This month’s 96mm has seen the wettest month of 2003 yet ground conditions aren’t too bad as the dry months before have meant that the ground has soaked up most of the water.

Comparison of Monthly Rainfall

The next chart which compares our yearly rainfall with that of previous years, shows us that 2003 has been our driest yet. (although our records don't go far enough back to allow us to say whether or not this is due to global warming :-)

Comparison of Annual Rainfall

The warmest daily temperature was the 13th with 13.2c yet only eight days have seen daily temperatures above 10c.

The coldest however was on the 30th with –4.4c that night and only 1.7c the previous day.

DATE	MAX TEMP	MIN TEMP	DATE	MAX TEMP	MIN TEMP
01/12/03	10.6	7.0	17/12/03	7.3	0.7
02.12.03	9.8	6.6	18/12/03	8.1	1.4
03/12/03	8.7	3.7	19/12/03	7.8	1.1
04/12/03	9.2	0.3	20/12/03	8.3	0.5
05/12/03	9.0	1.0	21/12/03	4.2	0.3
06/12/03	5.0	-2.0	22/12/03	9.7	2.2
07/12/03	8.1	2.1	23/12/03	9.9	8.3
08/12/03	7.1	0.4	24/12/03	11.3	7.2
09/12/03	9.3	3.3	25/12/03	10.8	8.3
10/12/03	12.3	1.5	26/12/03	10.7	3.8
11/12/03	11.8	3.8	27/12/03	6.4	-0.9
12/12/03	12.1	4.4	28/12/03	5.3	-0.4
13/12/03	13.2	6.4	29/12/03	2.6	-1.6
14/12/03	8.3	0.1	30/12/03	1.7	-4.4
15/12/03	5.7	-0.9	31/12/03	6.5	1.2
16/12/03	6.2	1.5

However we have not yet had a day temperature below freezing.

Daily Maximum and Minimum temperatures for December 2003
in degrees Centigrade (Celsius)

Average Monthly Temperature for 2003

The temperature graph below shows all the daily Maximum / Minimum temperatures for 2003 from when we started on 24 May through to 31 December

Graph of daily Max / Min temperatures 24 May 2003 (when we started)
to 31 December 2003

I am hoping to calculate the “T” sum for Greenheyes this spring and we will see if it is applicable to our farm.

The “T” sum was developed in Holland about 20 years ago and is used by some farmers to help when to apply nitrogen fertilizer to their grass in the spring.

Grass begins to grow and absorb nitrogen fertilizer at 5.5 degrees Celsius and the T sum is an aid to find this out.

Starting on January 1st you record the maximum and minimum temperatures daily. Each day you take the readings you add the two together and then divide the result by 2.

Example:

With January and February temperatures sometimes not getting above freezing your total would go both up and down.

The aim is to continue adding until your total reaches +200 when this is reached soil temperature should be 5.5c so apply your fertilizer to the grass.

This is an accepted method of deciding however conditions often decide otherwise such as wet weather.

An “old farmers trick” or so I’m told is to sit bare skinned on the ground when you think it is warm enough if you can stand it for one minute then it is warm enough to put fertilizer on.

At Greenheyes we practise neither method I rely on personal experience.

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November 03 / Home page / Weather Start / January 2004
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