Musings from the Merse
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Rain in Duns. Noah on standby?
Only one topic of conversation at Nairns this morning: Rain. I would not have expected such a feature of the Duns weather- scape to arouse so much comment but we have had the longest period of aridity that I have experienced in what is usually a very wet place-the one significance difference from rain starved (if dreich soaked) Hutton. So having had 76mm on the 3rd and 4th of September it has been dry since until last night.
Hence the stir amongst the early paper buyers this morning.
Actually rain may be a bit of a misnomer. Drizzle really and our weather gauge barely registers 1mm but the garden gleams in the damp and the just ripening tomatoes are looking perky. But in Greenlaw, a mere 8 miles away, and our nearest weather station -see here the statistics claim no precipitation whats so ever-yet you can clearly (well, rather murky with condensation) see via the live web cam here that if it is not exactly hissing down it is pretty damp.
I wonder if the Greenlaw meteorologists are of the Mr Fish school of forecasting-more interested in what they think may happen and not diverted by the actuality, of what is. It is therefore interesting that the web cam site carries an ad for 'An Evening of Clairvoyance' next month-is this our experts night job? Commercial forecasting sites seem to me to lose some of their professional credibility when they are dependent on sponsorship from such quarters-but, of course, it may add to their accuracy.
That is not much of a challenge
By the BBC Blether Centre's usual standards at any rate.
Labels: Duns, Duns rain, Greenlaw Weather centre, Hutton rain
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Dry as Duns and other inappropriate sayings
Picking up the Grudian, mercifully an English transaction, after a week's absence in French France 'Scottish Daily Mail' asked about the weather in France complaining bitterly about the excessive rain fall in Duns especially over the last 36 hours. We found our rain gauge overflowing on our return-that's at least 52mm since last Saturday from 7pm yesterday another 47mm. So off to the local weather centre in Greenlaw once again to see what the experts have recorded here
The vital stats are:
Rain Today: 4.0 mm
Rain Rate (/hr): 0.00 mm
Rain Yesterday: 32.0 mm
This Month: 77.0 mm
Something wrong shurely (hic)
How can a place 8 miles as the sparrow hawk flies have about half the rain fall of Duns over the same period. I have always suspected that Duns, like Hutton, has its own micro climate except in Hutton's case it was remarkably dry when places around it were getting saturated.
Hutton Think Tank's (HT2) in house (so as he can stay dry) meteorologist has made the puerile suggestion that perhaps there is something wrong with the rain gauge in the Small-Wet-Garden-in-Duns. It could hardly be that wrong and anyhow given the sheltered nature of our patch more likely to under record if anything.
And tonight a Brass Ensemble plays at Paxton House as part of the music festival.
Big Deal?
Playing outside.
HT2 has forecast dry conditions. Greenlaw doesn't do TD15
I'll bring a couple of macs
and an umbrella.
(The image is of Duns during a dry spell in Greenlaw)
Labels: Duns rain, Greenlaw Weather centre, Paxton Music
