Autumn arrives early

September is only a week away but it looks as though autumn has arrived early.

GPS Windsurfing

It was pretty windy yesterday and my windsurf session on the seafront did have an autumnal feel to it. The sun was shining but the sea felt as though it meant business. Although it was a nice easy sail there was just something a little more menacing in the air. It dropped off a bit after a while but I did manage a nice long run to Borth and back. Then last night it arrived properly The wind filled in to 30 knots, with the weather station measuring gusts to close to 40 knots. That’s Gale Force 8.

The sea now DOES mean business and I can’t wait to get out there. I knew this would happen though as I’m working at the university this week so don’t have quite so much time to play and certainly less flexibility. It is forecast to drop this afternoon, just about the time that I’m available for a windsurf – Typical.

It is however forecast to come back from a NE direction tomorrow afternoon which could give me chance to finally use my speed kit in Ynyslas estuary for an attempt at my ‘Life Begins at 40 Knots’ challenge. The tides won’t be great for it but I may be able to squeeze a bit of a session in if I’m lucky. Fingers Crossed.

It was pretty windy last night. We’re used to the wind here and it is quite often windier than you can imagine but it’s been so long since we’ve had any proper wind that it actually kept us a wake last night.

According to the Borth and Ynyslas Weather Station it hit 46.9 knots which is the biggest gust so far this year. Still quite a way off the 62.2 knots recorded on 12th Mar 2008. It’s nice having the weather station there so that I can check these stats and historic records from time to time.

I should really go windsurfing this morning to make the most of the wind that’s left, but I hurt my ribs whilst windsurfing yesterday and don’t think I’ll be able to manage it. The wind is beginning to ease a little now, once it’s dropped off properly my next job will be to get out in the garden and and check the damage done.

It looks as though summer is here, if only for the weekend. Yesterday was hot and sunny with a light NE breeze in the morning and then a NW seabreeze in the afternoon.

Not quite enough wind for windsurfing – even with big kit – so I had a nice MTB ride around the Summit Trail at Nant yr Arian with Andrew in the morning. This was followed by a quick dip in the lake at Pendam which wasn’t as cold as we had expected.

Anna and Morgan headed off to a cinema party in the afternoon whilst I tidied up a bit and pottered in the garden and all of this was followed with the obligatory BBQ in the garden with Dave and Sarah later in the day.

The temperature hit 24.2ºC yesterday, the hottest day of the year so far according to the weather station. It is already 17ºC today and it isn’t even 8am yet. Looks as though it is set to be another scorcher. If it continues like this we’ll be moaning that it’s too hot before long!

Things have been fairly quiet on the moth front recently. Numbers have been avergae but the same old species were showing up all the time.

Last saw a change in the weather however, with much warmer overnight temperatures – the minimum was 11ºC, light winds and some rain. This led to some new species in the trap. The catch was:

• 3x Early Thorn
• 8x Hebrew Character
• 2x Small Quaker
• 1x Twenty-plume Moth*
• 2x Water Carpet*
• 1x Red Chestnut
• 1x Garden Carpet*
• 4x Common Quaker
• 2x Shoulder Stripe
• 1x Dark Sword Grass (first this year)
• 1x Double-striped pug
• 1x Brindled Pug
• 1 As yet unidentified Micro*

*= New Garden Record

Stats:

The stats so far are.

2010

Number of species: 30

Moths: 320

All time

Number of species: 51

Moths: 515

It’s just not fair. Since buying my speed kit, there just hasn’t been any suitable wind to use it.

This week looked promising with NE’s forecast all week, but as the days have gone by there just hasn’t been enough. It has got close from time to time with the odd gust but never filled in properly.

Today, Anna had planned to have the car all day so I wouldn’t have been able to get to the estuary with my kit even if the wind did arrive. As we were getting ready for school and work this morning, the wind seemed to be gradually increasing and just before Anna left it had over the course of an hour increased steadily from around 5 knots to 15 knots and was still building.

I quickly changed the plans and decided to give them a lift into work and school (which means driving in again later to collect them) so that I could have the car. I got back here at around 9 am to find the wind was now at about 20 knots with gusts in the estuary of 25 knots. Just enough so it was time to at last give my new kit a go.

I got back home and was about to load up the car when within the course of 10 minutes the wind dropped back down to 10 knots. What have I done to deserve that?

24 hour wind trace - 10am to 10am

It was very wet out there last night (14.6 mm of rain whilst the moth trap was out), windy at times too at around 20 knots but mild with a minimum temp of 6.6ºC.

The moth trap was partly full of water, but there were a few moths in it.

• Clouded Drab x2
• Early Grey x2
• Mottle Grey x1
• Shoulder Stripe x1

I’m off to a moth workshop just down the road tomorrow where we’ll be running a trap overnight, so I may run mine again tonight so that I can compare results.

Al.

December the 1st, the first day of winter and after what turned out to be a very windy autumn, the weather is right on cue with the first frost.

The winds have eased here in Wales and we had a lovely clear night last night with a nice moon.

Winter Moon

The temperature dropped to -0.7ºC overnight nd then this morning there was a frost and a lovely sunrise.

Frosty Sunrise

What a weekend. Lots of DIY on Saturday for me so our new ensuite shower-room is just about finished. This meant I could reward myself with a windsurf session on Sunday. Simon and I had a pretty mad sail in the estuary. The weather station was recording gusts of 50 knots.

It was just about perfect with my 4m sail, but not quite windy enough in the lulls. The worst /  best part was the rain. When the squalls came through it was complete white-out conditions and sailing along at 30 knots without being able to see anything becomes quite a challenge. It was good fun though!

I did have a bit of a problem when packing up though. The back door on my car decided to jam itself stuck. I did manage to get thing shome, but I can’t open the door and much of my windsurfing kit is now stuck in the car.

It was nice to be able to come back, straight into the beach room and into the new shower though.

The wind continued to blow all evening meaning that we couldn’t hear the TV over the wind outside. It is kind of funny sitting in the living room barely able to talk to each other because of the noise of the wind and rain.

I love living here when the weather is wild.

What lovely weather we’re having at the moment. Here’s the general view from our window over the past few days.

Rain through the window

According to the weather station we’ve had over 10cm of rain so far this month.

Expectations for Saturday 14th November have been high in the UK Windsurfing scene. The first major storm of the year and one that look set to produce some epic conditions. For me personally it was exciting too; for a change I would have some people to sail with as Steve, Simon and Jon had all said they would be at Ynyslas for 10am.

So, when the weather came on the news last night I wanted to listen to it. I ‘shhhhsed’ Morgan and the first thing I hear them say is ‘don’t even think about going out on the sea tomorrow‘. Hmmmm, are they mad? This is what we wait for.

Well, it isn’t looking too bad out there at the moment. We had lots of rain overnight and gusts up to 44 knots, but at the moment its around 25 knots and southerly. The forecast is for it to pick up and go pretty mad around midday and then swing westerly later in the afternoon and ease of slightly.

There’s a huge swell as well and lots of rain. It’s going to be scary out there!

Todays Playground