gavin
01-01-2012, 07:25 PM
So, what was 2011 like for you?
The Met Office says that, compared to 1970-2000, Scotland was very slightly cooler (-0.1C) whereas England (+0.8C) and Wales (+1.0C, welcome to the newly swollen ranks of the Welsh posting on SBAi by the way) were warmer. NI was spot on the average. For sunshine, we did better (92%) than NI (78%) and Wales (only 73%) whereas England outshone (pun intended) all of us (118%). We were wetter than ever before at 136% of the average and Wales and NI both were at 112% whereas England was spot on the average. Of course all of these refer to the local long-term averages which means that, for example, Scotland starts from a cooler base and Wales a wet, sunless one anyway.
What really matters is the weather during the crucial months of April (for colony build-up), May, June (to some extent, especially queen mating), July and August. September and October perhaps matter to the health of colonies going in to the winter, but May, July and August are the big production months and May and June the main queen raising ones.
OK, lets look at the detail. Peter Stromberg in the January Scottish Beekeeper gave a very clear assessment of the beekeeping year in the west, and it seems to accord with what we've discussed on the forum. The difference between east and west came from the subtle differences in summer rainfall, with the west faring very badly in May (starving colonies widely reported) and the east (at least East-Central Scotland) faring particularly badly in July and August at a time when the wet ground and the sunshine brought nectar flooding into colonies in the west. See if you can relate your own beekeeping year to the maps below. The terrible beekeeping year experienced by many in Tayside is explained very well by these plots. The dry April spoiling the rape until it became too cold, windy and wet, the poor main blossom harvest, the poor heather harvest for most, the small bonus of a late balsam crop for those close enough to big stands of it.
As for those of you in Wales, Warwickshire and wild Norfolkshire, do the maps explain your season? Or anywhere? I don't know what Hampshire did to deserve that treatment in August but it looks like someone cast a spell on it. Or that spot in SW Scotland, or Jura in June.
You can play with the other weather variables here:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/anomacts/
http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/6months_wee.jpg
Bigger version here (http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/6months.jpg).
all the best
Gavin
The Met Office says that, compared to 1970-2000, Scotland was very slightly cooler (-0.1C) whereas England (+0.8C) and Wales (+1.0C, welcome to the newly swollen ranks of the Welsh posting on SBAi by the way) were warmer. NI was spot on the average. For sunshine, we did better (92%) than NI (78%) and Wales (only 73%) whereas England outshone (pun intended) all of us (118%). We were wetter than ever before at 136% of the average and Wales and NI both were at 112% whereas England was spot on the average. Of course all of these refer to the local long-term averages which means that, for example, Scotland starts from a cooler base and Wales a wet, sunless one anyway.
What really matters is the weather during the crucial months of April (for colony build-up), May, June (to some extent, especially queen mating), July and August. September and October perhaps matter to the health of colonies going in to the winter, but May, July and August are the big production months and May and June the main queen raising ones.
OK, lets look at the detail. Peter Stromberg in the January Scottish Beekeeper gave a very clear assessment of the beekeeping year in the west, and it seems to accord with what we've discussed on the forum. The difference between east and west came from the subtle differences in summer rainfall, with the west faring very badly in May (starving colonies widely reported) and the east (at least East-Central Scotland) faring particularly badly in July and August at a time when the wet ground and the sunshine brought nectar flooding into colonies in the west. See if you can relate your own beekeeping year to the maps below. The terrible beekeeping year experienced by many in Tayside is explained very well by these plots. The dry April spoiling the rape until it became too cold, windy and wet, the poor main blossom harvest, the poor heather harvest for most, the small bonus of a late balsam crop for those close enough to big stands of it.
As for those of you in Wales, Warwickshire and wild Norfolkshire, do the maps explain your season? Or anywhere? I don't know what Hampshire did to deserve that treatment in August but it looks like someone cast a spell on it. Or that spot in SW Scotland, or Jura in June.
You can play with the other weather variables here:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/anomacts/
http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/6months_wee.jpg
Bigger version here (http://www.sbai.org.uk/images/6months.jpg).
all the best
Gavin