Today is Boat Race Day

When the entire country’s attention will focus on a four mile section of the River Thames in London going from Putney to Mortlake which can be done in a fast a time as 16′ 19″ (10 knots) and over the last 189 years has been won by Cambridge 83 times and by Oxford 80 times (including a tie in 1877). However, rowing on open water, in the early spring does cause one or two problems as has been only too well demonstrated in the past.

1859: Oxford
“It would not have been easy to pitch on a more unfavourable day for an eight-oared race” reported the Times the following day due to the weather conditions, but it was the toss of the coin that decided things as Oxford won and chose Middlesex allowing them to avoid the worst of the weather leaving Cambridge on the Surrey side and as a result they sank at Hammersmith

1912: No winner
The spring of 1912 was a terrible spring with the weather leading up to the event completely at ends with itself, so it should come as no surprise to hear that neither team managed to reach the end of the course sinking (Oxford sinking at Hammersmith Bridge and Cambridge at the Harrods Depository)

1925: Cambridge
Thanks to a strong wind just after the start of the race, Oxford (who were drawn on Surrey) found that they simply could not navigate and less than a minute later sank and led to an almighty row that very nearly stopped the Boat Race entirely

1951: Cambridge (at the second attempt)
The weather was so bad that the referee announced a “no row” (the same as being cancelled) and a few days later they held it again.

1978: Oxford
The race started at 2.45pm in reasonable conditions however just after Barnes bridge this happened

2016: The women’s race became the first women’s race to be looked at very closely when this happened to Cambridge

And what of the forecast for today? Well, if there is going to a weather effect it will most likely happen at Hammersmith Bridge and the forecast for there for the time of the race? Heavy rain with winds gusting to 12mph (in other words, place your bets on a sinking!)

Having the builders in can create havoc

pecially when, as they are dealing with electrics, they have to switch the power off so many times that (as was the case with me) from 11.27am GMT on St. Valentine’s Day until 1.53pm GMT on February 24th my wifi ceased to exist and as such completely ruined my tallies for February (during which time we had temperatures reaching 70°F, setting a new February high).

Those highs produced another problem as Saddleworth Moor (for the second time in less than a year) erupted into flames and whilst that fire was put out in less than 24 hours, the Farmer’s Guardian newspaper had it as their lead story following a conference on the subject of the climate that noted “rivers are below average” and that “concerns were growing” over the 2019 season. This was proven here as throughout February we had only 38mm of rain (1½ inches of rain) on seven days.

January Climate Data for Llanrhystud, Ceredigion, Wales

Thanks to Nathan very kindly sending me his weather station (so that I am now able to record the temperature remotely, which being a carer is an absolute godsend) I am now able to produce my first full climate data for January 2019. The average maximum temperature was 8.09°C (46.56°F) and the average minimum temperature was 3.87°C (38.97°F) with the mean temperature being 5.98°C (42.76°F). Compared with long term averages (as published by the UK Met Office), we have been on average for the maximum (47°F) and warmer than average for the minimum (36°F). The extremes for the month were a maximum of 12°C (54°F) on the 13th and a minimum of -4°C (25°F) on the 3rd. Despite the forecast of mass dumps of snow across Wales over the last day, we have had absolutely nothing here and only very small amounts on the nearby hills.

These hills are about 200m (450ft) above sea level which is where any snow has fallen

With regard to rainfall we had a total of 53.5mm (2.10″) on 14 days. On average we are supposed to have 11 days of rain in January delivering around three inches of rain.

The after effects of Storm Callum

Storm Callum, the third named storm to hit the UK, was enhanced by Hurricane Leslie which has been churning in the Atlantic for the last three weeks, as it interacted with a strong depression in the Atlantic and as a result boosted the amount of warm air. As members know warm air contains a lot of moisture and boy, did we get it. In the 48 hours from 0800 BST on Friday to 0800 BST on Sunday we received 53mm of rain (around two inches) or a month’s worth. This as a result saw our local river surge to a height of 102cm (3 feet 4 inches) or some 50cm (20 inches) above flood stage, but although we did not have much in the way of flooding other parts of Ceredigion were less lucky with the towns of Lampeter and Aberaeron receiving damage from floods (including up to nine boats critically damaged in Aberaeron harbour and the main supermarket in Lampeter being flooded).

Storm Ali : The Aftermath

Storm Ali officially ended at 3.00am BST this morning when the last of the winds connected to the storm reduced below gale force in the Shetland Islands leaving a vast amount of damage across Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

In Scotland Michael Matheson MSP (SNP, Falkirk West) who is the Scottish Transport Secretary has chaired a meeting of the Scottish Government’s emergency planning team to review the impact of the storm and to co-ordinate the official response with the committee reporting that they expect everything to be back to rights by this morning.

At the height of the storm some 70,000 homes were without power with only 5,000 still without power now (mostly in the Scottish Borders and Dumfries and Galloway council areas), the reason was that a lot of trees were still in full leaf and therefore there was more chance of trees falling (as seen here in Dundee)

A tree falling on to the coach of the University of Dundee's soccer team

There was also travel disruption on the railway network as well as the bus network that saw queues form at Buchanan Street bus station in Glasgow

Buchanan Street, Glasgow

And even the newly opened Victoria and Albert museum in Dundee had to close its doors due to safety concerns

Victoria and Albert Dundee

And even a cruise liner, moored in the Clyde in Greenock, was ripped from its lines. Thankfully no one was on board at the time but as this photo shows anyone on board would have seen a marvellous sight

Greenock and Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire

The first named storm of the season has arrived

A week ago the UK Met Office and Met Éireann (the Met Office for the Republic of Ireland) announced the names of the winter storms for the 2018/2019 season starting off with Ali, then as in the case of the National Hurricane Centre alternating between male and female thereafter with six Irish names and three Welsh names (gathered from suggestions by the public of both countries).

Today, the first of those storms, Ali, has arrived affecting at the moment County Galway on the west coast of Ireland, but affecting the central belt of Scotland later today. Indeed, even here, we have sustained winds of 10mph, gusting to 19mph.

Damage in County Galway, Republic of Ireland
Rainfall Radar September 19th 2018

Llanrhystud Monthly Summary : July 2018

Month summarised into a single image:

Average daytime maximum temperature: 69°F (+2°F on long term average)
Maximum maximum daytime temperature: 79°F (July 2nd 2018)
Minimum maximum daytime temperature: 64°F (July 30th 2018)
Monthly range: 15°F
Average nighttime minimum temperature: 61°F (+8°F on long term average)
Maximum minimum nighttime temperature: 67°F (July 2nd 2018)
Minimum minimum nighttime temperature: 57°F (July 24th 2018)
Monthly range: 10°F
Monthly rainfall: 1.38” (35mm)
Percentage of average monthly rainfall: 55.12%
Days with no / unmeasureable rain (less than 1mm): 23

Weather Observations: July 10th 2018

Maximum Temperature: 71°F
Minimum Temperature: 65°F
Temperature at 0800 BST (July 11th): 66°F
Rainfall: 0.009 inches (0.25 mm)
Wind Speed: Calm

In order to clarify about rainfall, the rain guage I have has markings in both mm and inches. The lowest marking is 1mm = 0.04 inches, however by using the scale above, I simply use that same scale backwards and then publish the information in inches for international comparsion by taking the mm figure and dividing by 25.4. However on July 2nd I miscalculated and what I published as 0.002 inches (0.05mm) should actually have been 0.02 inches (0.5mm)

Weekly Averages for Llanrhystud : July 1 – 7 2018

Average daytime high: 73°F
July average daytime high: 67°F
Average night time low: 64°F
July average night time low: 53°F
Total rainfall: 0.002 inches
July average rainfall (per week): 0.625 inches
Average windspeed: 0.45mph

Summary: Heatwave conditions are still with us and looking at the forecast will remain with us for the whole of next week before breaking around next Tuesday, meaning that this heatwave will have lasted no less than 23 days.