what the hell was the weather like in 60s,70s,80s even 90s

NewBeefFarmer

im trying to get a point across that farming in the 80s/90s was totally different given the weather back then.

I walked to the hill this evening, northerly blowing a 6 deg.

cut ya. .

the water is just sitting there, (which i have a theory on, ill post about that later).

is there a website that could tell you the temps in may 1991 say. . .

AntrimGlens

1985 lads round here spent the whole of september and october chasing swards of cut grass round fields with a buckrake as they couldnt even get a 165 with single chop into the fields. we borrowed an 804 marshall and krone silage wagon and managed to get the last of the silage cut on the 10th October. More straw and grass lay in swards than i've ever seen since, silage rotted in pits and we tried making round bales which was a complete waste of money as you had to reverse the bale into a bag and seal it, needless to say there was as much air in the bag as silage..

rose tinted specs, but i still think it was on a less regular basis

captainzero

dont ask. people see past memories of the weather through rose tinted glasses

Dampintheattic

http://www.myweather2.com/City-Town/Ireland/Cavan/climate-profile.aspx

Lando Griffin

I remember graping the rotton butts of square bales out of the fields in the frost in November of 1995.

NewBeefFarmer

but surely we didnt have the amount of rain that we getting now,

my mother said she never seen the land wet like it is now, and shes talking about 70s/80s/90s

Birdnuts

Its been the longest run of poor summers I can remember - and my my memory would go back to the 70's. If anyone lookin in would like to swap a few acres in North Mayo for something similar in the South of France please pm me cos I'd like to grow old without early onset arthiritis etc.

Dampintheattic

Lando Griffin wrote: »

I remember graping the rotton butts of square bales out of the fields in the frost in November of 1995.

Mixed up there boy. 1995 was the hottest driest summer in twenty years.
We remember it well in Clare.
We stormed through the hurling championship in blistering heat, with a team of young single batchelors.
Semi final against Galway, the tar was flowing on the roads.

Sam Kade

NewBeefFarmer wrote: »

but surely we didnt have the amount of rain that we getting now,

my mother said she never seen the land wet like it is now, and shes talking about 70s/80s/90s

Ask your mother does she remember 1981 and 1985 and the wet summers. In fairness it would be very hard to remember how wet the land got during any summer of the 70's or 80's.

Alibaba

Anybody hear talk of '46.

The ol crowd used to say the leaves on the branches of the trees were fed to the cattle to keep them alive.

Muckit

Sam Kade wrote: »

Ask your mother does she remember 1981 and 1985 and the wet summers.

'Wet summers' eh? Go on you dog Sam k!!

iverjohnston

Remember 1985, we were lifting with a JF FC80 harvester, side mounted on a Leyland. We had to fit a bull bar on the tractor drawing, to push the trailer being loaded. Bought a 4wd the next year. Who remembers having to bring half a railway sleeper to the field, to drop the loaded trailer drawbar on, so it wouldn't have sank before the lad drawing got the hook under the eye? Easter that year was a heatwave. A bit like end of March was last year.

agriman27

Worst I've ever seen an I'm 26!

iverjohnston

Agriman,
I can't remember 26:D

ace86

Alibaba wrote: »

Anybody hear talk of '46.

The ol crowd used to say the leaves on the branches of the trees were fed to the cattle to keep them alive.

ya 47 was ment to be very bad as well i was told and flour was very hard to get and even bread itself.
The best summer i remember was 1995 bcos it was so hot and dry the turf in the bog didnt have to be futted.

ABlur

I'm reading a book The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine' at the moment, While it covers the 1847 famine it also covers famines of other eras. The winter/spring of 1739-1740 was very severe, all waterways froze over for 6 weeks. Then there was a cold drought for the summer and blizzards in the autumn. The good news was there was an improvement in 1741! So I suppose the weather always went in cycles often extremes.

blue5000

85 and 86 were two bad summers, I remember wheel ruts about 6 inches deep in paddocks from spreading fertiliser, in fairness though the lad I was working for insisted on using a 188 MF with the heavy back wheels:(.

Earliest really hot summer I remember was 1976.

Alibaba

blue5000 wrote: »

Earliest really hot summer I remember was 1976.

Ya 1976 was brilliant. Even better than 1995 i'd say.

What i wouldn't give for it now

RobertKK

The thunderstorms of 1985, bringing in bales with my father and sister, we were just children, several lightning strikes in the field we were in, were happy to get home alive.

bob charles

a but things were acceptable in the 80's, not like today

freedominacup

bob charles wrote: »

a but things were acceptable in the 80's, not like today

What now?

Figerty

ABlur wrote: »

I'm reading a book The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine' at the moment, While it covers the 1847 famine it also covers famines of other eras. The winter/spring of 1739-1740 was very severe, all waterways froze over for 6 weeks. Then there was a cold drought for the summer and blizzards in the autumn. The good news was there was an improvement in 1741! So I suppose the weather always went in cycles often extremes.

I have read some of that book, incredible piece of work. The 1739-40 period was really extreme.

Can't blame Climate change on that.

Dampintheattic

Alibaba wrote: »

Ya 1976 was brilliant. Even better than 1995 i'd say.

What i wouldn't give for it now

I dont remember 1976 for some reason. But I do remember 1974. Long wet summer, right into spring 1975. Most of the hay rotted in the fields. There were MASSIVE losses of stock in spring '75.
So it's good to be reminded that '76 was a good year. Makes you think, that even if this year stays bad, there is always next year, and it could be as good as or better than '76.

20silkcut

Met eireann do monthly summaries on their website for every month going back to 1986.
No doubting at all that the summer season has become inexplicably non existant for the past 6 years.
Experts and weather statisticians will say that things are average versus the long term averages but even a dog with a mallet up it's hole knows things are different now.
Before 2006 reaching a temperature of 16/17 degrees in May or June consistently was piss easy.
These days 12/13 degrees is seen as a good day more often than not we are below 10.
1985 was a bad summer and 86 but 87 was decent and 88 and 89 were great and 1990 and all through the 90's summers were generally benign(bar 97 and 98) a hundred miles different to what we are
getting now.

20silkcut

Dampintheattic wrote: »

I dont remember 1976 for some reason. But I do remember 1974. Long wet summer, right into spring 1975. Most of the hay rotted in the fields. There were MASSIVE losses of stock in spring '75.
So it's good to be reminded that '76 was a good year. Makes you think, that even if this year stays bad, there is always next year, and it could be as good as or


better than '76.

last year during the middle of the summer monsoon the farmers journal printed a picture of lads cutting hay in fine weather during the summer of 1974 down in Wexford I think.
I remember thinking at the time such a scene was absolutely impossible in Ireland anywhere during summer 2012.
Bad and all as the summer of 74 may have been it could not have been anything on the scale of 2012 if they were able to cut hay at their ease in Wexford.

aidanki

anyone have the actual rainfall figures for 1985 1986 so we can actually compare to this year and last year

bob charles

freedominacup wrote: »

What now?

oldie

freedominacup

bob charles wrote: »

oldie

Not so much not even middle-aged yet......just:D

Dampintheattic

20silkcut wrote: »

last year during the middle of the summer monsoon the farmers journal printed a picture of lads cutting hay in fine weather during the summer of 1974 down in Wexford I think.
I remember thinking at the time such a scene was absolutely impossible in Ireland anywhere during summer 2012.
Bad and all as the summer of 74 may have been it could not have been anything on the scale of 2012 if they were able to cut hay at their ease in Wexford.

Ah, but Wexford:) Warmest, sunniest, part of Ireland.

There is simply NO compaarisson, between the sunny south east, and say the west, north west of Ireland.
TOTALLY, different climates. TOTALLY, TOTALLY, different.

A Wexford man transferred to the west, would melt like, a belgian blue calf taken off a cow, with no creep at it's nose:p

pakalasa

We have low lying corcas land. My memories as a child were of saving hay in those fields. Farmers tan, bottle of cidona cooling in the near stream, dust rising on the road. The heavy clay drying with cracks all over. One year we even went swimming in the Shannon when all the hay was finished. I was in those fields last night and I nearly got stuck in the mud walking inside the gate.:mad:

Tipp Man

The thing about looking back at weather is that even though you might remember the bad year you also remember the good year to counteract it - but when you look at the present weather you are only looking at the current situation. What i mean is that in say 2020 we might look back and think god 2009-2013 was fair bad but that 2015-2019 were great years. When you are in the moment you think it is the worst ever as there seems to be no way out of it.

No doubt the last few years have been poor - but it will change - it always does

KatyMac

I remember doing a week work experience in a vet's in 1982. The reason for most of the calls for that week were as a result of hungry cattle! Cows going down coz they were half starved and weren't able to survive carrying a calf etc, etc. The vet told someone that they needed to sell off half their animals as that was the only way to cope with the problem - sound familiar?
I also remember in the late 1970s pulling hay out of soggy spots in the field while wearing wellies!

oj9

RobertKK wrote: »

The thunderstorms of 1985, bringing in bales with my father and sister, we were just children, several lightning strikes in the field we were in, were happy to get home alive.

Remember it well, I was buckraking that night till 2am there was no need of lights in the shed with the lightning. We covered the pit next day and there wasn't another bit cut for weeks.

oj9

KatyMac wrote: »

I remember doing a week work experience in a vet's in 1982. The reason for most of the calls for that week were as a result of hungry cattle! Cows going down coz they were half starved and weren't able to survive carrying a calf etc, etc. The vet told someone that they needed to sell off half their animals as that was the only way to cope with the problem - sound familiar?
I also remember in the late 1970s pulling hay out of soggy spots in the field while wearing wellies!

I knew of a farmer who had cows going down, the neighbours were telling him that it was from hunger so he wouldn't believe them and got the vet out. The next night he met the lads in the pub and says to them " ye know nothing about feeding cows they are not starving the vet said they have malnutrition". You just can't talk to some people .

Tigerandahalf

If you have the met.ie app on your phone it has details of significant weather periods going back a couple of centuries. It states that we had a dry period from summer 75 to Sept 76. I often remember hearing older people say the late seventies were great years as prices were also good. Going back to even the early nineties calves were making 300 pound in the mart - they would have been good young calves, maybe 6 to 8 weeks old.
The weather has been very bad but one good week would transform places.

Conmaicne Mara

oj9 wrote: »

I knew of a farmer who had cows going down, the neighbours were telling him that it was from hunger so he wouldn't believe them and got the vet out. The next night he met the lads in the pub and says to them " ye know nothing about feeding cows they are not starving the vet said they have malnutrition". You just can't talk to some people .

Proper nutrition prevents a multitude of problems. Tried explaining that to a local farmer about a certain problem they were having, but someone else had told them different so they spent their days running around with needle and bottle worrying all lambing.

mf240

Minerals and nutrition are 90% of the battle.

If your not paid for feeding them ya surely wont be paid for starving them.

Jimmy Garlic

Global warming is the reason it is so cold :pac:

Type in "coldest May" into google and look at the results.. Records are being broken all over the world.