January 19th, 2025
Hi All,
A very quick blog this week and on a Sunday night to show my dedication as tomorrow morning I'll be heading up to Harrogate with Peter P from Prodata to set up our stand. Peter will be diligently trying to avoid me stopping for a caffeine fix if the last few years are anything to go by 🙄
In last week's blog I hinted that the end of January may mark a return to wet and windy weather after the dull hiatus and indeed that's how things are looking.
From mid-week, we see the jet stream make a shift southwards and that will allow the log jam of Atlantic low pressure systems that have been stacking up to the west of Ireland to prevail. This means we will have some exceptionally windy weather from Thursday onwards with a deep low pressure passing over the north of Ireland and Scotland at the end of the week / weekend. This looks a gnarly one so expect damage and flooding I'd say. The prevailing wind direction will be westerly / south westerly but remember that as low pressure systems pass across us, their trailing edge will pull that wind towards a more north westerly direction (so cooler) until the next low arrives. This weather outlook applies for the U.K & Ireland and across to Scandinavia. It is possible that as these westerlies butt up against cold continental air across Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the associated moisture may be converted to a more wintry feel and those daytime temperatures will be more like mid-single figures with frost at night dependent on cloud cover.
So it's a case of batten down the hatches from Thursday onwards.
From an agronomic perspective, it means an end to disease pressure as the muggy, dewy run of weather is replaced by windy and unsettled. Temperature-wise I think we will be in the region of 7-10°C daytime, dependent on wind direction / position of low pressure but it may be cold enough for the odd night frost, particularly as one low pressure system passes through and before the next one arrives. This means that growth will be pretty limited from a GDD / G.P perspective for the time-being. No big shakes because if it is wet, we really don't want to be cutting do we ?
One interesting point before I nip off to pack and it concerns soil temperature. I had it in my mind that the run of cold weather in early January had dropped us to the point where we were significantly colder than this time last year. So I downloaded some stats from the Davis weather station @ The Oxfordshire, Thame (cheers Sean !) and they reveal that we have been significantly cooler than last year at the same point up until the recent thaw when the soil temperature has climbed up to just over 4°C. Hopefully that is still cold enough to discourage casting worm activity !
OK, short and sweet for this week, hold on to your hats when that wind gets up !
Done forget to come along and say hello at BTME, Prodata Weather Systems is in hall 6, stand 634.
All the best.
Mark Hunt
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