My May notes ended with “Surely June can’t be as dry as this, can it?” Well it was, for the first nine days, leaving our wonderful sand-dunes burnt brown. Thereafter, live-giving rain fell on ten days but only in small amounts. Met. Office maps showed we had about 75% of normal rainfall during the month. Nationally, it was the hottest June since records began and the sunniest since 1957.
I thought we had got away without a spring drought this year but no such luck. May provided begrudging rainfall on only six days and nothing after 19th. Rachael Parks sent me rain-gauge data from her Formby garden. Her May total was 28.5 mm, this being 50% of the long-term average. Met. Office maps for May show that Greater Manchester and north Merseyside were the driest areas in England.
After a largely insect-free winter, I always look forward to March when things really begin to kick off. On 7th I was pleased to find a Greater Spring Blacklet basking on Ivy in woodland at Freshfield. This was a fairly early record of a widespread spring-flying hoverfly that mimics solitary bees.
In contrast to last February’s three named storms in a week, this month was dominated by persistent high atmospheric pressure. As a result, there was measureable rain in Formby on only three days. The Met Office tells us it was the driest February in England since 1993, some places registering only 1.6 mm since 15th January. Most UK rivers are running well below normal levels, meaning less water for agriculture, water-supply and nature.