Submitted by Bill Caulfeild-Browne
August was just a tad cooler than normal, about half-a-degree Celsius, with the lowest temperature of 10.6C on the 16th and the highest of 26.3C on the 5th. It was only unusual in that we had no truly hot weather – meaning days at or above 30C. We usually get one or two of those, but not this year.
The flip side of the coin is that it was very sunny – sunnier than either May or June, which are generally our sunniest months. In fact it was almost as sunny as July, despite shortening days. There were no days without sun and only the 26th was predominantly dull.
Rainfall, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. We got 34 mm., just half of normal, and a quarter of last year’s whopping 134 mm. Winds were fairly calm until the end of the month when a couple of days with gusts of 45 kms/hr curtailed some of the tour boat trips.
With all that sunshine one would expect the water temperature to be reasonably high, but the winds must have cooled the water off somewhat because temperatures at the Gap hovered around 19C, the same as the end of July.
September has begun with a very cool night – it was just 8.6C when I got up this morning – a harbinger of Fall. But we have another three weeks of summer left yet so let’s enjoy it!
