| Rainfall Report |
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July July promised to follow June's miserable 32.75 mm but even before St Swithen's Day that had changed with 22.5mm over the four days 13th to 16th. (That's more than the whole of April, the cruellest month for gardeners with only 20mm), but it was not to last so that by the end of the month, not only was it much colder but the total came to only 33.25 mm. June - dryer than it could have been... June's rainfall (32.75 mm) was slightly below average for the past ten years (38.77mm) but what has, perhaps, been remarkable this past six months is the number of long dry periods of up to ten days at a time. Published national figures of rainfall for the first half of 2010 show 356.8 mm. whereas our total is 289.25mm so Hook Norton has been dryer than it could have been. Wet May Day May Day came in with twenty-four hours rainfall of a massive 32.5 mm., by far the heaviest so far this year! However, this was not to be repeated and the remaining 30 days produced droughtlike conditions with only 15.75mm. The monthly Total therefore came to 48.25 with a 10-year May average of 74.65mm. April and May between them with part of March as well showed us as dry a spring period as we've seen in a long while. How will "flaming June" compete? Wait and see. Christopher Barry April Showers? Well, where were they? An almost dry April prodced just 2 centimetres of rain. To put this in perspective, last night's rainfall (May 1st) saw us covered to a depth of 32.5 mm. Will that do for the whole month, I wonder? I very much doubt it. The first quarter of 2010 January, 76.oo mm of which 29+ mm were of snow. (It is very difficult to take accurate reading of snowfalls). February, 63.25 mm of which 15 mm was snow. March has been the driest month this quarter with 59 mm and no snow! We all know how awful it was during the hardest part of January. Will it mean a good summer? I wonder! Chistopher Barry ------------------------------------------------------- 2009 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rainfall in Hooky for December was a little above the 10-year average for the month: 78.25mm as opposed to 77.67mm. What, I wonder, will a return to heavy snow in winter do for figures for the new year, 2010? Everyone agrees that this November Britain had the heaviest November rainfall for years. Certainly this is borne out in Hooky where,although mercifully spared flooding, we had 129.75 mm. This the highest figure recorded here for this month since my records begin in around 1970. The nearest November rainfall to this was in 1984 but that fell a good centimetre short. Does this tell us anything about Globing Warming? Carbon emissions? I wonder....
October's rainfall figures were 46.25 mm for the month, the monthly average for October over the past ten years being 88.95 mm. Only a particularly heavy fall on October 21-22 being notable. Nevertheless , October was nearly twice September's meagre fall of 25.5 mm.
Christopher Barry |
