Our Weather 2024

[Steph S]

Nothing exciting to report as yet, but I wanted to start a thread for the new year since I find it really interesting to hear about weather around the world and how it affects our gardening, farming and breeding projects.

We had scanty precip and snow cover in December til the present, despite some deep freezes, and are expecting a shovelable amount of snow this Friday to really kick winter in.

[William Schlegel]

We have thick frost and no snow here. El Nino winter for Western MT.

[Ferdzy]

It's been unpleasantly pleasant. No snow, mild temperatures; we were joking that we would call our landscape guy on Christmas eve and tell him we needed a mow, but it was barely a joke - we really could use a mow. Finally we have had a little snow but it melted this afternoon. It's getting colder than it was but still flitting up above then just below freezing and looks like the same next week.

[Kadence Luneman]

We've only had a couple light snows. Not even enough to cover the grass. And what may have been enough to was entirely gone by afternoon so that hardly counts.

Unpleasantly pleasant is exactly my thoughts too!
It's terrible for the sheep. I have them in like a dry lot type setup for winter. Except it's not dry! And it's small enough/enough animals that the sunny days aren't enough to dry it. So I'm going to have to play with some bale grazing just so I don't leave them on one mucky spot all winter. It would be fine if it would just freeze!

I'm thinking to put some pots in the greenhouse and plant them with rye. See how well it does. If I had gotten it seeded in the ground I'm sure it would be growing like crazy.

[Adrian]

https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/occitanie/pyrenees-orientales/perpignan/meteo-climat-secheresse-chaleur-et-canicule-un-desert-aride-est-en-formation-dans-le-sud-de-la-france-2899595.html
At this placement, 425mm of rain in 2021, 305mm of rain in 2022 and 245mm of rain in 2023 for a normal of 575mm/year.

[Cathy A]

We've had wild swings in weather over the past month or two. Cold in Vermont the first month or two of winter, then it warmed up and everything melted (resulting in a green Christmas), then a major storm dumped 12-18 inches last weekend, and now it's warmed up again and dumped a lot (several inches) of rain on the snow overnight.

I hope things settle down.

[Adrian]

it has made 30°C 68°F yesterday at spain
https://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2024/01/25/l-espagne-touchee-par-une-vague-de-chaleur-en-plein-hiver-avec-des-temperatures-proches-de-30-c_6212996_3244.html

[Steph S]

Another grower reported 80F in Washington DC - never seen before in January.
I've been reading about wildfires in Colombia, which are being stoked by record temperatures of 40C+.

Here it's a pretty normal January, with a couple of unpleasant days under arctic air, storms or snowfalls once a week, this time always in the middle of the week, the amount of snow down is fairly light however since there hasn't been anything over about 25 cm and mostly less. Not much in the way of thaws but a few hours getting above freezing here and there.  With another snowfall expected Monday, we're girding for a normal February - I guess I should be grateful!  February is when we get the most snow, and that feeds the wells and groundwater and keeps the forest out of drought. 

[Ferdzy]

It's currently on the mild side here, hovering just above or below freezing. We had a week of more typical weather - down to -15°C at night or even a bit lower, and -10°C days. Historically of course it has gotten much colder but that was at least actual winter weather. Still hoping for some more.

[reed]

We had a few cold days with night temperatures a bit below 0 C. Stayed below freezing for two or three days then warmed up close to around 15 or 16 and started raining, still is. It was warm enough I took houseplant sweet potatoes outside for a shower, which they seem to have appreciated. Earlier for most of the winter had been above freezing and cloudy. I don't think we've had a week of sunshine since November.

[Mica Winnower]

It's been unseasonably warm up on the Puget Sound as well thanks-in-part to the El Niño season we're having this year. We hit 60 Fahrenheit (16 Celsius) over the weekend, and it stayed above 50 during the day for most of this past week. As I'm writing this, it's 54F/12C two hours after sunset.

I'm wondering how it's going to affect the fruit trees in the yard, though we did have a weeklong below-freezing span earlier in the month.

[Steph S]

We had a couple of systems in early February that fizzled into freezing drizzle instead of piling on snow, but this week we're making up for it.
Three day storm started Tuesday night, totalling about 60 cm in my area by Thursday, of mostly very dense and sticky wet snow - twice as heavy as a normal shovel load.  Trees are looking like snarly snowballs, any conifers with green bows mainly on top are bowed and a risk to snap from the top weight.  It reminds me that tree spacing is important for weather extremes.  It allows the trees to have branches all the way up in a balanced shape.  I've also read that wider spacing is better for drought resistance (one study afaik). That may depend on forest type: ground cover would be important if tree spacing isn't dense, to reduce moisture loss.
Anyhoo just brooding about that since it's too cold and windy atm to go finish up my endless shoveling out.  Another 15-cm forecast overnight tonight, followed by a couple of hours of gusty winds to 80 kph.
Overall a very typical February snowload for us.
So we won't be going into drought in spring this year.

[Adrian]

Exceptionnal sweetness in france.
Again 17°C 62,6°F yesterday afternoon and some nights are between 8 46,4°F and 10°C 50°F.He is raining the night.
The firsts fruits trees started to opened their flowers as the apricot tree.The problem is it can frosted up to  may.

[reed]

Looks like no one has checked in here since February. It's getting hot here, with lots of days in the 80's F. This morning before dawn it's still in the mid 70s. Almost two weeks until our official last frost date, unless the recent update changed that, but I've already set out tomatoes and will be panting even hot weather things like cowpeas and okra. Based on the weather, I feel very behind in my gardening chores.

[Adrian]

Very strongs thunderstorms in france yesterday with hail.
Some fzrmers have lost all their harvest