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UK Heatwave in its Third Week

Pauline

Forums Admin
The Independent - UK heatwave: More wildfires and food shortages loom as temperatures soar, July 2018
In some areas grass has stopped growing and crops are ripening too early while milk yields and animals’ winter food supplies are at risk
https://www.independent.co.uk/envir...ls-birds-wildfires-temperatures-a8431541.html

It has been hot in the UK for the past three week with temps in London in the low to mid 80s F. It is a bit cooler where we live on the coast in Dorset and a few days of cool sea mist have us a break. The hot weather continues this weekend and then cools a bit next week.

Our hills are golden making it look like California. I have to water my new hedge and flower garden every few days. This is unusual here. Usually we get a short heatwave or two, but not a long one this.

Riverford, where we get our weekly veg boxes, has announced problems because our very cold and wet winter delayed the start of planting and now there are water shortages.

Riverford Blog - Guy’s News, Praying for Thunder, July 2018
https://www.riverford.co.uk/blog/2018/07/06/guys-news-praying-thunder/

I am heading for the beach!
 
Our garden took a bit of a beating whilst we had a short break in France. Let's see what recovers.
 
I have a lot of grass (mixed with weeds) and it is all brown. My new hedge is doing well!

Today it was 81F on the Dorset coast, hotter inland. We went swimming in the sea twice this weekend! The beach was busy.

6FE22201-CB54-4388-A2DE-531F3D9EE74B.jpeg
 
Yes the grass has been allowed to go brown (and the many weeds with it). We can get too precious about a green lawn, and putting drinking water on it has seemed like a colossal waste for a while now. However the fruit and veg in the garden will feed us, so in my mind I trade off the water usage vs zero miles (and wonderfully tasty) food. Some peas went into tonight's omelette and they really are exceptional 10-15 minutes from picking to eating.
 
I’ve been watering the new hedge and new front garden plantings, so they are doing well. I don’t see rain in the forecast for another week.
 
How many weeks has it been now? It is still hot. We were up in the Cotswolds for a few days last week and it was hotter there than here in Dorset. We are only getting low 70sF now, but it was 80F in the Cotswolds. I changed our reservation to a hotel with air conditioning!!

The hills are golden, the ground is hard and cracking. We had a little bit of rain on Friday, but that was it for weeks.
 
What is this mythical elixir 'rain' you talk of? o_O

Plenty of the veg has shut down in the heat, though the calabrese is doing well and we've had some lovely peas (though never very many). The apple tree is heavily laden and we've had a smattering of strawberries when the blackbirds didn't beat us there. Mixed bag really.
 
We had a bit of a torrential downpour on Friday driving home from the Cotswolds (on the very crowded M5 heading south). That was it.

Rain is forecast for today, but nothing after that for 2 weeks. Not our usual weather!!

Since this weather is good for your apples, maybe it is good for other things. The British cherries that are in the market are very good!
 
That is very interesting! I’ll keep a look out while we are walking.

We had another rockslide on the coast (near Charmouth) caused by the dry earth.

The ground is so dry and hard that creatures are having problems digging I think, so one of them is digging under my new hedge which I am keeping watered! They seem to be digging for food. Another consequence of our heatwave!
 
Another hot day. Where we live it was 73F today, but in London it is 10 degrees hotter. 73 is a nice temp for walking. Today we walked on the coast path and had cooling breezes from the sea. Here is a photo of the golden hills in Abbotsbury on Chesil Beach.

DA09EE94-8FFA-4F60-B3BD-0354140522F2.jpeg
 
Still no rain here. Must be 6-7+ weeks now without any rain, and even watering the veg every 2 days means I lose some of them to heat / lack of moisture.

We had some fires near the airport last week, caused by a combine harvester hitting some flint, generating a spark and 'whoosh' the freshly harvested wheat field goes up in flames.

Hoping for the promised thunderstorm!
 
I'm hoping our (nearly) seaside location means cooler temps and a little breeze! I'm also hoping the fan our landlord ordered arrives at the cottage before we do!

Friends outside of London said it was 31.5 C yesterday.
 
Someone confirmed that that today was our 50th consecutive day without rain.

The weather report gives some chance of rain on Saturday, but that's about it, and it's going to get 'Scorchio' (sic.) before then.
 
Enjoying having some rain and a slight cooling. Also happy that the water butt is full again, so I can water the garden from there.
 
That's so unfortunate and so unusual. The UK is one of the few places I want to visit in summer, because of the usual cooler temperatures and lush landscapes. I hope it improves. With my experience in farming and livestock, I know it's going to be very difficult for the farmers.

It's a sad situation in so many regions of the world. Fires, floods, drought, extreme heat. It's crazy.
 
It's a sad situation in so many regions of the world.

On the flip side, some of the colder places are "benefiting" from this. Farmers who have been planting crops that traditionally would not have been successful in colder climates, are seeing favorable developments because of the heat.
An example is olive cultivation in Valle d'Aosta, Italy. What started out as a risky experiment by some farmers, has become a reasonable venture. From the article :
"The experience of these farmers illustrates what science has confirmed: The temperature in the Alps has increased by 2°C since the end of the 1800s, about twice the average increase of the Northern Hemisphere. "

https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive...ve-growing-in-valle-daosta-and-piemonte/63934

The end of the world is near, but at least we'll have another tasty product for the last feast....:(
 
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