February Filldyke

Here's the wet weather summary for February.....

February 2014

Temperature (°C):
Mean (min+max)   8.3 (Mean Minimum     3.5 / Mean Maximum     13.2)
Minimum           -0.9 day 03
Maximum          19.2 day 24
Highest Minimum  8.5 day 20
Lowest Maximum   8.0 day 11
Air frosts       3

Rainfall (mm):
Total for month  64.2 [2013 - 49.5mm]
Wettest day      12.3 day 13
High rain rate   7.2 day 08
Rain days        18... 12 in 2013

Wind (km/h):
Highest Gust     45.4 day 07
Average Speed    5.6
Wind Run         3783.8 km

Pressure (mb):
Maximum          1022.2 day 27
Minimum          985.0 day 10

February 2013

Temperature (°C): 
Mean (min+max)   5.4 (Mean Minimum     0.5 / Mean Maximum     10.3)
Minimum          -4.2 day 20
Maximum          15.4 day 19
Highest Minimum  5.9 day 01
Lowest Maximum   5.5 day 12
Air frosts       9

Rainfall (mm):
Total for month  49.5 [2012 - 12.6mm]
Wettest day      20.4 day 01
High rain rate   18.0 day 09
Rain days        12

Wind (km/h):
Highest Gust     36.7 day 05
Average Speed    0.7
Wind Run         334.9 km

Pressure (mb):
Maximum          1031.5 day 03
Minimum          995.5 day 10

<<---------------ooo000OOO{}OOO000ooo--------------->>

Launching Noah's Ark...

It is all in the News, our weather...

"The French department of Finistere, in the west of the country, was placed on red alert as forecasters warned of huge waves and extensive flooding.
Ten other French departments were also on alert for rising water levels.
At least two people died and scores had to be airlifted to safety after floods hit south-eastern France earlier this month."
BBC News Channel 1/2/2014....

So what has it been like, this last January...
well....
WET!!


Warmer and wetter...
than 2013...
almost twice as wet as 2012!

January 2014

Temperature (°C):
Mean (min+max)   8.1 (Mean Minimum     4.1 / Mean Maximum     12.1)
Minimum          -0.9 day 14
Maximum          16.4 day 08
Highest Minimum  10.1 day 06
Lowest Maximum   6.2 day 20
Air frosts       2

Rainfall (mm):
Total for month  71.7 [2013 - 61.2mm]
Wettest day      9.6 day 02
High rain rate   9.0 day 04
Rain days        21... exactly the same as 2013

Wind (km/h):
Highest Gust     36.7 day 02
Average Speed    3.7
Wind Run         2725.2 km

Pressure (mb):
Maximum          1022.0 day 11
Minimum          984.8 day 29

January 2013

Temperature (°C):
Mean (min+max)   3.9 (Mean Minimum     0.4 / Mean Maximum     7.4)
Minimum          -7.5 day 16
Maximum          15.1 day 31
Highest Minimum  4.9 day 09
Lowest Maximum   0.0 day 06
Air frosts       10

Rainfall (mm):
Total for month  61.2 [2012 - 37.8mm]
Wettest day      10.2 day 09
High rain rate   99.0 day 18
Rain days        21

Wind (km/h):[see our comments in the first post in January!]
Highest Gust     33.1 day 21
Average Speed    0.5
Wind Run         285.3 km

Pressure (mb):
Maximum          1041.0 day 15
Minimum          0.0 day 06 [a bit vacuous this!!]

Other local bloggers have been "covering" the weather...

Colin and Elizabeth on The story of our life in and around Braye-sous-Faye ...
and today [February the Third]... The Paddy Fields of Richelieu.....
Amelia on In a French Garden...
Niall and Antoinette on Chez Charnizay...
it is affecting us all!

The Met Office has done a set of charts for this January's weather in the UK...
So...!
Just for comparison....
I thought I'd look back a century....
courtesy of the Met Office Archives

January 1914
MANY GALES AND HEAVY RAIN IN ENGLAND:
Dull in the East:
Bright in the North and West:
Unusually Large Range of Pressure.
Floods in the Thames region...

January 1913
STORMY AND WET.
Rainfall.
There was a deficiency of precipitation over a large part of northern Scotland, all other districts returning an excess.  
#The percentages for Scotland were low [18% Dunrobin, 32% Strathpeffer]...
but excessive everywhere else: 234% Woolacombe, 238% at Glasnevin, 246% Spurn Head, 252% Dublin...

So, not a lot of change really...
But, what might be to come?

Jan 1915
MANY GALES AND MUCH HEAVY RAIN IN ENGLAND:
Dull in the South and East.
Brighter in the North and West:
Floods in the Thames region...
[Almost a duplication of 1914!!]

Jan 1916
STORMY AND ABNORMALLY MILD
Rainy in North and North-West.
Dry in East South.

Jan 1917
COLD
Wintry, Much Snow in Many Places.

Jan 1918
STRANGE
First Part Wintry with Snow and Severe Frost : Second Part Spring-Like.
Sunshine. daily sunshine was above the normal in England.

#This is the same as reported yesterday for last month on Auntie Beeb!!

<<---------------ooo000OOO{}OOO000ooo--------------->>

Recent post on "Flint Bling" on Touraine Flint

"It's raining, raining in my part!"

After four days of continuous rain we've had enough...

I've ordered the timber and begun construction...

it will be one hundred q-bits long and forty q-bits wide...
and flat bottomed to cope with the Loire when we get there...

It will be able to hold three 2CVs, two Traction Avants, a pair of Hogs and a flat Audi...
there will be somewhere for a collection of Welsh Lovespoons...
a kitchen to bake in....
a laboratory with a stereo microscope...
a music room...
a 3D printer bay....
and an animal room...
[just hope they'll all get on with each other for the forty days] and...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
This is "ridikuluss!"




It just seems to have rained almost constantly since November....
you know it is bad when you see a snail trying to escape....

"My sources tell me it will get wetter!!

UP THE WINDOW!!

Yes, on Sunday we watched a snail gliding up the lounge window...
there wasn't much else to watch.

Yesterday morning I looked out of the bedroom window to see the Brown Fish Owl* sitting in the meadow....
looking wet and depressed....

Long-Eared Owl.... "Wozzat? Something moved... I know it did!!"

and this morning I looked out of the bedroom window to see the Flag Irises flattened and the river up at least two foot and rich Caramac in colour...

The candy bars are on us, folks!!

on coming down to make tea I glanced at the gauge on the wall to see that we've had 17mm in the last 24 hours...
and I looked through the telescope at the "phizzical" gauge to see it almost full.

47mm... I measured it!!

Forty seven millimetrix....

and now they've "alterd fluckr"

Enough, I say, enough!!

---===ooo000OOO000ooo===---

*The Brown Fish Owl [Bubo zeylonensis / Ketupa zeylonensis ] Kétoupa brun


walks more than it flies, looks depressed and can seen plodding along on the riverbanks...
giving a low, mournful hoot...
as it hails from Israel...
this can probably be translated as...
"Fish... I hate fish!! I could murder for a bacon sarnie, me!! Whooooooooooot"

And...

whilst we are all moaning on and on about the weather....

spare a thought for the poor sods in Oklahoma!! 

It's enough to drive you up the wall...

We've had some very wet weather recently...
[213mm between 22nd September and the 22nd of this month]
followed by some unseasonably warm afternoons.
Then damp, foggy evenings and cold misty mornings.

Everything is getting confused...
we've a red Cowslip, from Niall and Antoinette, that has decided to come into bloom....
On Wednesday night, as I was walking  from one building to the other, a car came down the road, lighting  the evening fog...
and in the glow I saw something flitting around....
a bat was out feeding....

We had lizards out sunning themselves on the wall...
and, as I had camera in hand I started to take some pictures.

But the first thing I saw was not a lizard...

                                                                it was a little snake...

                                                                                                  three foot up the wall.

You can see how it is pushing its body into available cracks....

....and threading the tail into crevasses

It was a young Western Whiptail [Heirophis viridiflavus] Couleuvre verte et jaune...
presumably it was light enough to have climbed up there using its scales.
The scales underneath can be 'opened' outward slightly...
like a louvred window...
when you're legless, there is always some way to cling on!

I had to move another one out of the way of the car before leaving for the shops on Wednesday...
it was really lovely close up...
big round doe eyes....
the body about 20cm long, and as I picked it up, it coiled its tail around my fingers and lay along my arm, tongue flicking in and out, scenting the air.
No pictures of that one, though...
I didn't dare nip indoors to grab a camera... although it probably would have stayed put!

But here is a lizard picture...

There were a lot of flies on the wall and spiders in nooks and crannies....
so that was probably their reason for hunting in the vertical.