September 2019 Commentary

Temperatures remained pleasantly steady throughout the month with day-time figures in the upper teens or early twenties while the nights were never very cold.

It was the rainfall however that varied considerably. The first three weeks were dominated by relatively high pressure though a deep depression arrived on the 9th with an associated heavy downpour. It was then relatively dry again until the 21st when a great string of depressions began moving over us for the remainder of the month, producing around 180mm of rainfall which is over seven inches in old money. On the 23rd, there was 61.2mm of rainfall, the highest 24 hour measurement that we have experienced at Cerne Abbas since 73mm. was recorded for December 23rd 2013.

The average temperature for September was 16.1C, just over half a degree higher than the average over the last decade while the rainfall total of 211.2mm. (almost 8.5 inches) was way above the September average of 70.9mm and certainly the highest September figure recorded this century.

Apart from the level of the well rising rapidly over the last week, the village seems to have coped fairly well so far with the large amounts of rainfall.

Philip Spray