Wet Wet Wet on Islay

Monday, 02 January 2012

Yesterday Malcolm from the Islay Natural History Trust wrote on the INHT blog that 2011 was by far the wettest year on Islay since 2002. The annual rainfall at Islay Airport was 1590mm or 62,6 inches. Malcolm wrote: "2011 was the wettest year of the decade, by some distance, boosted by two very wet months (October - 247 mm, c.10 inches, and December - 222 mm, c.9 inches). December was particularly unusual as there was no really wet day (i.e. 25 mm, c.1 inch), but again there wasn't a single day without at least some rain (0.5 mm or more) which again (believe it or not!) is a rare occurrence - there were 3 days without rain in October." The result of all this rainfall is that the fields are very wet as you can see from the pictures below, taken yesterday at Saligo Bay, sent to me by a friend on Islay. You can also see that due to the many gales a lot of foam has been blown onto the beaches which look like snow drifts. Weatherwise things aren't likely to change anytime soon. Tuesday will see another spell of very wet and windy weather and also the long term outlook mentions above average temperatures and generally unsettled weather. The positive side is that the first signs of spring have been seen on Islay.

Wet fields at Saligo Bay