I guess we are very lucky here then, as we draw from the Shuswap lake, which has over 900 miles of shoreline, and it's very deep in the middle. I'm not aware that we have had any water restrictions here, but we sure do have burning restrictions! Our forest fire rating is extreme now, and will very likely stay that way until the end of September and possibly beyond.
I don't use hosepipes for watering but if I did we are OK in my water authority region as Anglian Water has not introduced any bans, does not intend to, and seems better prepared for coping with drought than some of the other regions. Their spokespeople are advising people to take care and not use water willy nilly, but no restrictions and boasting that their reservoirs are still 80% full. If we have a dry winter they might be screwed for next year, but as things stand it seems that they have done their job right. Unlike some of the other regions if the pictures of empty reservoirs and abandoned flooded villages resurfacing are anything to go by...
I didn't leave anything out to measure it, but I would imagine we had as much, if not more, most of it in the space of an hour. It was biblical for a time. Some streets in our town were flooded out, as the water accumulated in valleys. Flooding hits Kettering homes as heatwave ends with torrential rain
We only had some 30 mm of rain since the beginning of July, and we're the 17th of August. Only 1 or 2 mm between Sunday night and yesterday afternoon. I heard the thunder in the distance, but it was futher north. I saw videos of some Métro stations in Paris where water was cascading down the stairs, and hailstorms in the south. I'm in the northwest quarter of the departement (shire, county), one of the very few which is white on the maps of water restrictions. The situation will be worse in the coming two weeks, very little, if no rain (here). I've never seen the Loire so low at this time of year. There are Nuclear plants in the Rhone valley, if it goes on like that, will there be enough water to cool the reactors ? Well, on dry soil, the water causes floodings, let's hope the water will go to the rivers. I heard today that the price of gas is rocketting : the Rhine is too low for longboats to carry the coal or fuel-oil necessary to operate the thermic plants. So they need more Russian gas to produce electricity. As for forest fires, it's the worst year since... Fortunately, European fire brigades came to the rescue, like the French did last year for Greece or Portugal. Some are thinking about a European joint task force. Sharing the resources, including buying material, would benefit each memeber one day or another. They could also intervene in winter in the southern hemisphere, not only for fires but also for floodings, typhoons, et. I like the idea. Thanks Europe. As the Belgian motto goes : "L'Union fait la Force".
A poor sight indeed. But it could be worse. There was a sudden flooding in Marseille last year. That was after weeks of strike by the local garbage collectors (1). All the contents of heaps of garbage was washed to the sea, the townspeople collected them for days if not weeks on the beaches. Not to mention the pollution, plastic particles, etc. (1) Er... No further comment. The history, and politics in Marseille needs at least a Bachelor's degree to understand. It's a bit like Napoli or Palermo, or other Mediterranean islands : when you don't-a-have the local accent, you can't-a-really understand. ;-)
70 mm! My goodness. We got a bit more than Alain, 10mm, but all told just really enough to wet the surface. It's still so drastic. Saw today that a venerable and huge Berberis darwinii is completely brown. Who heard of a thug like that dying? Well, maybe it will survive, I don't know. Even Sorbus have denuded, and JMs growing near hedges are either covered with brown leaves, or naked. I don't expect much autumn colors. We watched the radars as the storms swept across England though, it looked glorious! Last night we heard thunder and so looked at the radar, it looked like a big system heading for us, but it split, then curved back around and recombined to the north. A town perhaps 15 km north got massive rain for a 1/2 hour, we got not a drop. No water restrictions, but too much garden to water it all. I will go and water pots now, though!
It rained at last! Not that much, a first shower of drizzling rain that lasted for about 10 minutes, then half an hour later, a stronger one. All in all, about 2 or 3 mm. I thought I could skip watering tomorrow, but I checked the soil in my vegetable patch, it's dry after 2 mm. I miss the rainstorms when I was kid, in "Massif Central", the thunder rolling, echoeing around the mountains (My Mum said "It's Little Jesus playing marbles"), the smell of hay in the rain, and we would go picking snails by the railway tracks for the Sunday lunch, at a time when nettles were not eradicated by chemical weed killers. Those were the days... 50 years earlier, a French version of an international hit. Sexy, isn't it ? <LOL> The best verse of this "scie" (litt. "a saw", a silly melody that sticks iprobably obsolete,n your head, on and on...) Rather poetic, and I like the use of "de guingois", syn. "de travers", but so poetic, so much more evocative. "...et comme pour quelqu'un dont les souliers sont trop étroits Tout va de guingois..."
I saw the apocalypse blizzard in the US on TV, wow! Here, after a cold spell for a couple of days, -6°C at night and -2°C in the afternoon at worst for less than a week, we had +8 and +15 on Xmas eve. Today, +6 and +14. Not so good : I can see buds that are unusually turning green on some on my maples, though not really swelling. But that is probably a sign that sap is flowing more than it should. If like last year plants wake up too early, a cold snap is likely to occur in February (local climate "scheme"). Really bad for flowering trees (orchards), and also stressing for trees that will have to replace the first flush of frosted leaves year after year... My Acer laevigatum still has all its green leaves (photos tomorrow?...)
we dipped down to -18C and with the wind chill it was just about -30C. Then came 40 cm of snow followed by 12 hours of freezing rain. This was the week leading up to chritmas day. Now typical 6C with plenty of rain. Have not seen these extreme cold temps at our home since 1985. I did manage to get out christmas morning and take plenty of pics and then posted them onto my youtube channel
Now that's crazy Alain, everything will be trying to wake up. I do hope it drops down a bit for you. But not quite the extremes they are getting on the other side of the pond. So severe.....
It's 10 degrees c here ATM. But thankfully it's dropping down to around 4 at night, so my trees are staying fast asleep. Looking at the forecasts for Southern England, it's going to stay like this for the whole of January as well. If it does, then my Katsura will be leafing out in February and of course the March late frosts will do it's thing yet again. And so the cycle continues. I've also seen that we are to expect an even hotter Summer in 2023. Something to do with the end of the al nino effect apparently. But hotter than 40c..... I really hope not !!
I've never seen such temperatures on New Yer's Eve : min. 13.7, max. 16.6°C ! I went to the local shop to buy the last things for tonight, and at 17:00, as the sun was going down, it was still 14.5. Chaenomeles, and green buds on my only Acer palmatum that is in the ground :
Hi Alain, pretty mild here also (14°c), but with lashings of rain. The buds on my Esk are looking more Spring like rather than the end of December. I can forsee a difficult time ahead for our trees when we get the late Spring frosts... Oh well. It is what it is these days !! Hope you have a great evening and a happy and healthy New Year to you and your family.
After the severe cold we experienced in December, January has been very mild. No frost in the mornings and overall quite pleasant. If this keeps up I will try and re pot a couple of our large container japanese maples towards the end of January rather then Feb. We even heard a couple of robins in the garden the other day, definitely a few weeks early compared to their usual arrival.
Has been very mild here up until Sunday. But last night -7° c and - 5°c tonight. Not got above 0 °c all day as well. I'm quite pleased tbh, as I didn't want my trees waking up too early and then being hit with Spring frosts. Amazed to hear you are thinking of re potting later this month Otto @Otto Bjornson . You must be very confident of more mild temperatures to come. But I suppose you do have that large greenhouse just in case.
I harvested my ocas yesterday, after the snow layer on the ground was almost melted. The soil was not frozen at all, and oca tubers did not have any frost bites, despite they were pretty close to surface and we had frosts with down to -18 C in December, when the snow cover was still pretty thin. To my joy, there was no significant rodent damage either. I don't recall harvesting tuberous crops in January ever before.
The end of December and the first 2 weeks of January were unusually mild here, but the cold is coming. It even started to snow a today at about 11 AM ! A heavy snow almost turning to rain, and it is still continuing, a light snow now. It was +1°C at 4 PM. A photo I took at 12 : We also had strong winds yesterday ("Gerard" : one of the cheesiest/corniest first names in France <LOL>), in one of the streets not far from where I live, there's still a branch from a pine on half the width of it, but that's the only damage I could see. Nothing as bad as other places in France, not to mention other parts of the world like California. My Acer laevigatum, protected under the "canopy" of a Wisteria. Some leaves have turned yellow. If the temperatures go under -2°C, I'll wrap it in bubble plastic, I hope that it will be enough : PS : everyone here instantly thinks about Coluche, a famous comedian. In this sketch, he plays the alcoholic father of a youngster that smokes dope :
@AlainK very pleased you have some cold stuff to ensure your trees are kept fast asleep Alain. Not so good for the fuel bills though !!!
That Coluche sketch is so good, and tragic. Practically hard to watch. Les patriotes! Wow. We didn't get as much snow, and it's just now dropped below 0C, although it was quite cold all day. Currently -1.6. The A. laevigatum, sister plant to that shown above, is still in full green leaf, even some new growth starting. I've left it outside, the almost only plant I brought in was an A. coriaceifolium in an airpot, that lost all it's leaves suddenly in the earlier cold. Aside from some maples from Thailand and Taiwan that I know will die with frost. We do have some cold coming over the next couple of weeks, it can only do good, with snowdrops and hellebores blooming, and daffs well up and budding.
I suspect that most of the botanical world is aware that Beautiful B.C. has been the brunt of one of the coldest and worst winters on record. Yesterday we had snow, at least an inch which laid on the ground. Usually, the snow has gone here by mid-February. It was right on 0ºC here this morning, frost everywhere. But somewhat hazy skies here now and the sun is making an attempt. Not to mention that we're just getting over Covid...
Hi Keith, from over the Atlantic. ;°) I heard it was a very wet winter in North America. Nothing the same here, the "groundwater tables", or whatever you call them, are far below what they should be : https://www.brgm.fr/fr/actualite/co...au-1er-avril-2023-risques-secheresse-estivale For those of you - most of you I suppose :-) who can't read French, it means if we'll have another hot and dry summer, the water will be scarce, for we are alreday in a very unusual "winter drought"...
