As the United Kingdom shivers with huge pre-winter snowfalls, down here we're basking in the sun - and it's still spring-time! We blogged a couple of weeks ago about the wonderful spell of weather that Wanganui's been experiencing, and not much has changed in two weeks, except that everything has got a whole lot browner.
Wanganui has received a paltry 12mm of rain so far in November, and following hard on the back of a dry second half of October, things are not looking good, given that summer does not officially start until this Wednesday. I've never seen the countryside look as dry in November as it currently does. The conditions we have now are more akin to what we might expect in late January or February. A couple of farmer friends already have deeply furrowed brows at the prospect of another very dry summer coming on the back of sub-par spring growth. Some agrarian types are already mentioning the dreaded "D" word.
Metservice offers us little hope. The 10-day forecast for Wanganui contains nothing but bright sun icons, with the occasional bit of non-rain-bearing morning cloud. There's certainly no mention of any rain, but that's the commodity we need the most at the moment. Perhaps that's being kept in reserve for the Christmas holidays, but by then it will be too little too late.
3 comments:
I was talking to a friend in Wanganui this morning, well last evening in NZ. They have a small Asparagus block and he says they will probably close it a week or so early this year because it is so dry.
We get far more rain in Wellington; How about we re-locate the Beehive to tropical Wanganui, (hot air upon hot air), and you give us some decent salt of the earth farming types? Win Win.
4 inches here in the Vale of York.
More snow due tomorrow and for the rest of the week.
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