What's your Weather Like October 2024

Sun has now come out properly, just sunny spells and lots of cloud up till now.
at least it hasn't rained,....yet today so quite amazing.

 

When we went out it looked quite overcast but within about half an hour it really brightened up. My missus was complaining that the jacket she was wearing was too warm. That hasn't happened for a few days.

 

Sunshine all day with some clouds. It was cold this morning and went up to 14c.

 

It was an amazing day here too as it was sunny all day! Hubby said he was too hot in his jumper, when he went to get the paper.

But there were loads of midge type things swarming over my head, when I was gardening. They were biting so I had to run away and the swarm moved on.

Quite hot in the sun, but the dew is now forming, which seems early.

It will be chilly tonight at 4c and there will be a bit of a moon.

 

Been bright and breezy all day, 26.7c high, now 23.5c, nice.

 

Significantly more than six months' worth here, going by the long-term (30 year) averages: 1991-2020 581mm, 1981-2010 572mm, 1971-2000 563mm, 1961-1990 575mm. In 2023 I measured 738mm but that was exceptionally high. So far in 2024 I've measured 503mm in 9 months so we may be getting another above-average year. Climate change or luck? I have no idea.

but as I read back, I see that the 350 being referred to was % above average not a total, so it means 3.5 times the average September rainfall.

 

Yes, a volume of 1m by 1m by 1m is 1000 litres. The way I remember it is that a litre is a 10cm by 10cm by 10cm cube, or about a 4x4x4" cube.

 

Which is why all these maps you see these days with above or below average is totally pointless IMO, you just want the totals.
Whether its above or below average is not really important and totally misleading unless they give you the average for those areas.
Sensationalising the weather in order to support the climate change people is really out of hand, but it presumably makes someone money somewhere along the line.

 

The volume of rainfall is only meaningful if you know the area over which it was collected. That's why we measure rainfall in depth not volume, so we can compare meaningfully.

For example, 10mm of rain on my small-ish garden would amount to a smaller total volume than 10mm on a big garden, but a bigger volume than 10mm on a small courtyard, BUT it will wet the soil by just the same amount (assuming it's not covered in impermeable paving). The collection area on rain gauges might vary, but each one will be calibrated so that the value you read on the scale is the depth that fell on the collection area (effectively it is taking a sample area of the whole garden, or whatever area is being considered). If I worked out the area of my garden I could work out the volume of rain that fell on it on any given day from my rain gauge records. But I don't bother, because it doesn't really mean anything.

You can of course work it out the other way round - for example as you know the area of your greenhouse roof and the volume collected from it, you can work out that you had 200mm rainfall over 4 days. That's an awful lot! (1 litre per square metre = 1mm depth - if you poured a litre of water into a square container that measured 1m by 1m (with a flat bottom!) the depth would be 1mm)

 

And after all that mathsy stuff, we had another bright and breezy day here - rainfall = zero whatever way you measure it

 

I assume those maps show % above or below average for each area. It's one way of illustrating the data. Whether it's a good way or not depends what you're interested in. We gardeners are probably more interested in what rain we actually got, but climatologists might be more interested in the variations from the average.

 

When anyone mentions an Average I always get nervous.
What is the average between 1 and 100.

The answer is nothing like one or the other.

Having said that I see why statisticians use them but mostly pointless in reality.

 

Just came in after sunset, 23c with a light breeze.

 

It was a lovely sunny day today, albeit chilly first thing.

I’m not enjoying the dark mornings - I miss having a pre-work cuppa outside on my early starts.