Storm Debi on its way

 

We have an orange warning nationwide for rain and thunderstorms. Met Éireann issued a Red wind warning for the middle of the country, possible F10 in places. Each of the models has something a little different so we'll just have to see. 

Meanwhile, Iceland is bracing for a large volcanic explosion, having hundreds of tremors over the past couple of days. If that erupts, we'll have ash coming our way with the transatlantic storms. Flights are likely to be disrupted and ash may coat the landscape. Oh joy. 

Post Script 13/11/23:  We fared well whereas Galway did not. We had lots of rain. They had rain, flooding and wind damage. Many homes are without power today. Feeling lucky and blessed. 

Autumnal morning

 Sometimes I just have to pinch myself to assure myself that I am not dreaming. I love it here. 

Autumn in the vineyard

 

It's truly autumn in the garden and all the leaves have fallen off the vines. We are tempted to start pruning but the rule of thumb is that January is the time, around St Vincent's Feast Day. 

The roses are still going strong and today is comparatively mild. Yesterday we had nasty squalls with hail and thunder much of the day. They came on suddenly and really dumped when they did. The sky was quite dramatic all day long, with giant black clouds silhouetted against brilliant sunshine. When it hailed, the polytunnel was very loud. 

The ground is saturated and standing water is everywhere. We can't even walk the land, and it's quite early for that condition. It's good the donkeys left last week.

Sunset's burning trees

St Vincent whose feast day is 22 January

Sunrise this morning

Stunning sunrise

Cottage roses back in bloom

All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey...

 

Now for the quiet season. Waiting for the cold while the wet passes through. The leaves are down in the vineyard and many of the trees. Storm Ciaran took care of that. 

Wine production down to 62 year low

BBC reported today that global wine production was way down this year. Extreme climatic conditions - such as early frost, heavy rainfall, and drought - have significantly impacted the output of the world's vineyards in both northern and southern hemispheres. 

The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) says that wine production around the world is likely to be about 7% lower in 2023 than last year. Such a yield would be the worst since 1961.

However, since global consumption is declining, the expected low production could bring equilibrium to the world wine market. China has not reported its yield so the estimates are preliminary. 

Wine production was down in almost every country in the European Union, which produces about 60% of the world's total. According to OIV, lower yields are due to heavy rains in some countries and droughts in others. Only France was unaffected, whereas Spain and Italy were down 14% and 12% respectively. 

US production was up by 12% over 2022, but Australia and Chile were down 25% and 20% due to drought and wildfires. The only exception in the southern hemisphere is New Zealand with a 2023 production level above its five-year average. 

Today's use of the winery -- honey

 

Today, Alex applied labels to the cider while he pressed the honey using the small apple press. Theoretically, all the particulate matter will stay behind including bits of honeycomb. It's much less labor-intensive than straining it through a sieve as he has done in the past. And yes, it worked well. 

Storms and more storms

Barometer in Bournemouth during Storm Ciarán

We didn't use to name storms in Europe consistently. Severe weather systems that caused disruptions in Europe sometimes were christened after the person who spotted them, after the saint’s day of their occurrence, or by the public. However, it is only recently that Europe has established formal naming systems to reduce confusion. With the advent of social media, the use of different names for the same systems proliferated rapidly online causing great confusion. 

After a deadly extratropical cyclone lashed the Scandinavian region in 2013 but was dubbed the October Storm, St Jude Storm, and Storms Christian, Simone, and Allan by different countries and sources, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway’s meteorological services began the practice of jointly naming storms. 

The UK Met Office and Ireland’s Met Éireann piloted their naming project in 2015, and France, Spain and Portugal joined thereafter in December. Belgium and the Netherlands followed. 

Only storms that prompt an Amber “be prepared” or Red “take action” warning are christened with their own title under this system, and the impact of wind, rain and snow are taken into account. Naming storms has been proven to raise awareness of severe weather, crucially prompting people to take action to prevent harm to themselves or their property.

Each year, 21 names are compiled from suggestions by the public—Storm Abigail was the first to be named under this system on 10 November 2015—and the gender of the first storm alternates at the beginning of each season which starts in September. Each new storm is also named alphabetically, but ‘Q’, ‘U’, ‘X’, ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ are excluded since few names begin with those letters. 

Weather buffs in Germany can submit name suggestions for storms for a fee. The Institute for Meteorology of the Free University in Berlin sells storm-naming rights to members of the global public via their ‘Adopt a Vortex’ programme. A high-pressure area costs €390, whereas a low-pressure area, which lasts less time and therefore offers less exposure, costs €260. Storms are named alphabetically throughout the year from A to Z and are published on official weather maps for wider use.

Since 2017, Europe has been divided into five zones, within which the weather services collaborate to jointly name the latest phenomenon. The World Meteorological Organization is the main authority for the world but delegates the choice of names, which must alternate between masculine and feminine, to the five regional bodies in Europe. WMO only names a storm if it exceeds wind speeds of 119 km/h and is accompanied by torrential rain. 

It all depends on which country the storm hits first. In the case of Ciaran, which was due to hit the northwestern quarter of France on Wednesday, November 1, the group containing Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands chose this name. Domingos was named by Spain's meteorological service. 

So what does this have to do with viticulture? Just wondering if all these severe systems will have an impact on our yield this year. 

And by the way, people have been freaking out about the extremely low pressure in these systems breaking 100 yo records.  #StormCiarán has been called a 'weather bomb', an unofficial term for a low pressure system whose central pressure falls 24 millibars in 24 hours in a process known as explosive cyclogenesis. Looking at Ciarán system the GFS model shows:

• 984hPa 6am
• 960hPa 6pm
• 950hPa 6am

That is 24hPa drop in 12 hours and 34hPa in 24 hours. That shows how quickly he developed and how serious the storm became in a very short space of time. However, the strongest winds were to the South of his center away from Ireland thank goodness. 

After #Ciarán, #StormDomingos will bring strong winds, high waves and heavy rain to #France, #Spain, Portugal, and #Italy

Pressure in Fowey

Pressure in Emsworth

🌀#Domingos as seen by #Copernicus #Sentinel3🛰️ on 3 November