Glorious Gloria

Gloria, the storm that is currently passing over Catalonia, has left its mark at the Croft. We've had more rain in one night than we've had since records began (my records, anyway), with 128 litres per square metre (128mm) which is the maximum that my rain meter can read. My neighbour up the  track emptied his 45mm rain meter three times during the night, so likely ours ran over. The last rainfall to get near this figure was on 12th September 2006 when we had 122mm.

The donkeys don't like it:

Jings it's gey dreich here, pal

...and for the humans,  there is currently no way in, or out, except on foot. The track has been washed away, and is currently on the way to the Mediterranean:

Sink or swim

But the house is fine, we've got supplies and plenty of wood to keep us cosy, so nae worries, hen.

Update

The storm has gone, leaving us to clear up the remains. The good news is that we  now have a beach by the stream, so will be offering sun 'n' sand holidays to anyone who wants them:

Just add sun umbrella and a pink gin

Wet Spring

We have a beatiful wee spring here at the Croft. Opened up by the previous owners, it is marked on the Montseny map as running all year. For the last ten years - thanks to climate change here - the spring has been silent all summer.

But in the six months since December we have had 40% more rain than the average, the wettest spring since 2010. So the spring runs.

Whither the weather?

Writing about the weather is one step more Scottish than our infamous tendency to talk, endlessly, about it. So I'll keep this short:

It is dry. Very, very dry.
Since 1st December 2015 we have had a total of 4mm of rain. Average rainfall over that period is 74mm, so we are 95% down.

It is too warm, for January.
Here at the Croft - we are 300m above sea level - we have barely had frost all winter; just a handful of sub-zero nights. In normal winters we get many frozen nights and a few pipe-bursters that drop below -8ºC.

As a consequence we have mosquitoes active in January (the frost would normally kill most of them off), and bees that are awake and about but can't find nectar.

And now there are concerns over forest fires - something we worry about in July, but not (normally) in January. Here is the February rain forecast from the European Forest Fire Information System: the beige areas mean lower than average rainfall is forecast, and thus higher than average fire risk.

You still not sure about global climate change? Really?