

Norwich has had quite a few cloudbursts recently (although all but one of them were localised), and the wildlife around UEA are now in full flow again after a couple of months of semi-arid looking surroundings. The assessment for East Anglia thus depends on how localised these deluges over Norwich were.

[Weather-history]

Here's some depressing facts for northwest England and north Wales.

The last 4 Julys including the present one have totalled nearly 530mm

8 of the last 11 summer months including the present one have averaged over 100mm.

Those 11 summer months totalled nearly 1200mm! (about 140% of the 1961-90 average)

I was hoping that this July would break the run of its 3 predecessors for this region. It hasn't, it turned out very wet and sunshine has been a premium over the last few days.

It looks like this July will sneak into the top 10 wettest Julys since 1873 for this region.

[Snowyowl9]

A very sorry state for farmers in those areas again this july.

June is the best month to make hay while the sun shines.

Which will be a thing of the past in those regions,nuisance light rain this month here overall but not amounting like anything to the last 3 Julys.

Some heavy rain in the SW this morning and some showers in southern powys,just a sheet of cloud here.

[Northernlights]

Free rain on offer from here to anyone that wants it, I do not think that we have had one 24 hour dry period in the last 2 weeks although having said that it hasn"t rained all the time ands only ocasionally has it been really heavy. Wellies are the order of the day on the farm now as it is very humid a not drying up a lot between spells of rain.The barley could do with some sun to hasten ripening before the the weather becomes autumnal but the turnips which are 90% water are looking fabulous after the dry June and the grass is growing again. We look like writing off our last patch of hay but most of it was secured in good condition so it is not a total loss.

On a brighter note our old red tractor won the vintage tractor section at our local show, plenty of wet days for polishing!!!!!!!

[Terminal Moraine]

Exactly 402mm of rain here to the end of July which makes it the driest first 7 months of a year since 1996 and the second driest first 7 since 1976.

August would have to record less than 70 mm to make the first 8 months the driest since 1976. The August average over the last 30 years is 81.7 mm.

[ZONE 51]

Reading the netweather monthly forecast it a bit concerning, as the se/ea looks to continue quite dry, so no effective rainfall for the farmlands, wildlife, ponds, trees and grass, its looking like not full prolonged sunshine ,so that would stop more ground baking ,but it would be nice to have clear blue.

Checked my river today its getting lower rather quick over the days.

Whats the east anglian river levels like?

Edited August 1, 2010 by nimbilus

[Costa Del Fal]

Reading the netweather monthly forecast it a bit concerning, as the se/ea looks to continue quite dry, so no effective rainfall for the farmlands, wildlife, ponds, trees and grass, its looking like not full prolonged sunshine ,so that would stop more ground baking ,but it would be nice to have clear blue.

Checked my river today its getting lower rather quick over the days.

Much of the Southern half of the UK should have a good dose of rain Tuesday night into Wednesday including EA and the SE. :lol:

[Thundery wintry showers]

I don't think Tuesday night's system will produce much, if any, rain for East Anglia and the SE.

However the latest runs have picked up on a secondary depression for Wednesday- a feature that wasn't showing on the UKMO FAX charts or GFS at the time that I issued the forecast- so depending on the track of this secondary low there could be some meaningful rain from it in East Anglia and the SE. However it is far from certain to deliver much of note as it has only just been picked up and will be revised further on tomorrow's runs- how it gets revised remains to be seen.

[Costa Del Fal]

I don't think Tuesday night's system will produce much, if any, rain for East Anglia and the SE.

However the latest runs have picked up on a secondary depression for Wednesday- a feature that wasn't showing on the UKMO FAX charts or GFS at the time that I issued the forecast- so depending on the track of this secondary low there could be some meaningful rain from it in East Anglia and the SE. However it is far from certain to deliver much of note as it has only just been picked up and will be revised further on tomorrow's runs- how it gets revised remains to be seen.

Yes, its more Wednesday now. Tuesday night did look like more rain when the BBC showed it on the lower resolution part of the Map.

Wednesday still looks like good rain for you lot in the East. Its pushed more south from here though so again, not much for here.

[reef]

It was the second driest July in the last 10 years here with only 20.0mm.

Just 125.8mm in total now since February and 62.0mm in the last three months. Quite a dry spell.

[ZONE 51]

a spell of rain would be good ,as long as its at night and nice daytime, unless its thunderstorms!

[Upgrade]

Looks like i will spend another couple of hours watering the garden today then.

I have little confidence that this "system" will deliver anything of note to the south East.

Things are dry as dust and August isn't usually a wet month in London & the South East.