Will it frost tonight?

[Allan]

This is the time of year when you could have to assess the risk of frost damaging your non-hardy plants. The best indication is to find out what is lurking in the Atlantic, if it is low pressures and fronts you are probably safe, however if there is a build up of high pressure , clear skies, little wind, then frost is very likely, anything delicate will need protecting. The critical moment for coldest temperatures is daybreak, as the sun hits them, sometimes even a spray of cold water can make all the difference.By the end of the month the risk is vanishingly small, but I have seen frost in June. If in doubt cover up, a chill can affect some plants almost as much as freezing especially tomatoes.
Allan

[oldherbaceous]

Good morning Allan, a few very good reminders there.
But i wonder how it always seems to freeze the only night i miss the weather forecast, or when one has a very busy evening with an important dinner party to attend.
I'll let you in to a secret i lost some of my runner beans last year to a late frost, but don't tell the others.

Kind regards Old Herbaceous.

When i'm not fishing i'm mending my nets.

[Chantal]

I'm wrapping everything up warmly tonight as Metcheck are forecasting 6C tonight, dropping to 5C before dawn. I'm taking no chances as everything is far too precious to risk for a little extra effort.

[richard p]

the following website is set as my homepage , it gives a 10 day local forcast and a sat view of europe.


http://uk.weather.com/weather/local/UKX ... e=code&y=8

[Chantal]

I've had a look at that Richard and interesting their forecast is very different to www.metcheck.com which is my favourite. I shouldn't be surprised at any differences as Metcheck and the Met Office are rarely the same either.

Metcheck does have a hobbies section though and if you click on that and then the gardening link it can be quite useful.

[richard p]

bear in mind the full link above will give our local forcast, u will need to put your location in to get your local forcast. sorry if im teaching u to suck eggs

[Chantal]

I did do that that and the forecast it's still a lot different but that's normal for these sites. I find Metcheck easier to understand too but then I'm not very clever with weather maps. A magnetic sunshine was good enough for me in the old days

[richard p]

at best forcasts are a guess at what is going to happen, the guesses get better the shorter the time scale. i usually look at the sat view, generally at this time of year what cloud comes into view to the left of spain is what we get in a day or two. clicking on the "show map in motion" button gives a good idea of the direction and speed of change. at this time if year if there is a stream of cloud coming we wont get a frost. if the sat pic is clear of cloud or there is a big gap over us its time to worry.

[arthur e]

Why not watch the BBC weather, they have 100% hind sight and can tell you exactly what happened yesterday,not so good on what might happen tomorrow though they are good at telling how it is at this moment in time.

[Allan]

I'm afraid that my experience as to the BBC's capacity to tell me what the weather is doing at this time has been exceedingly poor. The biggest failures have been that rain has been forecast several hours away from accurate either before or after, otherwise the extent of the rain expected has been vastly in excess of what we actually received.
As there is obviously a keen interest in this topic how about more general discussion. I have a keen interest in wind information as it is of great importance when working with polytunnels, a new cover on a big one demands next to zero wind for the best part of a day and not much more for the next few days of finishing work. The Atlantic isobars usually give as good an indication as is needed.
A word about the new computer graphics presentation. I find that the rate of delivery is such as to make it impossible to thake in all the relevant information on one sweep so usually it's resort to the BBCi version but why oh why do we have to battle with the reduced size when the SKY one is full screen.Why can't they stick to the same timings at all hours, why do the morning forecasts have to be restricted to that days weather only, and generally does it all have to be marginalised to tell us all about future programmes of no interest. Finally why here in West Midlands do we get London weather in the mornings.
Any more old moaners out there?
Allan

[Beccy]

Certainly a middle-aged one here. I really have not been able to get to grips with the new graphics. And I thought I didn't get everything I could have out of the old ones, but I was doing things like checking what was out in the Atlantic without even realising it

[Anonymous]

not it scotland.. but its been raining all day