Across the globe, September saw some terrifying extremes of weather – bring death and destruction. Hurricane Dorian made landfall in the Bahamas on 1 September 2019. By the end of the month India was being hit by extreme rainfall and there was a deep fall of snow in Montana.
As it was once said, “September tries its best to have us forget summer”. And while the last of the harvest was safely completed and only a few trees were blown down across the Marlborough area, September in Marlborough has also been a month of extremes.
The first 20 days saw little rain, just 7.3mm, with ten totally dry days. Thereafter every day was wet – with considerable rainfall.
The heaviest rainfall occurred on September 23 with a total of 29.6mm and the days on either side each producing thunder on two occasions.
The rainfall for the month amounted to 111.4mm. This was 181 per cent of the 35 year average or an extra 50mm. That made it the wettest September since 2006 when a record 131.9mm fell.
The contrasting September was in 2009 when as little 11.1mm was recorded. The other significant daily totals in 2019 were 18.6mm, 23.0mm and 10.0m on September 24, 28 and 30 respectively.
Due to the high pressure that settled over and around the country for the majority of the month, it was a warm month with the mean temperature 0.4C above the 35-year average.
There were seven days when the peak temperature exceeded 20C – against the average of 18.6C. The hottest day came on September 21 with a maximum of 24.9C.
No air frost occurred although the thermometer dropped to a minimum of 0.4C on the morning of September 8 – and that produced a brief ground frost.
The diurnal temperature, which is the variation between day and night, has seen significant changes for some months since my records began in 1984.
September has seen the maximum variation increase by about 1C. However, the variations for the months November to February have seen the maximum increase by 2C to 3C.
During the month 168 hours of sunshine were recorded with many days in the middle of the month seeing almost wall-to-wall sunshine. On September 13 10.25 hours of sunshine were recorded.
You can read daily weather records – and much more – on Eric Gilbert’s Windrush Weather Staion website.
Something is brewing in Kingsbury Street!
