Weather Thread

[Coal Gas and peat]

It was a good drying day up here yesterday farmers were sowing fertiliser...... Looks fucked today

 

[A Man Called Charolais]

There's was too much last year and now the same's happening again for '24 . . .


There will be no relief from rain and sodden ground for farmers in the coming days, as according to Met Éireann's farming forecast, rainfall amounts will be two to four times the normal range.

In its farming bulletin, the national forecaster said the week ahead will be unsettled, bringing showers and rain and some heavy downpours at times.

It said soil conditions in fields are expected to worsen due to the rain.

Conditions at the moment are preventing planting and turning livestock out of sheds.

The forecaster said moderately or poorly drained soils will be waterlogged and all other soils will be saturated with all the forecast rainfall.

The farming forecast issued yesterday comes ahead of the publication of Met Éireann's analysis of March weather later today.

It is expected to show rainfall amounts in Ireland were 140% compared to normal, while amounts in some weather stations in the east and south of the country exceeded 200%, including Dublin Airport where rainfall was 219%, and the Phoenix Park where it was 211%.

Across farming sectors, the bad weather has severely hampered spring operations, preventing cows and cattle being turned out to graze fields where grass growth has been good.

In a normal year, animals that had been housed over the winter would generally be in fields by day and night by the beginning of April.

Grain farmers are also struggling to plant. They have seed stored up and ready to go, but field conditions mean machinery cannot be deployed on wet soils.

The potato sector is one that is being badly affected by wet soils in fields.

Irish Farmers' Association's National Potato chairperson Sean Ryan said early planting that should have gone ahead in February did not, and only a fraction of the main crop that normally gets planted in mid-March is in the ground.

He said the current bad weather comes after last year's harvest was one of the most difficult in recent memory, when many growers forced to leave potatoes in the ground as conditions prevented them being harvested.

Potato shortage looms as farmers face ongoing bad weather

Irish Farmers' Association's National Potato chairperson Sean Ryan has said there is a likelihood of potato shortages in supermarkets later in the year as less than 50 acres of the usual 21,000 acres have actually been planted so far.

www.rte.ie

I was going to ask a local farmer what his opinion on the report was until I heard He's quite proud to mix "Truth with Lies" - Straight from the horses mouth.

Appears to be something to do with a strong El Nino year and its effect on the gulf stream.


'As its name implies, the jet stream is essentially a river of fast-moving air in the atmosphere at about the altitude where airplanes fly. It is typically a few hundred miles across, and jets can indeed save a lot of fuel if they can fly within this air current, generally from west to east.

Jet streams also have significant implications for our weather on the ground, as they more or less steer storm systems that affect the mid-latitudes. That is, they in large part determine whether parts of the United States—which lies almost entirely in the mid-latitudes between the tropics and poles in the Northern Hemisphere—will see stormy or serene weather.

As always with weather, the situation is complex. But one of the more useful signals in a forecaster's arsenal is the El Niño–Southern Oscillation in the tropical Pacific Ocean, which vacillates between warmer sea surface temperatures (El Niño), cooler ones (La Niña), and neutral conditions. This broad pattern has widespread weather implications, including the location of the jet stream.'

https://arstechnica.com/science/202...l-nino-heres-what-that-means-for-a-us-winter/


Haven't seen this as a direct explanation for all the wet weather on the Atlantic side but low pressure systems have been funneled our way since mid-summer 2023. Looks like it will continue until the El Nino pattern subsides. It's been shocking wet.

 

[Professor]

Appears to be something to do with a strong El Nino year and its effect on the gulf stream.

Sure I guess we can add that to a list of weather disrupters, perhaps we may see a dry period too, after all El Nino also brings droughts through it's nature.

 

[A Man Called Charolais]

Sure I guess we can add that to a list of weather disrupters, perhaps we may see a dry period too, after all El Nino also brings droughts through it's nature.

Certainly should add El Nino to that list as a Pacific Ocean phenomenon that brings drier and wetter conditions across the globe. It has been an El Nino year, and the Jet Stream has been pumping wet weather systems across the Atlantic into North Western Europe, so maybe that's the reason.

Fair enough, correlation doesn't imply causation, it's just this is certainly happening and the weather bureaus (particularly the UK Met) have consistently been talking about the Jet Stream in their explanations of why we've been getting all this soggy weather.

It has been very unusual, and if this is the explanation then at least we can expect it to subside sometime. Of course, I'm on the shores of Lake Geneva so everything's dandy from my pov.

I don't think it's because some druid or shaman or Kwisatz Haderach is making it rain or anything. It's not like there has been a permanent climatic change to that of Caladan.

 

[Professor]

It has been very unusual, and if this is the explanation then at least we can expect it to subside sometime. Of course, I'm on the shores of Lake Geneva so everything's dandy from my pov.

Talking of POV, one will find plenty of data in the newspapers in regard to soggy agriculture over the last 10 years with plenty wet record breakers like last year which was a disastrously crap summer cold, cloudy, wet and dim. Also the year before '22 had rain all through the summer but with a dry September.
At the same time Med Europe was unusually dryzabone and worryingly droughty.

Something like 100% extra for us and 100% less for them - that was '22 then last year was record breaking washout for us, they're still suffering trauma in cork from the biblical floods.
Now this year - well you've read it so far and don't forget that the OTT rain has been regular over the last 10 years bar 1-2 quieter years but the others . . . it's all on record and plenty of it can be read on this thread.

Sure there's even a new term for the phenomenon of record breaking repeated rain deluges - Atmospheric Rivers! FFS

 

[Declan]

We have hailstones here in Massachusetts today, April 3

 

[Professor]

Liquid sunshine, that's what it is.

Irish Farmers' Association's National Potato chairperson Sean Ryan has said there is a likelihood of potato shortages in supermarkets later in the year as less than 50 acres of the usual 21,000 acres have actually been planted so far.

Mr Ryan's comments came as Met Éireann's farming forecast said there will be no relief from rain and sodden ground for farmers in the coming days as rainfall amounts will be two to four times the normal range.

He said: "Yes, it's very likely at this stage because there was 700 acres that were not harvested at all last year and most of them were damaged with frost, so they are gone out of the equation.

"The situation is going to be very tight and there probably will be empty shelves in supermarkets by the end of the year."

Mr Ryan said early planting that should have gone ahead in February did not, and only a fraction of the main crop that normally gets planted in mid-March is in the ground.

He said the current bad weather comes after last year's harvest was one of the most difficult in recent memory, when many growers forced to leave potatoes in the ground as conditions prevented them being harvested.

Potato shortage looms as farmers face ongoing bad weather

Irish Farmers' Association's National Potato chairperson Sean Ryan has said there is a likelihood of potato shortages in supermarkets later in the year as less than 50 acres of the usual 21,000 acres have actually been planted so far.

www.rte.ie

 

[Professor]

FTA above ^ ^ ^

Meanwhile there were calls for forbearance for farmers with cash flow difficulties due to mounting costs as a result of keeping livestock inside as most paddocks are still too wet to graze.

Deputy President of the IFA Alice Doyle said: "Farmers are very resilient in general but I have never seen the mood of farmers so low."

She described the mood as "on the floor" and said farmers are "under severe pressure".

 

[Mad as Fish]

Irish Farmers' Association's National Potato chairperson Sean Ryan has said there is a likelihood of potato shortages in supermarkets later in the year as less than 50 acres of the usual 21,000 acres have actually been planted so far.

Mr Ryan's comments came as Met Éireann's farming forecast said there will be no relief from rain and sodden ground for farmers in the coming days as rainfall amounts will be two to four times the normal range.

He said: "Yes, it's very likely at this stage because there was 700 acres that were not harvested at all last year and most of them were damaged with frost, so they are gone out of the equation.

"The situation is going to be very tight and there probably will be empty shelves in supermarkets by the end of the year."

Mr Ryan said early planting that should have gone ahead in February did not, and only a fraction of the main crop that normally gets planted in mid-March is in the ground.

He said the current bad weather comes after last year's harvest was one of the most difficult in recent memory, when many growers forced to leave potatoes in the ground as conditions prevented them being harvested.

Potato shortage looms as farmers face ongoing bad weather

Irish Farmers' Association's National Potato chairperson Sean Ryan has said there is a likelihood of potato shortages in supermarkets later in the year as less than 50 acres of the usual 21,000 acres have actually been planted so far.

www.rte.ie

So what shall we do about it?

 

[clarke-connolly]

Bad Weather = = Never happened in Ireland before

 

[A Man Called Charolais]

Here's a forecast that wolframalpha creates when you query it.

It's for Cavan - in honour of Val, and gives a graph with estimated rainfall intensities (which is useful to know so you tell when you can safely sneak a bit a machinery onto the land).

Apparently tomorrow will be bad, and then there's a windstorm at the weekend. Storm Olivia is on its way. Maincrop can be sowed into May. There's going to be a lot of rolling the ground from the cattle when the weather gets better at the end of the month please God.

https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=weather+forecast+cavan

Here's a link to the Climate of Ireland from Met Éireann. It goes into the whole 'well we're in the North Atlantic don't you know'. February to June are normally the months of least rainfall.

Funnily, I haven't been able to find a graph with the yearly rainfall totals for the last twenty years anywhere - it's all buried in spreadsheets somewhere. The worst of it has been the consecutive days of rainfall and the short intervals between downpours.

 

[Fishalt]

Personally, I'm over rain at this point.

Last week I was having some turf delivered. About 100SQM. I was forecast for 0-10MM. Ok, sure, I think. That's bearable.

It rained all day. 60MM plus. I had to lay 100SQM of turf in the rain. Now, laying 100SQM of turf solo isn't the makings of a fun day at the best of times. But when you're doing that in the rain, and it's soaking into the sod of the turf you're laying, making each square 3x heavier, and you're sinking into the sod on the ground as you're laying it....yeah, it's horrific.

Not as though I had a choice, though. Once it's cut from the farm, it needs to be put down the day it's delivered, otherwise it dies, and for this particular delivery I'd have been 1.5K out of pocket only to create waste. So pony up it was.

Still, it was definitely a 'I'm getting too old for this shit' moment.

 

[Fishalt]

Yea and the way the last few years have been - the rain stops for weeks on end and everything goes to dust with the heavy clay soils around here. The balance we once had is gone.

I'm on clay and it's a huge problem. The main issue is that it's more or less unbeatable, because it never becomes porous. This is in Australia mind you, Irish clay is likely different. The way it works here is that let's say I dig a 1.5M X1.5M trench for fruit trees, and fill it with good soil, all this does is create a well. Because the clay doesn't drain, water simply pools in the hole and the roots rot out. Some things like mangos can handle it. Things like lychees just die more or less in days.

 

[Myles O'Reilly]

I'm on the West coast and everything is well behind or rotting.

Have you ever thought of moving back to your native Connemara from Kerry M'Lady?

 

[Fishalt]

I planted an apple tree over my black lab retriever's grave today ( the ashes not the whole dog). Crazy conditions. As you say, it does not drain. Apples can usually handle it these parts

I'm sorry for your loss. It's hard to lose dogs. I've got collies, always had them, and it's heartbreaking every time I have to put one down. I always say 'that's the last time, I can't handle it again' and always end up with another pup. I do the same thing, always bury them and plant a tree on the grave. I find digging the grave helps a bit psychologically somehow.

I find that anything that comes from your corner of the world does much better in the clay than other things, especially prunus sp's. They have very deep root systems that seem to be able to tolerate waterlogging unlike tropical species. I suppose they're evolved to handle prolonged, wet conditions.

 

[Myles O'Reilly]

Things like lychees just die more or less in days.

That's no harm. Nasty little critters.

Unless they're still used for sucking bad blood out of wounds?

 

[Fishalt]

That's no harm. Nasty little critters.

Unless they're still used for sucking bad blood out of wounds?

sigh

not your best work, Myles.

 

[Professor]

So what shall we do about it?

That's for the farmers and gov reps to decide, it's their country, their industry.
We the consumers get potatoes from a global supply chain and traditionally get delicious potatoes from Cyprus etc.
It may sound daft (as it is) but if Med countries are experiencing bigger damaging droughts as we get bigger rainfalls then perhaps we should be running a freshwater pipeline over to continental Europe and on to where it's needed.

Catalonia declares a drought emergency​

Officials in Spain's northeast region of Catalonia declared a drought emergency on Thursday. Reservoirs that serve 6 million people, including the population of Barcelona, are at less than 16 per cent of their capacity, a historic low.

Drought-stricken villages in Spain are bringing in water in tankers

Thousands living in small communities that depend on wells which are now running dry are experiencing difficulties getting water fit for consumption.

www.euronews.com

A 4000-5000KM pipeline is no big deal and wetter flooded north European countries can network, we've(Ireland) just to worry about sending it to France, the UN supplies the piping, see??

 

[Fishalt]

That's for the farmers and gov reps to decide, it's their country, their industry.
We the consumers get potatoes from a global supply chain and traditionally get delicious potatoes from Cyprus etc.
It may sound daft (as it is) but if Med countries are experiencing bigger damaging droughts as we get bigger rainfalls then perhaps we should be running a freshwater pipeline over to continental Europe and on to where it's needed.

Catalonia declares a drought emergency​

Officials in Spain's northeast region of Catalonia declared a drought emergency on Thursday. Reservoirs that serve 6 million people, including the population of Barcelona, are at less than 16 per cent of their capacity, a historic low.

Drought-stricken villages in Spain are bringing in water in tankers

Thousands living in small communities that depend on wells which are now running dry are experiencing difficulties getting water fit for consumption.

www.euronews.com

A 4000-5000KM pipeline is no big deal and wetter flooded north European countries can network, we've(Ireland) just to worry about sending it to France, the UN supplies the piping, see??

I have met a few Catalonians, they're nice people. Earthy. I hope it picks up for them.

 

[Mad as Fish]

That's for the farmers and gov reps to decide, it's their country, their industry.
We the consumers get potatoes from a global supply chain and traditionally get delicious potatoes from Cyprus etc.
It may sound daft (as it is) but if Med countries are experiencing bigger damaging droughts as we get bigger rainfalls then perhaps we should be running a freshwater pipeline over to continental Europe and on to where it's needed.

Catalonia declares a drought emergency​

Officials in Spain's northeast region of Catalonia declared a drought emergency on Thursday. Reservoirs that serve 6 million people, including the population of Barcelona, are at less than 16 per cent of their capacity, a historic low.

Drought-stricken villages in Spain are bringing in water in tankers

Thousands living in small communities that depend on wells which are now running dry are experiencing difficulties getting water fit for consumption.

www.euronews.com

A 4000-5000KM pipeline is no big deal and wetter flooded north European countries can network, we've(Ireland) just to worry about sending it to France, the UN supplies the piping, see??

We can’t even build one from the Shannon to Dublin or fix those that are under the streets already.

 

[Mad as Fish]

Lest we forget -

Ireland had a three-month heatwave in 1976 and the videos are AMAZING

It's hot in Ireland right now. Like, really hot. But this heatwave has nothing on the heatwave of 1976.

www.irishcentral.com

 

[Professor]

.

Lest we forget -

Ireland had a three-month heatwave in 1976 and the videos are AMAZING

It's hot in Ireland right now. Like, really hot. But this heatwave has nothing on the heatwave of 1976.

www.irishcentral.com

I remember it well. those were the days when we actually could get sunburned out in the sun, not so in recent times.
What a joke today's Irish summers are in comparison.
These days, the sun blocker is sprayed on, and you wouldn't even notice.

 

[clarke-connolly]

.

I remember it well. those were the days when we actually could get sunburned out in the sun, not so in recent times.
What a joke today's Irish summers are in comparison.
These days, the sun blocker is sprayed on, and you wouldn't even notice.

Yeah = = The Global Warming is Fierce Cooling altogether ! !

 

[Professor]

Yeah = = The Global Warming is Fierce Cooling altogether ! !

Keeping it real, good on you CC.

Since the 1940s, scientists have studied ways to increase rainfall with the goal of increasing precipitation in arid and semi-arid climates. Today, that endeavor is making incredible leaps and bounds as scientists and engineers apply nanotechnology to improve the effectiveness of cloud seeding.

Scientists advance cloud-seeding capabilities with nanotechnology

A decades old idea, with today’s innovation, might be the answer to help drought-stricken countries and to fight climate change.

www.technologyreview.com

 

[nobody knows I'm a dog]

Derek Davis was Ireland's only fat person in 1976.

Lest we forget -

https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/craic/ireland-heatwave-1976[

 

[valamhic]

I planted an apple tree over my black lab retriever's grave today ( the ashes not the whole dog). Crazy conditions. As you say, it does not drain. Apples can usually handle it these parts

Are you in Australia too?

 

[valamhic]

Lest we forget -

Ireland had a three-month heatwave in 1976 and the videos are AMAZING

It's hot in Ireland right now. Like, really hot. But this heatwave has nothing on the heatwave of 1976.

www.irishcentral.com

1976 was very hot from May to November. 1977 was a little cooler. The worst year was
1885, bad rain. Bad rain this year in Ireland, no let up at all

 

[Declan]

It is rain g ice here and it is a complete blizzard in Maine as we speak.

 

[Myles O'Reilly]

Lady Willow, you might be able to help me.

I've got a bush at the front of the house which was a pain in the arse to climb up and keep trimmed at the top. So I decided to just cut around four feet off it.

Now its shaped like a bucket.

How can I get it rounded off at the top so that it looks circular again rather than a boiled egg that's just had the top knocked off?

 

[Myles O'Reilly]

What kind of bush is it.

Green!

You may have shocked it and it is sulking. Conifers take that sort of thing personally.Can you identify one leader branch that would grow up for height or is all bucket shaped

Its not wide, about 3 or four feet. She doesn't seem shocked. I did it a year ago and hollowed the fukk out of it but its all grown back no bother.

I think I might have a go at the edges and keep trimming them whilst letting the middle grown taller and thicken out. Perhaps I'll get some shape to it that way

 

[Skin the Goat]

Green!

Its not wide, about 3 or four feet. She doesn't seem shocked. I did it a year ago and hollowed the fukk out of it but its all grown back no bother.

I think I might have a go at the edges and keep trimming them whilst letting the middle grown taller and thicken out. Perhaps I'll get some shape to it that way

Put manners on it with a chain saw Miley. It might look shite for 12 - 18 months but it will fill out nicely to it's new size.

 

[Myles O'Reilly]

Its 12 months now Sir so I'm hoping she'll start to fill out this Summer

 

[Mad as Fish]

Put manners on it with a chain saw Miley. It might look shite for 12 - 18 months but it will fill out nicely to it's new size.

I've tried that with a conifer type bush (hopeless at plant recognition) and it stayed brown on it's injured side forever after.

 

[Fishalt]

Green!

Its not wide, about 3 or four feet. She doesn't seem shocked. I did it a year ago and hollowed the fukk out of it but its all grown back no bother.

I think I might have a go at the edges and keep trimming them whilst letting the middle grown taller and thicken out. Perhaps I'll get some shape to it that way

Its 12 months now Sir so I'm hoping she'll start to fill out this Summer

You more or less need to prune it right back. Probably the reason this is happening is that the centre is no longer getting light exposure--direct contact with light, and the plant has written off that part of itself. Only way to bring it back into form is to trim it back so the light exposure is even across the whole plant. Use a pair of anvil lopping shears and form it into the shape you want, then maintain it. Depending on the SP this is probably what you should be doing anyway.

 

[Myles O'Reilly]

The SP Sir?

 

[Fishalt]

The SP Sir?

Species.

Do you know what it is?

 

[Myles O'Reilly]

Its a green leafy looking thing.

Thank's for the input Sir. I'll hammer a job on it tomorrow

 

[Fishalt]

Its a green leafy looking thing.

Thank's for the input Sir. I'll hammer a job on it tomorrow

Most shrubs can handle a very heavy prune. If you want it to recover well and flush out new growth faster, hit it with some of this. It really does work. Or if you have access to actual seaweed, lay a bunch of it around the roots after washing it thoroughly. It's probably the best thing you can give your soil around.

 

[nobody knows I'm a dog]

Not too bad here in the midlands. Loaded up the car with shite for the recycling centre, the bloody place was closed "due to storm Kathleen". Had to go home and unload the shite for another day.
Bet if Kathleen hadn't a name she wouldn't have closed the recycling place.

 

[Myles O'Reilly]

Not too bad here in the midlands.

Are you a Westmeath man Dog? Or Longford?


(In fact are you a man a'tall???)