When it rains, it pours!

Well, we got rain. As of yesterday, the total rainfall for the month of June was 87.2 mm. Yet we've had some good weather too. Meanwhile, we've had gale force winds and constant rain since yesterday morning which is forecast to continue into tomorrow. Below is the warning Met Eireann has issued for Mayo.  We could get 30-50 mm of rain with this system. Sligo and Donegal have a status orange with even more rain.  And there's another one coming in behind this one. Ugh. Not boding well for a good crop this year. 

Status Yellow - Rainfall warning for Mayo

Met Éireann Weather Warning

Further heavy persistent rainfall (an additional 30 to 50mm possible) will lead to spot flooding.

Valid: 11:00 Sunday 28/06/2020 to 12:00 Monday 29/06/2020

Issued: 11:00 Sunday 28/06/2020

Roses in vineyards

Visit a vineyard, especially an old established one, and you are likely to see roses planted at the ends of every row. I had wondered why this was done and learned that there were three reasons.

1. They are beautiful and fragrant and brighten up the vineyard.
2. They are more susceptible to fungal infections so they act as a warning signal. 
3. When vineyards were managed with horse-drawn conveyances, if the horse made the turn too soon, they would damage the end vines. Roses with their thorns ensured that the horse left more space when making the turn to the next row. 

So we will be planting roses at the ends of our rows in vines. We've been propagating existing roses and have a few ready for transplanting. Even though the mildew that affects grapes is different from the one that attacks roses, the environmental factors that encourage both conditions are the same.

I checked the vines today and here's the low down:

• The 5-yo vines are vigorous and healthy but the flower buds have not yet opened. Today is quite warm (25C) and we've had some rain so perhaps they will be triggered. They should have bloomed in May. Grapevines grown under glass are already producing grapes. 
• The 3-yo Solaris vines are doing well. We lost one and have spares with which to replace it.
• Neither the 3-yo nor the 2-yo Chardonnay's are doing well and we lost one of the older plants. It doesn't look like chardonnay will be viable for us. 
• The Pinot noir planted last year is looking quite good and one plants even has a flower. 
• The Albarino vines are alive and healthy but much daintier plants than any of the other varieties. 

Other than that, the orchard is looking good and the 'Kite' kite seems to be scaring the birds away.

Rain two days in a row

We got 2 mm of rain yesterday and today, all morning, a light misty rain was falling gently. Now it continues as a steady gentle rainfall. The earth was parched. Now the grass will return to green again. We've supposedly had 35.8mm rain in June as measured in Furnace when 75 mm would be average. Personally, I don't think we've had nearly that much. At least our collection barrels are now full and the pond is topped up and overflowing. 

The vines look okay for so little rain but will the harvest be usable?  Will we get plump juicy grapes or tiny shrivelled ones? It remains to be seen.

We harvested gooseberries yesterday and collected more than ever before. A bucket full. Perhaps there's hope. But the red currants were just getting ready for picking when the birds descended. I have to construct several scarecrows, one for each level of the garden. Better get to work.

Once again praying for rain

Today's weather warning

A huge swath of the country is under weather alert for heavy rainfall and yet here we sit bone dry. I just don't understand. We're in such strange weather patterns lately, with northerlies pinning boats down for weeks in the Azores. Those northerlies are keeping it cooler and drier here. It's quite desperate. There is a storm lurking offshore and it's due to hit us over the weekend, bringing with it some much-needed moisture, and much-dreaded wind. If we get wind without rain, it will kill the remaining leaves on the trees and more. The 5yo vines are fine but the young ones are suffering.

Please gods.

Forecast for Saturday 20 June 2020

Not so crazy after all

Companion plantings under pergolas in Spain

I  have started coming across more and more stories about people doing things as preposterous as we have been. Here's the story of a guy who has planted vines in Patagonia in a region where climate change may take 50 years to produce conditions appropriate for making good wines. But it's a 50-year gamble people are willing to make. And Bloomberg news noticed. Somehow, planting grapevines in the west of Ireland is sounding less and less crazy.

'Navarrete, for one, has come to embrace the plan. Initially, he had found it to be preposterous. “I couldn’t stop laughing,” he recalls. “I thought they were crazy.”'

Wine Enthusiast published an exhaustive article on the effects that climate change is already having on winemaking and they are not all bad -- earlier harvests, better complexity, and higher alcohol content. But in places where the planted vines are having a hard time with extreme weather events, "A greater number of producers are rethinking canopy management, vine trellising or pruning techniques, developing cover crops and extensive shading methods, increasing vineyard biodiversity and finding ways to reuse water." This is all stuff we are already undertaking.

And when The Union of Bordeaux AOC and Bordeaux Supérieur winemakers unanimously approved in 2019 a list of seven “varieties of interest for adapting to climate change: Arinarnoa, Castets, Marselan, Touriga Nacional, Alvarinho, Liliorila and Petit Manseng -- seeing Avarinho among them was truly encouraging. I had also researched Castets, Marselan, and Touriga as well. Let's see where they go with this. I am encouraged.

Rain, blessed rain, is falling!

Showers passing through

I never thought I'd be happy that it was raining in Ireland.

If you look at the stats below, you'll see that in February we had more than twice the mean normal rainfall whereas in April we had a quarter of the mean total of only 25.5 mm. May for Newport shows 54.7, roughly half the normal, but we certainly didn't have that much in Kilmeena. Only 5.3 mm through yesterday in June so far and today we'll have much more. It's a fairly steady procession of gentle showers so it's being absorbed very nicely.

You can feel the sigh of relief from the trees, plantings and crops. The lawn was crunchy and we haven't had to mow in more than a week. Tomorrow, the grass will have grown. What's interesting is that things are growing much taller this year than usual -- irises, lupins, daisies, poppies -- really reaching up to the sun.

Finally getting some indoor stuff done today.

Was a mite windy overnight, NW

More showers

Rondo cluster

Add caption

Solaris cluster

MONTHLY VALUES FOR NEWPORT UP TO 05-JUN-2020

Total rainfall in millimetres for NEWPORT

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
2020	139.5	342.8	178.2	25.5	54.7	5.3							746.0
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
2017	94.3	151.0	216.2	31.1	64.2	108.3	164.0	197.6	153.3	190.1	203.0	179.7	1752.8
mean	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
2020	7.2	6.0	6.6	11.0	12.8	14.0							8.9
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
2017	7.1	6.7	8.7	10.0	13.5	14.0	14.8	14.6	13.0	11.7	8.1	6.6	10.8
mean	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
2020	5.7	4.7	5.4	9.7	13.0	n/a							7.7
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
2017	5.5	5.6	6.9	9.6	13.7	14.9	15.8	15.2	12.7	11.1	7.3	5.3	10.3
mean	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
2020	6263	10808	24545	46192	58476	9951							156235
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
2017	6968	9849	26218	30764	61302	41046	44472	37677	26833	13741	7192	4601	310663
mean	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
2020	17.6	21.9	35.0	70.2	91.6	15.5							251.8
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
2017	15.6	18.1	39.5	52.4	95.8	68.2	72.1	60.6	43.7	26.1	16.5	12.6	521.2
mean	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
2020	22.4	31.9	51.8	98.9	130.8	22.6							358.4
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
2017	20.7	25.9	56.2	73.6	136.2	99.6	102.4	85.7	62.2	35.9	21.0	16.1	735.5
mean	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
2020	257	276	275	143	111	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
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
2017	260	247	212	166	89	60	49	49	86	118	222	277	1834

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Notes on the Data

Evaporation and PE data are calculated using Penman/Monteith formulae.
All means are for the period 1981-2010. Data updated daily at Mid-day.