Extended dry spell is now set to extend into mid-May
AN extended dry spell through most of the month of April – following on from a very dry end to March – has made it a very good Spring for the farming community, according to North Galway weather recorder Brendan Geraghty.
The Abbeyknockmoy farmer – who has rainfall records dating back to the 1940s – said that it was pretty much a ‘perfect month’ for farming with last week’s rain just coming at the right time.
He said that the extended dry spell had ran from March 21 until the rains that arrived on the last few days of April.
From April 1 to 28, Brendan Geraghty only recorded two rain days – the 3rd and 15th – which between them produced just 0.28 inches (7.1mms.) of rainfall.
With soils drying up completely from around the middle of April and soil moisture deficits last week getting close to the 50mms. mark, growth was beginning to get seriously impaired.
The rains of Wednesday, April 29 – a lot of it in a morning downpour – however have replenished soil moisture levels: on that day, Brendan Geraghty recorded a rainfall level of 0.97 inches (24.6mms.).
His overall rainfall total for the month came in at 1.55 inches (nearly 40mms.) well down on his ‘average’ for the last seven Aprils of 1.98 inches (50.3mms.).
However, Brendan Geraghty pointed out that since 2014, April has turned out to be quite a dry month with no monthly rainfall total reaching three inches (76.2mms.).
“It is worth nothing that April has been quite a dryish Spring month over recent years – in 2017, it was particularly dry with only 0.33 inches (8.4mms.) or rainfall,” said Brendan Geraghty.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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