Rain and more rain

Clew Bay

After weeks of heat and drought, we now are getting rain and plenty of it. Yesterday, it poured buckets of rain all day. In fact, the Newport Furnace station, our closest station, reported the highest rainfall total in the country at 26.2 mm. The grapes should start getting plumper now. Hopefully, they won't get too much water. But it's not something we can control. 

Newport Furnace	26.2	18.9	14.0		9.5 (18)		17.9	743	13.7

Station Rain MaxT MinT Sun Wind Gust Soil Global Gmin mm oCoChrKts (Km/h)Kts (Km/h)oCJ/cm^2oC

Our rainfall total for August as of the 6th has already surpassed our total for all of July and all of April and is approaching our monthly total for June. And there haven't been any tropical storms coming our way over that period either. What a strange year! 

Meanwhile, the entire west coast of North America is on fire from BC to CA and experiencing severe drought and huge water restrictions. Greece and Turkey are experiencing  huge wildfires as is Siberia. Russia mobilised the army to combat the fires. South Africa has a serious drought and are predicting day zero soon when the water in Nelson Mandela Bay provinces will dry up. I will write a post on what's happening with the vineyards specifically relative to drought and fires soon. 

The Met Eireann stats for Newport are below for reference. 

MONTHLY VALUES FOR NEWPORT UP TO 06-AUG-2021

Total rainfall in millimetres for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2021	225.6	147.6	141.1	45.6	113.5	64.1	59.7	60.3					857.5
2020	139.5	342.8	178.2	25.5	54.7	164.5	187.9	137.9	153.4	228.0	206.6	232.7	2051.7
2019	146.8	115.0	228.5	100.7	112.5	76.6	82.7	228.9	175.5	160.7	148.1	220.6	1796.6
2018	274.6	155.6	86.2	94.3	70.4	65.9	58.6	179.1	148.3	140.9	172.6	201.0	1647.5
LTA	166.7	126.5	141.2	96.8	94.7	89.7	100.9	132.5	131.5	176.0	170.4	180.2	1607.1

Mean temperature in degrees Celsius for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2021	5.0	6.7	7.9	9.0	10.4	13.3	17.5	16.4					10.2
2020	7.2	6.0	6.6	11.0	12.8	13.8	14.4	16.0	13.8	10.5	9.1	6.1	10.6
2019	6.9	8.4	7.9	10.2	11.7	13.1	16.3	15.5	13.7	10.3	7.1	7.1	10.7
2018	5.9	4.6	5.5	9.1	13.1	16.1	16.1	15.0	12.4	10.9	8.3	8.1	10.5
LTA	6.1	6.1	7.3	9.0	11.5	13.8	15.4	15.4	13.5	10.8	8.3	6.5	10.3

Mean 10cm soil temperature for NEWPORT at 0900 UTC

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2021	3.6	5.0	6.8	8.2	10.9	14.3	17.9	n/a					9.6
2020	5.7	4.7	5.4	9.7	13.0	14.8	14.9	16.3	13.7	9.5	8.0	5.1	10.1
2019	6.1	6.1	6.8	8.9	12.2	13.8	16.7	15.7	13.5	9.4	6.2	5.6	10.1
2018	4.4	2.9	4.0	8.2	13.1	17.4	18.4	15.1	12.1	9.6	6.6	6.6	9.9
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Global Solar Radiation in Joules/cm2 for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2021	6620	13347	20370	45694	55690	45488	49455	8564					245228
2020	6263	10808	24545	46192	58476	43537	40215	40555	25558	18487	6319	5209	326164
2019	5378	10595	21306	37648	49884	49607	45395	37116	26460	17406	8167	4766	313728
2018	5976	13390	25269	34709	58446	59849	51448	34923	22619	17123	7842	4068	335662
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Potential Evapotranspiration (mm) for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2021	7.6	22.9	30.7	62.9	76.3	70.7	87.8	14.2					373.1
2020	17.6	21.9	35.0	70.2	91.6	72.9	66.2	66.4	42.7	28.1	13.6	10.4	536.6
2019	13.4	21.5	35.4	60.4	79.0	78.2	79.5	62.9	42.8	29.2	14.8	14.3	531.4
2018	16.3	21.8	35.7	52.0	88.2	102.4	87.2	58.7	37.9	30.2	18.0	11.5	559.9
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

Evaporation (mm) for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2021	10.9	32.1	45.4	89.9	111.2	102.0	117.2	19.5					528.2
2020	22.4	31.9	51.8	98.9	130.8	104.8	94.3	92.7	59.1	38.8	18.1	13.6	757.2
2019	17.7	29.5	52.0	87.3	111.6	112.8	109.6	88.8	59.9	39.6	18.9	17.9	745.6
2018	21.9	30.2	51.7	76.4	127.4	140.4	120.7	82.2	53.1	40.6	22.8	14.9	782.3
LTA	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a

DEGREE DAYS BELOW 15.5 DEGREE CELSIUS FOR NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2021	325	247	236	200	167	79	20	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
2020	257	276	275	143	111	73	55	31	71	156	193	291	1935
2019	266	200	235	165	130	89	27	36	67	164	251	262	1892
2018	298	306	309	194	104	50	31	44	100	147	215	230	2027

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Notes on the Data

Evaporation and PE data are calculated using Penman/Monteith formulae.
The ‘LTA’ (referred to within a table) is average for the climatological long-term-average (LTA) reference period 1981-2010.
Data updated daily at Mid-day.