Sunday 2 February 2014

Launching Noah's Ark...

It is all in the News, our weather...
"The French department of Finistere, in the west of the country, was placed on red alert as forecasters warned of huge waves and extensive flooding.
Ten other French departments were also on alert for rising water levels.
At least two people died and scores had to be airlifted to safety after floods hit south-eastern France earlier this month."
BBC News Channel 1/2/2014....

So what has it been like, this last January...
well....
WET!!


Warmer and wetter...
than 2013...
almost twice as wet as 2012!

January 2014

Temperature (°C):
Mean (min+max)   8.1 (Mean Minimum     4.1 / Mean Maximum     12.1)
Minimum          -0.9 day 14
Maximum          16.4 day 08
Highest Minimum  10.1 day 06
Lowest Maximum   6.2 day 20
Air frosts       2

Rainfall (mm):
Total for month  71.7 [2013 -
61.2mm]
Wettest day      9.6 day 02
High rain rate   9.0 day 04
Rain days        21... exactly the same as 2013

Wind (km/h):
Highest Gust     36.7 day 02
Average Speed    3.7
Wind Run         2725.2 km

Pressure (mb):
Maximum          1022.0 day 11
Minimum          984.8 day 29

January 2013

Temperature (°C):
Mean (min+max)   3.9 (Mean Minimum     0.4 / Mean Maximum     7.4)
Minimum          -7.5 day 16
Maximum          15.1 day 31
Highest Minimum  4.9 day 09
Lowest Maximum   0.0 day 06
Air frosts       10

Rainfall (mm):
Total for month  61.2 [2012 - 37.8mm]
Wettest day      10.2 day 09
High rain rate   99.0 day 18
Rain days        21

Wind (km/h):
[see our comments in the first post in January!]
Highest Gust     33.1 day 21
Average Speed    0.5
Wind Run         285.3 km

Pressure (mb):
Maximum          1041.0 day 15
Minimum          0.0 day 06 [a bit vacuous this!!]


Other local bloggers have been "covering" the weather...

Colin and Elizabeth on The story of our life in and around Braye-sous-Faye ...
and today [February the Third]... The Paddy Fields of Richelieu.....
Amelia on In a French Garden...
Niall and Antoinette on Chez Charnizay...
it is affecting us all!

The Met Office has done a set of charts for this January's weather in the UK...
So...!
Just for comparison....
I thought I'd look back a century....
courtesy of the Met Office Archives

January 1914
MANY GALES AND HEAVY RAIN IN ENGLAND:
Dull in the East:
Bright in the North and West:
Unusually Large Range of Pressure.
Floods in the Thames region...

January 1913
STORMY AND WET.
Rainfall.
There was a deficiency of precipitation over a large part of northern Scotland, all other districts returning an excess.  
#The percentages for Scotland were low [18% Dunrobin, 32% Strathpeffer]...
but excessive everywhere else: 234% Woolacombe, 238% at Glasnevin, 246% Spurn Head, 252% Dublin...

So, not a lot of change really...
But, what might be to come?

Jan 1915
MANY GALES AND MUCH HEAVY RAIN IN ENGLAND:
Dull in the South and East.
Brighter in the North and West:
Floods in the Thames region...
[Almost a duplication of 1914!!]

Jan 1916
STORMY AND ABNORMALLY MILD
Rainy in North and North-West.
Dry in East South.

Jan 1917
COLD
Wintry, Much Snow in Many Places.

Jan 1918
STRANGE
First Part Wintry with Snow and Severe Frost : Second Part Spring-Like.
Sunshine. daily sunshine was above the normal in England.

#This is the same as reported yesterday for last month on Auntie Beeb!!

<<---------------ooo000OOO{}OOO000ooo--------------->>

Recent post on "Flint Bling" on Touraine Flint

6 comments:

Afrenchgarden said...

You've got the statistics, there's no doubt it has been an exceptional start to the year. What do you think now of the prospect of a "no show" for winter?

GaynorB said...

Interesting, if not very pleasant in 2014!

I don't mind cold weather but constant rain gets me down.
Let's hope for a better February.

Tim said...

Amelia...
This is the gleaning for February:
FEBRUARY 1913
CLOUDY AND DRY-ONE - ONE FOGGY WEEK.
Rainfall. -The month's precipitation was below the normal at nearly every station, most recording around 30%.
Bright Sunshine. - In a few localities the duration of insolation was above the normal - but generally there was a deficiency at around 60%

FEBRUARY, 1914.
MILD, WET, AND ROUGH.
The pressure distribution afforded a good example of a South-Westerly type of weather over the British Islands and a large area surrounding.
Temperature exceeded the average throughout the Kingdom.
In some parts of the Thames Valley the rainfall exceeded the normal, and in the neighbourhood of Wisley floods occurred between the 14th and 21st.
In many cases, double the seasonal average.
But in most parts of Britain there was little rain and much sunshine.
On several occasions that the night was wet and and the day dry, and often bright.
An exception to this rule occurred on the 7th when there were some heavy downpours in the south-western counties.
At Princetown 2'62 in., while at several other stations in the south-western corner of England, as well as at Salisbury, the fall exceeded an inch.
Gales at the beginning of the month. A quiet period, then more gales.
At Kew, during a squall on the 12th, a gust of 29 metres per second was recorded.
[I love the fact that even in 1914 the Met Office was using metric and Imperial measure!]

FEBRUARY 1915
A VERY WET AND STORMY MONTH.
Dull in the North and East: Bright round the Irish Sea and English Channel.
Floods. - Before the advent the brief, dry anticyclonic period at the end of the third week, large areas of low-lying country in Southern England were flooded.
[Sounds familiar...]
Coastal Fogs not uncommon in the West
Barometer - The mean pressure was below average over the whole Kingdom.
Bright Sunshine exeeded the normal except in the North and North-East at around 140% of average.

So, possibly yes!! Certainly not a "proper" one...

Gaynor...
Weather is always "interesting"....
just not always pleasant!!
Details for last Century's early teens weather is above...
personally, I would like the...
"On several occasions that the night was wet and and the day dry, and often bright."....
but for "several", read "many"!

Ken Broadhurst said...

Tim, we got 74.5 mm of rain in January 2014 here in the St-Aignan area, including one day in the middle of the month with 13.5 mm.

Tim said...

Ken, I have just given up grellinetting our beds...
the soil is just still far too claggy!!
I've decided to try one 3 by 1 metre block a day...
just to get it to dry out a bit...
then re-work them later.

Ken Broadhurst said...

I have no idea what 'grellinetting' means, or 'claggy' either, for that matter. Good luck.