Mark Hunt’s Weather Assessment
1st - 5th February 2011

General Weather Situation
The last week turned out pretty much as forecast with settled dry conditions as high pressure dominated proceedings.
Soil temperatures remain low due to the bitter east wind of last week and for some places, a hard frost this morning, as skies cleared last night. We had - 5°C here in the Midlands and the soil temperature is currently sitting at 2°C.

It's all change from later today as the high pressure gets shunted out of the way by a strong westerly Jet Stream pulse, though this is one with a difference. Normally, strong westerly winds mean mild temperatures and rain, but this westerly originates straight from Canada, so it'll contain some pretty cold air and strong winds and will set the pattern for the week ahead. The further north you are, in Ireland, the U.K and the continent, the higher the chance that the moisture in this weather system will fall as sleet and snow, but the line is drawn from North Wales upward for this. Further south, it'll be mild.

Regional Specifics
From this evening the wind will swing round to the west and bring milder temperatures to all areas, with a band of rain already reaching the West of Scotland and Ireland as we speak. This rain will move south and east through the course of tomorrow affecting Wales, the South-West and the North of England by early morning and eventually the rest of England during Tuesday, but amounts will be light. Another band of rain reaches Ireland, Scotland and Wales on Wednesday morning and moves south and east, again amounts will get lighter the further south and east you go. From Thursday, temperatures will drop noticeably in Ireland, Scotland and the North of England, but remain mild in the Midlands and South of England. This will bring a mix of wintry showers to the afore-mentioned areas on Thursday and Friday, but at present it should fall mainly as rain, with the bulk of rainfall affecting Ireland, Wales, the North of England and Scotland. Winds will be noticeably stronger for the second part of the week, reaching gale force on Thursday and Friday. For the continent, this milder air is projected to reach Holland, Mid-Northern Germany, Denmark and Southern Sweden, so that should finish off thawing the present snow covering in those areas.


Weekend and Outlook Next Week
This is a but of a bummer for me because those mild temperatures, strong winds and rain are perfect for Zander fishing and instead I'll be shipping out at the weekend to the GCSAA show for two days of seminars and the show itself, ho hum.
Saturday will again be a day of strong westerly's, with the weather split along the geographical lines detailed above, but Sunday will be quieter with lighter winds and an increasing risk of frost as skies clear and temperatures drop in the U.K, whereas Ireland will receive another band of heavy rain. For the early part of next week, we drop into a gap between two lows, so quieter conditions, cooler / cold nights and lighter winds. Thereafter another deep, cold low is due to move towards the U.K and Ireland bringing strong South-Westerly winds and rain.

Agronomics
The colder, settled weather has allowed many people to get on with long overdue winter projects, bunkers and tees being the favourite. On the latter, tees have probably come off worst from the ravages of the winter, particularly in terms of Snow Mold / Fusarium damage, so alot of renovation work will be required here to get them into play early doors. By and large greens have come through pretty well if the Fusarium was under control going into the snows of late November and December. I've seen plenty of scenario's testifying to the efficacy of a preventative fungicide / winter hardener program with clean greens, but disease patches on collars where the boom stopped / started spraying. If you're looking to apply a spray of any kind this week, it'll be tricky after mid-week in the south of the U.K and very tricky in Ireland, Wales, the North of England and Scotland after today, with Thursday looking the most settled day for these areas. Personally I'd be using granular applications at present to keep the greens ticking if no longer-term feed was applied prior to Christmas. It's also a good time to hit moss on tees and other areas. If you have a long-term feed down, this will begin to release nicely as soil temperatures rise this week on the back of milder temperatures and rainfall, so nothing will need applying in this case.



Mark Hunt
Technical Director
Headland Amenity Ltd

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