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You wont be sowing in the UK today Anywhere South of HULL

Timbo1080

Member
Location
Somerset
I'll crunch the Met Office historic data for my local airport. The average used to be around 35" but the last few years since 2012 have been wetter.

What's your annual average @ZXR17 ?

Rampisham (Dorset) has just over double ours (We get 750mm)....If that helps? Local airport data can be too stable for a decent likeness as they "tend" to be in large, level, open spaces....And I'm guessing that you have rather a lot of hills....
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
Rampisham (Dorset) has just over double ours (We get 750mm)....If that helps? Local airport data can be too stable for a decent likeness as they "tend" to be in large, level, open spaces....And I'm guessing that you have rather a lot of hills....

Double? Really? How far away are you from their weather station? I'd question the accuracy of the gauges if you are within a mile or two of Rampisham unless there's a very big hill in the way that would give you a microclimate.Is the airfield on top of the hill & you are down in a valley? Where is your gauge in realtion to other tall obstacles like buildings?

weather-instruments-ppt-for-students-7-638.jpg
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
32.3 inch average over the last 11 years but we get a very different climate here to just a couple of miles inland.

I thought you'd get more by the coast.

Historic records for the calendar year from my own rain gauge, 180 feet above sea level:

2015 36.4"
2014 53"
2013 40"
2012 47.7"
 

ZXR17

Member
Location
South Dorset
We miss a lot of the rain coming in from the west which tends to run along the downs just inland from us which is depressing when the crops need it but great when we're combining.
 

Timbo1080

Member
Location
Somerset
Double? Really? How far away are you from their weather station? I'd question the accuracy of the gauges if you are within a mile or two of Rampisham unless there's a very big hill in the way that would give you a microclimate.Is the airfield on top of the hill & you are down in a valley? Where is your gauge in realtion to other tall obstacles like buildings?

weather-instruments-ppt-for-students-7-638.jpg

Haha, no, I'm nowhere near Rampisham....I was assuming you are and have similar terrain. Was just pointing out the hill effects.

Rampisham is indeed a special microclimate, and yes the hill is certainly large enough. I'm down on the boring old flat lands of Somerset - Not the levels.....we do have one hill, but it's only 300 feet.

Rampisham has a local daily recorder of 60 years & some special other chap that monitors daily too, for the reason that it is a bit special.

I have 4 stations covering the land we Farm, one of which is Yeovilton Airbase. All of the stations vary marginally from each other, with Yeovilton being the lowest of the 4, but all consistently follow the same patterns etc.
2 are on gate posts in fields, well away from any other structures, and the third is a self supporting structure in the middle of a pasture etc.
I had one further, that was elevated on a pole on the gable end of the farmhouse, but the cat took a shine to the anemometer & trashed it.
 

Brisel

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Midlands
My local Met Office source is Hurn Airport which is a lot closer to the coast than I am, but that's all I can find for historci data that I actually trust. Wunderground amateur weather stations are unreliable for rainfall - I have a crappy Maplin one that gets spiders in the counterbalance meter & the anemometer & direction vane are all seized. My rain fall is checked daily via a Syngenta freebie jug type one strapped to a fence post.
 

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Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

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On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

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