2004

Total rain for the year 1153.5mm, slightly above average for the last 10 years.

Not particularly memorable weatherise, certainly the summer could have been better and we waited in vain for a nice spell in the Autumn but after a fairly wet August, we had a wet September and October. So autumn colour was not very good compared with 2003.

17 nights with temperatures below freezing in February-March meant we had a really cold spell, but it was dry with a little snow on the 26th .No really severe weather of any sort this year. The wettest day was the 7th July with 32mm. The longest dry spell was in February and the longest spell of daily rain was in October when it rained on 12 consecutive days.

So here we are again with another year of weather to look forward to, and whatever we get, we will never all be happy with it. It will always be too dry, too wet, too hot, too cold, too windy or too still for someone, but don’t forget, although it may be getting lighter we always have our coldest weather in January/February so be ready for it. [You have been warned ! - Ed]

November

76mm of rain in all, not bad for November, but very little sunshine either, making it a very gloomy month over all. Not even any high winds which we usually get sometime during the month. So we move into December with more of the same I expect.

The average rainfall for December is 125mm with a high of 206.5mm in 1999 and a low of 30mm in 2001. The most unusual December was in 1996 when we only had rain on 2 days - the 2nd and 3rd with 32mm in total. It then didn't rain again until the 11th of January 1997 !

September

The last 3 years have been dry and fine with plenty of sunshine. The previous 3 were wet and cold, but only once in the last 10 years has it been wet at the beginning of the month. Even in wet years the rain doesn't start until the 8th or 9th and it's certainly started well this year.

May turned out not as dry as it seemed, with 41.5mm helped out by the 10.5mm on the 31st. It was the 6th driest of the last 10 years. The really notable feature of May this year was the chill wind, especially noticeable when out of the sun or in the evenings.

The average for June over the past 10 years is 61.5 - the wettest being in 1998 with 163mm and rain on 17 days. The driest was 1995 when we had 4mm on 1 day. June is usually comfortably warm except when we have rain for several days, accompanied by fairly brisk winds. Then the temperature tends to slowly drop day by day, and it can end up quite chilly as it did in 1998. Hopefully, this June will be fairly dry and warm.

End of March means its time to add up our winter rain i.e. Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, and March. These are the months that top up soil water levels and fill our reservoirs. They provide the surplus to help us through the other 6 months of the year, when rainfall often does not replace the amount lost through evaporation and transpiration from the rapidly increasing growth. Not to mention our increased use around homes and gardens. The average over 10 years for this period is 642mm and this winter we’ve had 617mm, so not too bad.

On to April with a low of 16mm in ‘97 when it only rained on 3 days, to a high of 183mm in 2000 when it rained on 17 days, and in ‘99 it snowed in the middle of the month.

April is the most variable month of the year, it can change from winter to summer and back again in the same day although the rain is usually showers rather than persistent and there should be plenty of sunshine in between.

February's rain was 62.5mm - slightly less than average for the month but a good bit more than in 1998 when there was only 11mm. Nearly all the rain fell early in the month, followed by 15 consecutive nights of frost.

Temperatures ranged from a low of -8.8ºC to -1ºC or -2ºC, very unusual in the SouthWest to have such a long frosty spell. The snow which fell on the 26th has only just melted in some corners.

March rainfall average over the last 10 years is 73mm with a low of 25mm in ‘97 and a high of 138mm in’01. We could still have spells of cold weather with night frosts, but it usually warms up quicker in the mornings now with a little more heat in the sun. We could do with a fairly wet month to bring our winter rains up to average.

(6a.m)(dropping to) Max daytime

Mon 1.6 0.5 5.1
Tues 3.2  -1.4   5.7
Wed 0.7 -1.9   6.7
Thurs -5.2 5.9
Fri -2.3   8.2
Sat 10.3    9.6

As you can see the temperature continues to drop after 6am at this time of the year, giving
us a frosty morning even though it may have been above freezing all night.

On Wednesday evening we had an unusual freak storm when cold air driven by high winds hit warmer air. At about 5.50pm it started raining, the temperature was then 5.1ºC. A couple of minutes later we heard thunder and our lights flickered and dipped, then it began to snow.
The thermometer dropped almost instantly to below freezing. This is what caused the problems at the airport and on the roads.

January rainfall was 123.5mm, 28mm in the last week. Also very high winds at the end of the week, but I haven’t heard of any damage.

The average for February over 10 years is 91mm with a high of 155mm in 2002 and a low of 11mm in 1998. With days getting a bit longer, February should be a better month weather-wise but it isn’t always! Last year we had a very cold spell with 11 consecutive nights below freezing and a bitter cold wind, but hopefully this year will be mild.

2004
The average rainfall for January is 99mm. 1997 presented a low of 12mm and 1995 a high of 207mm.

So long as we have reasonable amounts of rain in the first 3 months of this year, we should avoid the threatened danger of drought. Ups and downs are common. Over 10 years we've experienced extremes of a low of 858mm in 1996 to a high of 1498mm in 2000. If we do have a dry January we can expect quite a bit of frost - and this usually happens about the middle of the month.

December

December produced a reasonable 147.5mm of rain on 15 days. So fairly average, rather more N/E winds made it feel a lot colder at times than it really was. Some frost, but not too hard and a bit of fog in the mornings. On the whole not a bad month and best of all, we’ve passed the shortest day.

2003

Total rain 928mm on 123 days. Wettest month was December with 147.5, driest month August with 15mm. Most days of rain in a month occurred in November with 20 days.

The most notable things about 2003 were:
more frosts than we’ve had for quite a few years, including 10 consecutive days in January, and the hottest summer for years;
a long dry spell from early March until nearly the end of April, made it very difficult for vegetable growers.

This spring dry spell has become a regular feature of recent years. One strange fact I have noticed which seems to defy the law of averages, is that it has rained on the 1st day of the month 15 times in the past 16 months. I’ve checked my charts and no other date has been consistently wet or dry , all of them seem to average out over a period of time as you would expect. I can offer no explanation for this.