Things are quite severe here now, which must seem strange to people in some
other parts of the country. After a fairly dry winter there was zero
rainfall in April. There has now been only 18mm in the last 47 days and none
in the last three weeks. Trees are freely shedding leaves and the grass is
scorched and brown after the recent sunny days. My garden seems worse than
after last year's drought but I suspect I have watered it less as the
cloudier and cooler summer (till this week) has made me underestimate the
water defecit.

Dave

In uk.sci.weather on Wed, 12 Sep 2007, Dave Cornwell
wrote :
Things are quite severe here now, which must seem strange to people in some
other parts of the country. After a fairly dry winter there was zero
rainfall in April. There has now been only 18mm in the last 47 days and none
in the last three weeks. Trees are freely shedding leaves and the grass is
scorched and brown after the recent sunny days. My garden seems worse than
after last year's drought but I suspect I have watered it less as the
cloudier and cooler summer (till this week) has made me underestimate the
water defecit.

No such problems here - plants still happily living off the high water
table caused by the July floods!

The soil surface is dry & crusty, but damp just underneath.
--
Paul Hyett, Cheltenham (change 'invalid83261' to 'blueyonder' to email me)

On 12 Sep, 23:30, "Dave Cornwell"
wrote:
Things are quite severe here now, which must seem strange to people in some
other parts of the country. After a fairly dry winter there was zero
rainfall in April. There has now been only 18mm in the last 47 days and none
in the last three weeks. Trees are freely shedding leaves and the grass is
scorched and brown after the recent sunny days. My garden seems worse than
after last year's drought but I suspect I have watered it less as the
cloudier and cooler summer (till this week) has made me underestimate the
water defecit.

Dave

Not quite as dry as you, 33.9mm in the last 49 days, short cut mown
grass has started to turn brown in the last week. Flower beds really
suffering, I have got out of the habit of daily watering this summer
on the assumption that it JUST can't need watering (until just about
the whole garden wilted en masse at the weekend!)

Ian,

Raunds, Northants.