November Wx stats

The numbers are in for November and, despite the cold snap at the end of the month, the mean temperature for November was still the warmest of the past four years and a full degree above the long-term average (LTA) for the reference period 1981-2010. Rainfall turned out to be slightly higher than the LTA and soil temps quite a bit higher than prior years. 

Basically, it's all a bit unpredictable. No tropical cyclones formed in the Atlantic basin during November. However, Tropical Storm Wanda continued from the end of October through the first seven days of November.  Based on a 30-year climatology (1991-2020), a tropical storm forms in November every one to two years.

Overall, NOAA reports that the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season featured above-normal activity. Twenty-one named storms formed, of which seven became hurricanes and four became major hurricanes - category 3 or higher. Even though it seemed quiet in the Atlantic this year, it really wasn't - but it was definitely not as wild as last year. 

MONTHLY VALUES FOR NEWPORT UP TO 01-DEC-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	155.6	137.0	265.7	183.3	6.6	1545.4
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	15.2	11.9	9.3	7.0	11.2
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	16.3	15.2	11.3	8.6	n/a	10.8
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

Big storm, bitter cold

Yesterday we had a big storm with high winds and a big chill -- temps hovering around 0C at night.  Today, we had a calm moody day with dramatic skies and warm drizzle. What a contrast. 

I walked up to the vineyard after finishing work in the polytunnel thinking the vines might be dormant. I noticed that the Rondo had dropped all its leaves, the Solaris dropped most of its leaves, but the Chardonnay, Pinto Noir and Albarino were still holding onto the leaves. Strange. I guess the shorter season grapes also have shorter season vines. And whereas the Rondo leaves had turned red first, all the others turned golden yellow, even the Pinto Noir. Not yet time for pruning. 

Well, it's almost the end of the month and we've increased our rainfall total to somewhat normal but are still way high on temperature average even with several days of bitter cold. In a couple of days, I'll report the final numbers. 

Meanwhile, the Omicron variant that was detected in SA has taken off and travel restrictions are being instituted again. Looks like we'll be staying home for the holidays yet again. Glad to have our land. 

Brrrrr, the big chill has arrived

Sunset today - so early. This was at 4:17.

Until today, November has been exceedingly mild. The mean temperature was 10.3 degrees for the month through the 20th, which is more than a degree warmer than last year. Last year at 9.1C was 2 degrees warmer than 2019 and a degree warmer than the prior two years (8.3C). Lots of flowers have been blooming right through the month, including amazing roses. Bees have been flying right through to this morning. Alex put up a lovely gate to the Apiary and made a cute sign for it.

This afternoon, it turned bitterly cold. We are to have about a week of arctic chill and Friday we will have a gale. They are saying that it may drop below zero at night but as there is no precipitation in the forecast until Wednesday at the earliest, there is little likelihood of snow. We will have little cloud cover so we may yet get frost. That would be welcome as it might kill off some of the pests and coax everything into dormancy. 

It was a beautiful Autumn, with lots of colour. Most of the leaves have now dropped, the donkeys are in the barn, and the sunrises and sunsets have been spectacular. But we did not get to see the lunar eclipse as there was too much cloud cover. We even had enough leaves remaining that we had to rake them today. 

The wine is doing well; the bubbling has slowed down. Time to rack the white in particular. The yeast has settled nicely at the bottom of the demijohn. The red is taking longer to settle but it has more volume.

The mushroom kits have stopped producing so I put one out by the alder trees above the 'Avenue' and the oyster mushrooms I put out by the beech tree in the opposite corner. Hopefully, there are enough spores left to populate edible mushrooms in our 'forest'. 

Beautiful Autumn colour this year. 

The leaves didn't get blown off or burnt.

Vineyard today.

Polytunnel goodies.

Roses still blooming

Mushrooms in the fallen leaves

Cosmos finally bloomed - in November

Poppy this morning

Hesperantha or Schizostylis - not sure which.

Sunrise Sunset Times of Newport, Co. Mayo, Ireland

Location: Ireland > Co. Mayo > Carrowbeg (Fergus) >

Timezone:

Europe/Dublin

Current Time:

2021-11-21 16:57:56

Longitude:

-9.5463685

Latitude:

53.8852758

Sunrise Today:

08:19:00 AM

Sunset Today:

04:29:50 PM

Daylength Today:

8h 10m 50s

Sunrise Tomorrow:

08:20:44 AM

Sunset Tomorrow:

04:28:38 PM

Daylength Tomorrow:

8h 7m 54s

The new gate to the apiary path

World wine crop down dramatically in 2021

It was a really bad year for Italy, Spain and France, which account for 45% of the world's production. Frost during flowering , wet spring and early summer brought mildew, and it was followed by months of drought, causing low yield but high quality. Germany, Hungary and Romania had better weather and higher yields so the EU will still account for about 58% of total yield. 

The Southern Hemisphere recorded its highest yield ever following relatively favourable climatic conditions everywhere except New Zealand, whose yield was down 19% on last year’s but was of exceptional quality. Frosts and cool weather during the flowering season were factors in the drop in NZ. The Southern Hemisphere accounts for about a quarter of all production. 

Meanwhile, China dove into the wine business about a decade ago and was growing exponentially when the Chinese government decided to regulate the industry and cut production quotas by 50% for this year. Overall global wine production was below average for the third year in a row. What is most worrying for the wine industry is that most of the factors involved in the declining yield can be traced to climate change. The long-term consequences mean business unpredictability, crop failures, displaced populations and damaged ecosystems wrought by heat waves, drought, extreme rainfall, flash floods, wildfires and pests.

Most of the wine grape growers are already adapting to the changing conditions. They say vines are extremely adaptable. Maybe we are not so stupid after all.