It's been our driest July since 2009, when Martyn set up a weather station in our garden. Our records, of course, only relate to our own garden, but it's fair to say that conditions on the allotment have been much the same.
This July we have recorded just 0.6mm of rainfall. The average July rainfall is 56.9mm, so it's been an exceptionally dry month.
The dry weather follows on from two equally dry months, May and June. Earlier in the year, wherever we travelled, flooded fields and reservoirs filled to the brim were a common sight. It's such a pity we couldn't have stored some of that excess water, as hosepipe bans are already in place in some parts of the country. We'd optimistically thought that the wet winter would replenish the soil and set us up for a good gardening season, but nature has a habit of throwing us a curveball.
The heat and persistent wind have only made matters worse. The highest temperature we recorded this July was 34.8°C. Although we've experienced hotter Julys in the past – our record is 40.4°C in 2022 – the prolonged dry conditions have made this our most difficult growing season yet.
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