Rain, rain and more rain - changes to seasons in last 10 years

Rain every day here for the next 2 weeks.

I think one difference in weather over last few years is how slow it is to change.
We're used to a few hot days, but not weeks and weeks.
We're used to quite a lot of rain in the UK, but not a week+ solid of heavy, constant, rain.

The weather patterns just seem to linger now.

It's not perfect but I am happier now I have tonnes of mud mats and a big, double, field shelter. They have big IBCs as hay feeders and always have safe, dry, areas to stand and walk around even though they live out.
I rotated my 2 winter fields through the worst months and that really worked last year so 🤞 it works well again this time.
 
Last winter was unusually dry. I am fully expecting a wet one. It is very mild. Having lived in Wales, Cumbria and Scotland most of my life I would think nothing of rain for 7 days sorry 😅 once when in Cumbria it rained every day for 3 months until August. It's the mildness that's creeping me out, first time I've considered clipping my natives hairy. Maybe I should as no doubt the temperature would drop suddenly.
 
I don't think it's changed massively, to be honest?

I certainly remember plenty of wet, soggy bonfire nights as a child as well as the cold, dry one's.

I personally prefer the milder & wetter winter's as find them easier but appreciate I might be in the minority there!
 
I read the other day that the Met Office had said we would have a dry winter. I don't know how they can see that far ahead when they often don't get the next day's forecast correct. I suppose we're still in autumn. The comment was part of a piece about how we need rain as reservoirs are still so low after the dry spring and summer. I'd like some frosts to kill the grass growth off as it still looks so lush.
 
Exasperated said:
Agreed! But if your shelter is moveable, and for animal welfare, likewise mudmats, they can’t really interfere other than insist you move them occasionally. Better than nothing.
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Yes but impossible to move regularly once the ground turns into a bog. Especially if you don’t have access to a tractor. I have found the mud mats exhausting to keep on top of as well and dreading digging them out; wish I’d put a waterproof membrane underneath before laying them to stop the mud oozing up through the holes!
 
dorsetladette said:
Dorset council only act on reports of planning issues. I have first hand experience thanks to some lovely neighbour's, but good conversations with the council guy said they no longer go out looking for 'illegal things' they only respond to complaints.

Ironically they were only interested in the shipping containers we use as feed and tack rooms and didn't even mention any of the shelters or chicken sheds we have built.
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Interesting; I’m closer to the New Forest but fall under East Dorset. They are very picky on planning from what I can tell. Wonder why shipping containers were such a cause for concern? It just feels like the countryside is being pushed out gradually.
 
Billabongchick said:
Interesting; I’m closer to the New Forest but fall under East Dorset. They are very picky on planning from what I can tell. Wonder why shipping containers were such a cause for concern? It just feels like the countryside is being pushed out gradually.
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OH OK - I'm what would have been Purbeck council before it was all amalgamated.

Apparently they sit under their own wait so are classed as permanent. Luckily they had been in place a few years when I had the visit and after pulling in a few favours we got the paperwork completed quite painlessly and without being to far out of pocket.
 
millitiger said:
Rain every day here for the next 2 weeks.

I think one difference in weather over last few years is how slow it is to change.
We're used to a few hot days, but not weeks and weeks.
We're used to quite a lot of rain in the UK, but not a week+ solid of heavy, constant, rain.

The weather patterns just seem to linger now.

It's not perfect but I am happier now I have tonnes of mud mats and a big, double, field shelter. They have big IBCs as hay feeders and always have safe, dry, areas to stand and walk around even though they live out.
I rotated my 2 winter fields through the worst months and that really worked last year so 🤞 it works well again this time.
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Climate change (specifically the arctic warming faster than other regions) makes the jetstream wavy and sticky, which gives us the prolonged weather events (of whichever sort)
 
Very dry summer has usually meant very wet winter. Average winter has been getting wetter so I’m pretty sure mostly underwater is where we will be this year!

That said, it’s lifesaving rain this year - it has extended the growing season where I am, which will mitigate the effects of the extremely small hay and straw cuts. Everywhere I look, livestock are out in the fields, eating the ever growing, luminous green grass.
 
When I arrived in the UK I remember being very disappointed with the wet Novembers. And the mild Decembers. I’m from Norway so used to colder, drier winters (but November and December can be wet and mild there too). I’m not sure I’ve noticed any changes in the 20+ years I’ve been in the UK.
 
I'm delighted we've still got grass growth, after haying for so much of the summer and there being a shortage around here, the longer they can eat grass the better for mine.

It is oddly mild but I've clipped my two and chucked LW's on. The ground seems like it's just the top layer that's getting muddy so it would be ideal if it would have long enough for the rain to sink in and the mud to dry before it gets more rain.

It looks set to drop quite a lot in temperature at the weekend here.
 
For all the rain we are having (or not) the land drains are not yet running in my fields and the drainage board dyke only has a dribble in the bottom. The ground is a bit slippy so care is needed walking down the fields in wellies with poor grip.
 
I'm Dun said:
Climate change, and its speeding up. Lots of eminent scientists think we are past the point of no return. Its not going to get any better from here on. Weve got a while yet and scientists are working on things to mitigate it, but its going to end in wars and famine as it currently stands. I am very glad I will not be around to see it.

And just because I havent said it enough, we are in the middle of a mass extinction event. Actually living in an age where the sixth mass extinction event, the Holocene extinction is happening all around us and no one really seems to care. The planet has lost half of its species in recent years. And even worse, we have caused it this time.

Not too long from now we will be looking back on owning horses and worrying about mud and the price of hay and wishing we could go back to that.
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What I was coming on to say.

We've reached one of the major tipping points earlier than expected - mass die off of warm water corals. Which will have a massive knock on effects.
This should be headline news, everyone should be discussing it.

Want depressing news about future winters? Read the article on the met office website about the impact of melting artic ice and greater polar warming on our environment.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. Think I am remembering November through rose tinted spectacles and that whilst unseasonably warm, rain is - and always has been - the order of the day for most of November!

Last night the ponies all charged up to me when I went down asking for the hay rack to be filled, so I think our patch of rich autumn grass is coming to an end. Winter is coming.

Thanks for all the welcome messages too 😀
 
millitiger said:
Rain every day here for the next 2 weeks.

I think one difference in weather over last few years is how slow it is to change.
We're used to a few hot days, but not weeks and weeks.
We're used to quite a lot of rain in the UK, but not a week+ solid of heavy, constant, rain.

The weather patterns just seem to linger now.

It's not perfect but I am happier now I have tonnes of mud mats and a big, double, field shelter. They have big IBCs as hay feeders and always have safe, dry, areas to stand and walk around even though they live out.
I rotated my 2 winter fields through the worst months and that really worked last year so 🤞 it works well again this time.
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I think you are right there. Seems to be very wet or very dry. However, so far this autumn it has been reasonably "normal" with showers and then some dry days. All the rain has so far been soaked up by the ground, so it was obviously very, very dry underneath.

In old cookery books about making Sloe Gin, it says "Wait until the first frosts in October before picking the berries." I'm not sure I can remember a frost in October for a long, long time. Obviously now people pick the berries and put them in the freezer!
 
Was doing yard jobs the other day in a T-shirt, in November - and I'm a bag of bones with Raynauds who feels the cold.

Weather is completely wacky now due to climate change, we're not long from stuck up the proverbial creek without a paddle, I seriously worry for my kids.

It was that crazy September heatwave we had a couple of years ago that hammered it home for me, just totally not normal.
 
This year ive taken advantage of the supercharged growing autumn and moved my field rotation a month backwards. It will work or it wont, but the last 3 years nearly no growth in march/april so fields recovery hasnt been working as well. The seasons (certaintly temperature), seem to have moved a bit where I am.
 
Is anyone old enough to remember 'Plant a Tree in '73?' This was an initiative to encourage more tree planting to mitigate Dutch Elm disease, and lead on to 'Plant Some More in 74.' Perhaps we need Plant Some Sticks in 26, and Plant Eleven in 27. Worldwide, we are losing trees at an alarming rate, which is definitely having a knock on effect with both climate and CO2 increase.
 
It's been raining and then some for a while in West Wales. Right on the coast, so it's windy too, which makes things feel colder (and harder!) than they actually are. Night temperatures drop off to about 8 though, which can't be nice with being soaking and blown about. Mine live out and are all unrugged, with ad lib hay and access to a shelter and a mud mat yard with a windbreak to get them out of the worst of things (not that the choose to use it most of the time). It's hard not to anthropomorphize them and think because I'd be miserable out in it they are too... Does tug at the heart strings though, little Appy mare does Puss in boots eyes so well 😅 I wish we weren't on clay, and that I had sheds everyone could come in to.
 
Highmileagecob said:
Is anyone old enough to remember 'Plant a Tree in '73?' This was an initiative to encourage more tree planting to mitigate Dutch Elm disease, and lead on to 'Plant Some More in 74.' Perhaps we need Plant Some Sticks in 26, and Plant Eleven in 27. Worldwide, we are losing trees at an alarming rate, which is definitely having a knock on effect with both climate and CO2 increase.
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I remember this and also the local yobs destroying the trees planted on the streets. We definitely need more trees planting.
 
Sanversera said:
I remember this and also the local yobs destroying the trees planted on the streets. We definitely need more trees planting.
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Also ww need the ones that have been planted looking after so there are not big areas of plastic tubing surrounding dead sticks where they died in the drought.
 
That is the other joy of climate change, tree planting is becoming so much harder to ensure survival.

Survival rates of 7 out of 10 were considered average used to calculate the number planted.
But now if you plant Jan/Feb as is/was 'normal' and have a dry spring and summer you have survival rates of 2 in 10.
So people are trying to plant in autumn to give the trees a chance to establish roots a bit before going dormant for winter.

But the problem with that is that the nurseries aren't geared towards autumn planting and they can't switch easily.
 
What I don't understand, particularly now, is why on large-scale infrastructure projects they don't stop planting whips and start sowing lots of tree/shrub seed (stratified if need be). Sure some will be eaten and some will fail, but those that get going will be tough enough to survive, and will eventually reproduce. I get that they think they need to be seen to be doing things, but when it results in large-scale failure and, as already said, a lot of plastic waste, the current way of doing things it seems very counter-productive.
 
MuddyMonster said:
I don't think it's changed massively, to be honest?

I certainly remember plenty of wet, soggy bonfire nights as a child as well as the cold, dry one's.

I personally prefer the milder & wetter winter's as find them easier but appreciate I might be in the minority there!
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Absolutely!

We've been keeping horses in W. Yorks for the last 50 yrs and have seen every kind of November weather possible. There are 2 family birthdays in mid-November and it is an unusual year when we don't see any snow at all on one of them.
This year apparently it was the mildest 5th November on record but I certainly remember very mild late Octobers. Then again wet and windy Septembers are not unusual. The reservoirs here are desperately in need of rainfall currently. We haven't had the number of Autumn storms that we have come to expect, this year.
As for mitigation, we have planted hedging all round our boundary, to soak up some of the water with fencing to keep the horses and sheep off it. We have hard-standing of mud control mats as an apron in front of the shelter and find that they work well. I can't comment on mobile shelters as ours is a converted permanent building. I wouldn't trust a moveable one not to blow away in some of our worst winds though.
If you keep horses in UK, surely you expect to have to deal with wet weather.
 
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