Spring 2021 General Discussion

highdef

Did a little experiment yesterday.......

Behind my back garden is another garden (AKA the secret garden) that I've acquired. The secret garden has no concrete/tarmac/man made surfaces. It also has a pond; it's essentially a wildlife garden that I've created to attract birds, bees, butterflies, dragonflies, etc. All but one of the boundaries consist of vegetation (trees/hedges). The one wall that exists is completely covered in vegetation (hedges/vines/climbers, etc) so the garden essentially has no man made surfaces that could be influenced by UV radiation. When creating this garden, it was carefully planned to maximise the amount of sunshine it would receive and all perimeter flora was chosen to minimise any ingress of wind. The end result has been a garden which is almost ALWAYS warmer than the back garden (it actually gets colder during calm spells in the winter as the cold air sits in the area with little means to escape, combined with a pond that is often frozen over because it receives zero sunlight from late Autumn to early Spring). The secret garden benefits best from a wind that is not westerly sourced but even then it will be calmer that the back garden.

Back to the experiment......I wanted to measure the difference in temperature (if any) between the back garden and the secret garden. I placed two temperature sensors which were identical makes/models, one of each in a fully shaded area in each garden. Beforehand, I had both of them beside each other for a while to ensure they were both giving similar readings, which they were. I didn't have a mount to have the sensor at the correct height in the secret garden so to keep parameters as close together as possible, both sensors were placed at ground level on similar vegetative surfaces. I checked the temperatures approximately once every 30 minutes over a 6 hour period between late morning and early evening.

I spent a lot of those 6 hours in the secret garden wearing next to nothing (OK, it was nothing), soaking up the sun in very warm calm conditions. It was pure bliss and I have a great tan today. I ventured back to the house a few times via the back garden and each time it was notably chilly and windy. Massive differences in apparent temperature between the gardens.

Here's the crazy thing, the actual temperature difference between the two gardens was a consistent 7°, give or take about 1° at various times. I was completely astounded, both by the temperature difference and by the consistency of it. I'm also delighted that my carefully planned sun-trap garden has turned out as I intended!

DOCARCH

highdef wrote: »

....wearing next to nothing (OK, it was nothing)....

That's really quite alarming! :P Did you even have socks on?

Gaoth Laidir

DOCARCH wrote: »

That's really quite alarming! :P Did you even have socks on?

Google aerial mapping planes have been flying overhead various parts of Leinster over the past few days. This should be interesting...:pac:

highdef

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Google aerial mapping planes have been flying overhead various parts of Leinster over the past few days. This should be interesting...:pac:

Hmmmm, and I do remember some low flying planes passing overhead with one of them not looking like it was one of the more regularly seen Weston posse.

DOCARCH, not even socks!

Gaoth Laidir

highdef wrote: »

Hmmmm, and I do remember some low flying planes passing overhead with one of them not looking like it was one of the more regularly seen Weston posse.

DOCARCH, not even socks!

This was Friday afternoon, 16:30, for example. They were out Saturday and Sunday too so maybe they spotted something on Friday and went back to have a closer look...:pac:

SleetAndSnow

Another lovely day in Cork City, less windy, warm!

The sunset last night was just beautiful. Went down by the coast and the horizon was a multitude of purples and oranges with a bright moon above it. Just amazing.

Graces7

A magical time this afternoon, seed sowing in the blissfully warm sun. And not alone! First a bee or three... then an orange and white butterfly... THEN the skylark and the cuckoo!

Even this short time of sun is opening the rosa rugosa.

Sun! Warm on the skin. Sun! Charming the heart.

And hard to tear the eyes away from the ocean's tranquil splendour.. hard to focus on the work in hand with the shining sky and blessed bright warmth.

Benevolent kindly afternoon, that heals and supports.. Gentle slow working with the beauty of the diversions .

It is so lovely out here. Now so familiar after so many years but never fails to renew whatever the mood of the skies.

The rain will be a blessing when it comes, as it will, but today is real and strong.

west mayo offshore

Gaoth Laidir

I saw my first swallow yesterday.

Graces7

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

I saw my first swallow yesterday.

Ah yes; I omitted seeing a couple today too! It was as is the whole place erupted with SPRING! Lovely!

Oneiric 3

Forecast chart for the end of this coming week. One of the most unusual patterns I have seen on these maps I must say:



Almost the inverse of normal.

Rougies

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Google aerial mapping planes have been flying overhead various parts of Leinster over the past few days. This should be interesting...:pac:

There were two helicopters in formation doing multiple low passes over south Dublin on Thursday. I presumed it was Google alright. You could see sensors on the belly of the bigger heli, probably lidar/radar for the 3D view that's available in Google maps for the Dublin city and suburbs area.

Here's a pic and quick vid. The bigger heli is 5-bladed. Not sure why there were two, maybe the smaller one was doing imagery?


https://streamable.com/zxme01

Oscar Bravo

Rougies wrote: »

There were two helicopters in formation doing multiple low passes over south Dublin on Thursday. I presumed it was Google alright. You could see sensors on the belly of the bigger heli, probably lidar/radar for the 3D view that's available in Google maps for the Dublin city and suburbs area.

Here's a pic and quick vid. The bigger heli is 5-bladed. Not sure why there were two, maybe the smaller one was doing imagery?


https://streamable.com/zxme01

Thats an Air corps EC135 and an AW139

Timistry

The swallows have Been here a good month at this stage.

Gaoth Laidir

Rougies wrote: »

There were two helicopters in formation doing multiple low passes over south Dublin on Thursday. I presumed it was Google alright. You could see sensors on the belly of the bigger heli, probably lidar/radar for the 3D view that's available in Google maps for the Dublin city and suburbs area.

Here's a pic and quick vid. The bigger heli is 5-bladed. Not sure why there were two, maybe the smaller one was doing imagery?

As OB has said, those have nothing to do with mapping.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_of_the_Irish_Air_Corps

The mapping planes are generally fixed-wing piston or turboprop aeroplanes.

Wine Goddess

Gosh the longer term weather forecast is quite depressing....... cooler and possibly quite showery, hope to goodness we get a decent summer as a result.........

Thelonious Monk

Looks like it's just reverting to type. Hopefully we get some good stuff later in May.

snowgal

yep, back to dull and dreary here in Meath today. Was nice while we had it!!

pad199207

Heavy showers have arrived in KE

SlowBlowin

The night sky high in the Reeks last night was a thing of beauty, I snapped this with my phone.

nightsky.jpg

Oscar Bravo

A mix of sunny spells and showers here just outside Castlebar. Cooler than of late but by no means a bad day

Graces7

Dark deluges with brief dim respites, that are getting fewer and shorter.... The rain is warm though...

Just a nasty old day out here.

west mayo offshore

Graces7

Timistry wrote: »

The swallows have Been here a good month at this stage.

That depends where you are. They are always later offshore west coast as are cuckoos.

compsys

Being selfish here but warm weather usually gets largely wasted in Dublin in April and early May as the sea breeze makes it too cold.

The sunshine has been wonderful of course but it's been cool enough most days. As you'd expect.

I'd take a bad May if it meant we got some real warmth in June, July and August for a change.

Artane2002

we had a heavy shower this morning in Dublin 9 but it has been dry since so not a bad day.

Oneiric 3

Crappy pointless little showers here on and off all day. Just realised I missed a great fly over. :mad:

Gonzo

The prolonged dry spell has come to an end. A few heavy showers already today to ease us into this rather prolonged cool and possibly unsettled period. If the forecasts are to be believed we could well end up with a colder than average overall Spring 2021.

Gaoth Laidir

Got a heavy downpour in the Weston airport/Celbridge area at 3 pm, followed by a notable weakening and shift from NW to NE.

Donegal Storm

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

Thats an Air corps EC135 and an AW139

Are the air corps doing air ambulance at the moment?
I see the coastguard helicopters hovering overhead frequently here on their way to LUH but seen what looks like military helicopters a couple of times this week

Oscar Bravo

Donegal Storm wrote: »

Are the air corps doing air ambulance at the moment?
I see the coastguard helicopters hovering overhead frequently here on their way to LUH but seen what looks like military helicopters a couple of times this week

Yeah , Air Corps 112 is operating out of Athlone barracks all the time. Rescue 118 based out of Sligo has been doing a lot of training up your way lately also.

Graces7

Oscar Bravo wrote: »

Yeah , Air Corps 112 is operating out of Athlone barracks all the time. Rescue 118 based out of Sligo has been doing a lot of training up your way lately also.

My heroes!