Is this the wettest winter ever?

jack o shea wrote: »

A drought is one thing we will never have in this cursed part of the world.

Were you around in 1984

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Well the way I see it, there was 8 million people here just before the famine and barely toilet between them.:D

I'd say there wasn't as much going in to come out back then , certainly weren't swelled from takeaway and beer !

Of the past 95 days it has rained on 94 of them. Only day with 24 hours of no rain was Dec 27. Taken from current wet spell data here

http://www.galwaycityweather.com/today.htm

And here

http://www.galwaycityweather.com/record.htm

That's based in Galway.

Sam Kade wrote: »

Were you around in 1984

Followed by 1986, the wettest ****ty **** of a summer I remember. Seeing field after field of hay lost and pushed into hedges with buck rakes.

1984 was good. Easter had a mini heatwave. A guy I know was in Ag College and was one of those on duty over Easter.
They spent all their spare time round the pool and got tanned, somehow at one point he swam into the end wall and ended up with a black eye and his scalp split open.

Sam Kade wrote: »

85 was the wet year, 84 in cork we had no rain from April to September, farmers were spreading water with slurry tanks after spreading fertiliser they were so desperate. 86 was a good summer apart from hurricane Charlie in August.

Was 86 not a very wet summer also?

85 and 86 were horrendous. In my memory, there was probably more rain in 85 but it was falling on dry ground so it took a while for it to go tits up. We got first cut silage in May handy enough but by July I remember getting bogged down with a load of hay bales. By September we were still looking at hay not saved. By 86 we went 100% silage, and we had ferocious damage drawing it all in. 86 was also a hoor of a year, maybe a little less rain but ground was softer after all the rain of 85. Old boy was going ballistic. Jeez when I look back now I thought that the summer rain would last for ever, those were the worst days of my life

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

I remember that wet summer, 1985 or whenever. We cut all hay at the time. I remember having to make small 'grass cocks' of a whole field. Then shake them all out again, only to watch it rain heavy again. The whole field was buck-raked into a corner to rot. We made all silage after that, like a lot of people. It's incredible now, to watch one guy baling with a fusion. He'd have the whole lot done in a few hours, while listening to the radio sitting in an air conditioned cab.:)

We hadn't made any real quantities of hay for years before '85 but that year finished it. All we made was for calves. It just struck me that '85 was the first year we made bale silage. Real bitch of a job with bags, no wrapper.

Sam Kade wrote: »

Nowhere as bad as 85 in cork anyway, I was going out on hire square baling hay and straw made 22k bales that year.

What kind of gear were you running then Sam?

Dawggone wrote: »

Did a lot of small squares in the 60's and 70's (hire work). It was lovely work until the bale sleigh came along.

What did the bale sleigh do to harm it?

Dawggone wrote: »

Pulling a rope every 6or8 bales wasn't easy. I wrapped the rope around my hand once and the sleigh detached from the baler...dragged me out the back of the tractor!

Its the type of thing ya only do once, like wrapping a halter around your hand:cool: