It is strange seeing rain again

It was reported on the BBC News website today that the summer of 2022 will go down as one of record breaking temperatures. This report by the Met Office doesn't mention the lack of rain, July was the driest since 1935 in England. 2022 was very dry generally in England especially, yet as I write this outside it is pouring. For the first time in months it feels cool, autumnal and damp. And that is something to celebrate.

In that BBC News article it states the following,

"More than half of the UK's oldest active weather stations recorded their hottest day ever in 2022, according to Met Office data."

Adding;

"The new UK high of 40.3C was recorded at Coningsby in Lincolnshire on 19 July 2022."

Like many I remember that first heatwave very well, and the one which followed in August. Looking back in my diary, I note that on July the 17th I wrote 

"First hot day. It was cool at 7am, by by 10am we could feel the heat building...... curtains drawn windows closed we remained indoors until 10pm ... when [we] watered the garden in the darkness"

I remember sleeping outside at night, a pleasant experience lying there watching the stars and night sky yet warm enough to be comfortable. The heat was intense but it was bearable as the landscape was so dry, dry heat is so much different to humid heat. It was around this time we spent a few nights to watch nightjars on the Quantocks. Sunset being around 21.30hrs, it was a late few Fridays we ventured there to witness these remarkable birds. I noted at the time the landscape was bone dry. Dust billowed everywhere and the footpaths over the Quantocks were cracked and as hard as stone. Vegetation looked tired, really tired.

The heatwave which followed in early August was not quite as ferocious but lasted longer.  Flicking back through my diary we visited family in Salisbury on August 6th noting that in the afternoon we were exhausted by the heat and the grass around the cathedral was the colour of stubble. The heat built, and continued through to the 14th when for the third day running my car thermometer showed 39oC. Car thermometers are not accurate of course, but nevertheless, even reducing this by a few degrees, it was a hot couple of weeks.

However the following day, August 15th, I wrote. "It was forecast, but around 7am it started to rain - nice light rain, which carried on until lunchtime" 

The previous entry of rain in my diary had been July 2nd and I needed to search back to April to find reference to rain, and only then rain showers. The winter months were no better, January and February in this area of Somerset were dry, but not obviously though as it was cloudy, thick cloud, most days.

As I watched the rain this morning I began to think back to the dry summer, in reality it was only a few weeks ago. It seems odd to be looking at something so common again, but rainfall is so important to everything yet we take it for granted. "oh it raining AGAIN!". As if this was a life and death situation to be avoided at all costs.

Only when the rain stops do we think of how life would be without a steady trickle of moisture through the year.  As we read in news reports this year 2022 was a bad one for wildfires across the Planet, long-term stable weather patterns altered through Climate Change now backed up by science. Locally however the changes are just as evident.

Today as I write this I can see rain falling steadily on a mild autumnal day, but look at the trees, established trees that is. 

Many deciduous trees have shed some of their leaves already. We'd expect this in October as shortening days trigger seasonal change in metabolism and eventually leaf fall. Back in August however a False Autumn occurred in many parts of England. Not something I believe I've ever known before, and it seemed to happen within a few days. When the heat subsided a little suddenly lanes and paths were strewn with crisp shrivelled leaves, often still green. Walking through them and hearing their rustle, was akin to childhood memories kicking leaves about at Halloween. In the canopy, autumn colours mingled with high summer green, while swallows flew overhead. Quite strange. Shedding leaves in summer is of course a way of surviving for a tree, transpiration through stomata in the leaf is a constant which can only be stopped by jettisoning the leaf itself. It is survival. However shedding leave too early is risky. 

Deciduous trees and a few conifers use this year's energy production to lay down next years leaves. Those future leaves are in the buds which remain after leaf fall quietly awaiting a sunlit Spring day to literally 'bud-burst' and begin the cycle all over again. But, leaves falling in August? It is only to hope that those buds formed early too. Failure to provide viable leaf buds this year will mean no leaf canopy next year, or at least compromised cover and possibly a weakened transpiration system. A compromised leaf cover in spring is a problem for the tree but also for the wildlife which relies on that leaf-burst, invertebrates emerge, providing food for nesting birds and the problem expands beyond the canopy.

Next year many trees may well have a decent bud burst from a distance, but is it enough, will the tree actually survive? That is a waiting game that we'll only know next summer. What trees need now is to hopefully gain enough moisture this autumn while setting down their buds, and hope for a wet (or is that normal) growing season in 2023. Of course not all trees are affected as other species. Oaks are fairly robust for a few dry years at lease, whereas beech or birch will suffer quickly.

Today though I just enjoyed going out into the garden in the rain. Garden spider and their webs are everywhere today bejewelled with fine raindrops. The same raindrops making wonderful patterns on the foliage and flowers around the garden. The clover in the lawn was especially uplifting, like a verdant miniature rock concert, everyone having their phones out waving bright lights to show appreciation for the H2O show.

I like rain a lot, and it is good to see it come back into this part of Somerset. Yesterday it felt autumnal for the first time, cool misted vegetation, damp leaves clinging to pathways, pathways that never really dried out in the still quite warm sunlight. I arrived home from work to the feintest aroma of woodsmoke. It's autumn, autumn as it should be. And for that, I like it. Thank you rain, I hope you keep falling and keep life turning.