Alex bottled the wine while I was out getting bargains on Black Friday. He measured the ABV of the Solaris, and it registered 12.4%. He hasn't tested the red, but we tasted it, and it's not really great- but it's not bad...no acetone nose. We sampled the white wine (Solaris), and it is delicious. Very smooth with delicate fruit aromas and flavours, great legs and a soft mouthfeel finish. We are very pleased with the outcome.
Very low yields are being reported in parts of France this year. The reasons range from floods to extreme temperatures. Does anyone consider that many of these countries were just planted in the wrong areas? It's too late for mitigation; now it's time for adaptation.
Hourly Averages from last 32 hrs
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| Donkeys waiting for me yesterday. |
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| Cheeky pheasant was picking seeds out of the hay shed. Went running up the field when he saw me. |
Storm Claudia brought lots of wind and rain, plus it turned cold and raw in the blustery wind. But we got off easy. Wales and SE Ireland took the brunt along with the Iberian peninsula. The donkeys came down yesterday and were looking miserable. Carrots and fresh hay cheered them up but they didnt come back today.
After this storm passes, we'll be heading into northerlies with the temperatures plummeting to near zero overnight next week. Time to close the polytunnel doors. Winter is here.
The last two nights had spectacular aurora displays in parts of the country but not here -- totally cloudy and very foggy. Not that I would have seen them anyway, as I wasn't up in the middle of the night. Alex had his second cataract surgery yesterday morning, so we were prone to sleeping last night.
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| The fog enveloping Croagh Patrick |
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| The aurora in Connemara |
We got through Samhain without incident, but with far fewer kids than expected.Samhain, or Halloween, marks the transition in Irish lore between Autumn and Winter. Traditionally, All Hallows' Eve was the night when the portal between us and the nether world opened. All kinds of monsters and goblins would roam the earth, looking for victims to bring to the nether reaches, so people would stay inside or disguise themselves to be unrecognisable. No headless horsemen appeared on our land.
But the leaves dropped and the vineyard took on its winter appearance. A few support poles snapped in the last storm and a few branches broke off the vines, mostly Solaris. So Alex pounded in new stakes and trimmed broken vines, while I pruned the roses that had grown to nine feet tall. At least we finally had one morning of sunshine to work in. Otherwise, the weather has been miserable and more to come.
October felt wet and windy, and it certainly was. Total rainfall was 30 mm above the LTA, though not as high as in 2022. We did get nice rainbows with the rain. Temperature was higher than the LTA but slightly lower than the past three years. The soil temperature was higher than in the past three years and the LTA.
Hurricane Melissa, which battered Jamaica as a Cat 5 storm, and moved on to Cuba and the Bahamas, is now on its way here. We have a few wet and windy days ahead.
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 105.0 | 112.4 | 59.3 | 102.8 | 88.2 | 153.8 | 130.0 | 148.2 | 214.9 | 186.4 | n/a | 1301.0 | |
| 2024 | 125.7 | 197.5 | 152.5 | 119.4 | 48.8 | 80.7 | 80.8 | 257.5 | 44.1 | 150.7 | 143.3 | 173.7 | 1574.7 |
| 2023 | 183.2 | 91.6 | 188.4 | 121.1 | 48.5 | 77.9 | 206.8 | 139.8 | 142.4 | 144.7 | 209.6 | 293.8 | 1847.8 |
| 2022 | 98.8 | 260.4 | 67.8 | 84.0 | 107.0 | 148.0 | 59.2 | 104.1 | 97.3 | 233.9 | 187.5 | 154.6 | 1602.6 |
| LTA | 166.4 | 146.6 | 129.0 | 98.0 | 99.2 | 93.5 | 111.6 | 133.0 | 131.8 | 153.9 | 180.9 | 190.7 | 1634.6 |
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6.0 | 7.1 | 8.9 | 11.6 | 14.0 | 14.9 | 16.5 | 16.7 | 13.3 | 11.7 | n/a | 12.1 | |
| 2024 | 6.1 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 9.9 | 13.1 | 12.9 | 14.9 | 14.9 | 13.6 | 11.8 | 9.2 | 8.2 | 10.9 |
| 2023 | 6.6 | 8.0 | 7.6 | 9.9 | 13.3 | 17.4 | 14.9 | 15.8 | 15.2 | 11.9 | 8.7 | 7.9 | 11.4 |
| 2022 | 7.2 | 7.1 | 8.0 | 9.9 | 12.6 | 13.8 | 15.9 | 16.2 | n/a | 12.2 | 9.4 | 5.2 | 10.7 |
| LTA | 6.3 | 6.4 | 7.5 | 9.5 | 12.0 | 14.2 | 15.5 | 15.5 | 13.8 | 11.1 | 8.5 | 6.7 | 10.6 |
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5.1 | 6.0 | 8.1 | 10.9 | 15.4 | 16.3 | 17.8 | 17.5 | 13.9 | 12.1 | n/a | 12.4 | |
| 2024 | 4.2 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 9.5 | 13.6 | 14.4 | 15.8 | 15.4 | 13.7 | 11.2 | 8.9 | 7.2 | 10.6 |
| 2023 | 5.2 | 6.8 | 6.6 | 9.1 | 13.7 | 18.6 | 16.3 | 16.3 | 14.7 | 11.1 | 7.6 | 6.7 | 11.1 |
| 2022 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.3 | 9.3 | 13.2 | 14.8 | 16.8 | 16.6 | n/a | 11.5 | 8.4 | 4.4 | 10.4 |
| 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 |
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7308 | 11955 | 25430 | 44615 | 64505 | 45465 | 47402 | 38468 | 29164 | 11727 | n/a | 326039 | |
| 2024 | 7248 | 12401 | 23032 | 39685 | 47333 | 50366 | 49632 | 38203 | 31451 | 16628 | 6586 | 4121 | 326686 |
| 2023 | 6245 | 10639 | 21429 | 37277 | 55732 | 58473 | 41797 | 36857 | 29338 | 16225 | 8326 | 4411 | 326749 |
| 2022 | 6311 | 10756 | 33399 | 40555 | 51569 | 47246 | 48439 | 51169 | n/a | 15988 | 7869 | 6167 | 319468 |
| 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 |
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 12.9 | 22.0 | 39.5 | 70.1 | 100.3 | 76.4 | 80.3 | 68.6 | 45.4 | 28.0 | n/a | 543.5 | |
| 2024 | 15.4 | 18.2 | 36.0 | 56.9 | 74.7 | 76.7 | 80.9 | 60.8 | 49.0 | 27.6 | 14.2 | 15.6 | 526.0 |
| 2023 | 14.3 | 20.9 | 33.0 | 56.4 | 83.3 | 100.6 | 70.1 | 64.4 | 50.1 | 26.1 | 14.2 | 14.7 | 548.1 |
| 2022 | 13.7 | 23.0 | 47.2 | 60.6 | 77.7 | 76.0 | 80.4 | 82.0 | n/a | 27.2 | 17.2 | 9.2 | 514.2 |
| 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 |
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 17.1 | 30.5 | 55.3 | 97.0 | 139.0 | 107.8 | 110.6 | 94.7 | 64.1 | 37.0 | n/a | 753.1 | |
| 2024 | 20.2 | 25.4 | 51.9 | 83.7 | 104.9 | 109.8 | 112.6 | 88.3 | 67.8 | 37.5 | 18.4 | 20.0 | 740.5 |
| 2023 | 18.8 | 28.2 | 47.6 | 81.6 | 118.2 | 137.1 | 99.5 | 89.1 | 67.8 | 35.5 | 18.4 | 19.0 | 760.8 |
| 2022 | 17.9 | 32.4 | 66.5 | 86.8 | 114.5 | 109.2 | 111.1 | 113.2 | n/a | 37.0 | 22.0 | 11.4 | 722.0 |
| 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 |
| Year | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 294 | 235 | 205 | 132 | 82 | 49 | 23 | 21 | 76 | 121 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2024 | 293 | 221 | 234 | 169 | 91 | 89 | 45 | 41 | 77 | 117 | 191 | 228 | 1796 |
| 2023 | 275 | 210 | 246 | 171 | 85 | 18 | 39 | 26 | 53 | 118 | 203 | 237 | 1681 |
| 2022 | 256 | 234 | 235 | 171 | 97 | 63 | 30 | 28 | N/A | 103 | 185 | 320 | N/A |
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.
To view the Weather Events for Public Works Contracts data, select a station first, then click the link just below the map.
