Drought/Low Rainfall Watch - Summer 2018

Elmer Blooker

I had a look at the River Tolka in Drumcondra today and was surprised to see so much water in it, obviously it is very low but certainly not the trickle I was expecting to see. Amazing that there is still some run off water in catchment area County Meath ending up in the river with a drought like this. There's hardly household waste water ending up in the river?

sryanbruen

https://twitter.com/MetEireann/status/1014514018441138177

https://twitter.com/MetEireann/status/1014514475410558976

Ms2011

Some drops of rain in Carlow, would hardly wet the path but rain none the less

arctictree

06z GFS has a good spread of rain for Leinster and Munster. Hardly anything on the radar though...

SleetAndSnow

River Lee looking very low in Cork City. Was able to see some parts that I never saw before.

sryanbruen

https://twitter.com/rtenews/status/1014538106836578305

sryanbruen

Elmer Blooker wrote: »

Even beyond September/October? You wouldn't know with this deep solar minimum.
In 1666 during the Maunder Minimum a hot summer caused the Great Fire of London, within a few months (winter 1666-7) the Thames was frozen so obviously a very prolonged blocked pattern. It is generally believed that summers were poor during the 17th and 18th centuries but there were hot summers and prolonged droughts. You never know with the way the sun is behaving? Still blank ........ Sryan?
http://spaceweather.com/images2018/03jul18/hmi1898.gif?PHPSESSID=0on8egnlmu3u64pf1gcfg5d484

PS. The 1798 Rebellion in Ireland took place during a very hot summer according to historical records, winter 1798-9 was very severe and that was during the later Dalton Minimum so again a very prolonged blocked pattern.

You might be onto something there Elmer! Oooooh, now this is an extremely intriguing field of research I think I will need to check out. Add on the record high cosmic rays. Oh boy!!!!!

2018 and 1798 - both hot Summers ending in "8", also. Think a comparison of 2018 and 1798 (at least using the data given by the CET and EWP series) is in order.

https://twitter.com/James_Akrill/status/1014558760415694848

Sorry for being off topic here to the thread.

aisling86

Raining the last hour+ in Macroom, mid cork. Thunder & Lightning too.

Cork Boy 53

aisling86 wrote: »

Raining the last hour+ in Macroom, mid cork. Thunder & Lightning too.

Yeah I live just south east of there and it`s starting to rain here now. Somebody must have been doing a rain dance. No thunder/lightning yet though.

22michael44

clown of a neighbour burning stuff outside.

RobertKK

A shower at my location, it won't do much as it will not amount to much or maybe even register anything.

Cantona's Collars

22michael44 wrote: »

clown of a neighbour burning stuff outside.

Report them. It's banned.

Mooooo

aisling86 wrote: »

Raining the last hour+ in Macroom, mid cork. Thunder & Lightning too.

8 miles east of Macroom and got nothing

James 007

22michael44 wrote: »

clown of a neighbour burning stuff outside.

Hose it down before that fire spreads!

Finchie1276

New to this forum - keen gardener and not so good at looking at weather data. Am I right to say that there will be no rain till mid July at least? How much rain is a good spell of rain? 10mm? I'd love some rain for my lawn :-)

Based in Kilkenny county and hopeful for weather turning to keep my lawn alive!

Oscar Bravo

Status Yellow - Weather Advisory for Ireland

Update: The mostly dry and warm weather will continue across Ireland for the rest of this week and through next week as well, thus exacerbating drought conditions.

Updated: Wednesday 04 July 2018 20:00

Valid from Wednesday 04 July 2018 20:00 to Friday 06 July 2018 20:00

Next week: A continuation of this rather exceptional spell of settled weather seems likely with high pressure continuing to dominate our weather pattern well into next week.

road_high

Finchie1276 wrote: »

New to this forum - keen gardener and not so good at looking at weather data. Am I right to say that there will be no rain till mid July at least? How much rain is a good spell of rain? 10mm? I'd love some rain for my lawn :-)

Based in Kilkenny county and hopeful for weather turning to keep my lawn alive!

I’m in Kilkenny City now, it’s very lightly raining! Must be first rain in about 6 weeks

Finchie1276

road_high wrote: »

I’m in Kilkenny City now, it’s very lightly raining! Must be first rain in about 6 weeks

I'd love some rain! Here's hoping!

sdanseo

22michael44 wrote: »

clown of a neighbour burning stuff outside.

Cantona's Collars wrote: »

Report them. It's banned.

Agreed, report it to the council. A spark it all it will take to set many places off.

Pa ElGrande

Finchie1276 wrote: »

New to this forum - keen gardener and not so good at looking at weather data. Am I right to say that there will be no rain till mid July at least? How much rain is a good spell of rain? 10mm? I'd love some rain for my lawn :-)

Based in Kilkenny county and hopeful for weather turning to keep my lawn alive!

Since the grass is not growing much anyway it's best to let it go dormant given the developing pressure on the water supplies.

If you are using the public water system there will be a hosepipe ban in your area and if not there soon will be. If you insist on watering it then schedule your watering so that you deliver about 12mm of water every other week.

This is enough to keep the growing point of the turf ticking over but not enough to keep it green. Less than that and you run the risk of the crowns drying out and dying. Since the grass is dormant anyway any more than 12 mm every other week and you will promote weed growth and ending up with a brown weedy lawn.


Keep the foot traffic to a minimum on the dormant lawn. It can be damaged by heavy traffic that crushes the crown or growing point. When your lawn is actively growing it can bounce back better from traffic but not when there is no growth.


Needless to say don't apply any fertiliser in this weather.


It's too late now but if you have to cut then use a mulching lawnmower if you can borrow one and cut as high as you can.

Oneiric 3

10 day prep totals on the latest ECM run:




Much of which are based on the possibility of random and localised showers that this model is projecting on an infrequent basis in its latest offering. To be honest, I think they may be overdoing the totals a little but at this stage, every little drop will be blessing.

Meteorite58

Much of which are based on the possibility of random and localised showers that this model is projecting on an infrequent basis in its latest offering. To be honest, I think they may be overdoing the totals a little but at this stage, every little drop will be blessing.

Been looking at the ECM charts for next week and it would appear that from Weds there will be a higher chance of rain / thunderstorms going into the weekend judging by the set up which I posted in the FI thread ( not gospel just my amateur interpretation of the charts going by the last few runs. )

Weds Totals



Sat Totals

Graces7

When I first emerged, around 4 am, there was a very faint, misty moisture in the grey-shrouded air...cool now and low cloud.

West Mayo; offshore island

sryanbruen

Sunshine totals (hours) for Irish stations from the 21st June-4th July 2018.

Yesterday was a mostly sunny day but duller than Monday and Tuesday generally.

Dublin Airport has now reached 200 hours of sunshine for this spell in the space of 14 days which is only barely half a month worth of days yet more than the average May's sunshine was recorded during these 14 days.

Station|21 Jun|22 Jun|23 Jun|24 Jun|25 Jun|26 Jun|27 Jun|28 Jun|29 Jun|30 Jun|1 Jul|2 Jul|3 Jul|4 Jul|Total
Belmullet|12.7|13.6|14.2|15.8|14.0|11.2|15.4|15.9|15.3|9.5|3.0|10.1|15.5|6.4|172.6
Casement Aerodrome|14.1|15.8|13.4|14.8|10.7|9.8|12.8|15.8|15.8|15.5|12.3|15.2|15.1|14.2|195.3
Cork Airport|13.2|15.7|14.8|14.9|11.7|11.8|15.5|15.7|15.5|12.1|6.7|12.2|15.2|5.0|180.0
Dublin Airport|12.9|15.6|14.4|15.6|12.5|11.3|13.8|15.9|15.8|15.5|14.0|15.8|15.8|14.6|203.5
Gurteen|8.1|14.7|15.5|15.9|11.0|12.2|13.7|15.8|15.9|13.6|6.2|14.8|15.5|12.3|185.2
Johnstown Castle|2.9|15.8|15.5|5.6|14.0|11.6|15.9|15.5|15.8|15.6|8.1|13.9|15.8|12.1|178.1
Knock Airport|10.8|10.9|13.7|16.0|12.6|10.7|14.7|15.2|15.3|11.2|0.2|15.3|15.1|14.5|176.2
Malin Head|12.7|10.9|12.6|15.2|14.8|8.4|16.4|16.5|5.9|13.7|0.1|16.2|16.4|14.4|174.2
Shannon Airport|13.3|15.1|15.6|15.2|10.5|13.3|14.7|15.5|15.4|11.7|8.2|14.7|15.3|13.7|192.2
Valentia Observatory|12.3|15.3|15.5|15.5|11.1|14.5|14.1|15.3|15.1|14.1|7.2|15.0|15.4|13.4|193.8


Data comes from Met Éireann.

uck51js9zml2yt

Why are there clouds in Dublin and it's not raining but still feels hot!

Can MT Cranium make it rain??

MJohnston

A long submerged road in the Spelga Dam reservoir up north has resurfaced thanks to the dropping water levels:

https://twitter.com/jggb1/status/1014852017460785153

Kamili

MJohnston wrote: »

A long submerged road in the Spelga Dam reservoir up north has resurfaced thanks to the dropping water levels:

wow, that's in a better state than some of the roads I've been driving on down here!

https://twitter.com/jggb1/status/1014852017460785153

Oneiric 3

Latest 10 day prep total projection by the ECM. Slightly more significant than yesterday's offering, but still scant by any measure. Keep in mind that most of this rain is forecast to fall after the 2nd half of next week, which is a long way off in forecasting terms, so all could change again in next run:

Dubh Geannain

Dubh Geannain wrote: »

That makes sense to me. I had been attributing what was seeing to a gentle slope on the lawn and therefore a moisture deficiency. My front lawn started browning at the edges touching the cobble lock which would add to the temperature of the adjacent soil. This has been slowly spreading inwards so I expect the entire lawns will brown eventually as the outer edges die and then expose the next grass stems inside.

The majority of my front lawn is still a nice green though. I've been leaving good length in it so the stems are not exposed and the blades can photosynthesize and also leaving the clippings lie since I started cutting this year as I was trying to resurrect it from a moss invasion after last year. Almost everyone else's lawn is now brown or browning due to the scalping that their lawns typically get. I know mine won't survive forever so we'll see how it ends up.

I'll try and post a pic later.

A day later but here we go.

pad199207

Blue sky has opened up here all of a sudden in Kildare. Sun is scorching