Falklands

Unsettled and very windy with a mixture of rain and snow. Snow covered the ground for much of the time with 3cms level snow reported at MPA on the 27^th.

Ascension

A fairly typical week for this time of year with sunny spells and just a few, mainly light, showers. Sunday 29^th was particularly sunny and clear.

St. Helena

A good deal of cloud with showers on every day except Sunday 29th, when it was dry all day. There were also a few sunny spells through the week.

Not everything is coming up rosy in the garden - yet!

Until a few weeks ago, the weather in most parts of the UK this summer has been unusually cool and very wet. This is bad news for many people – gardeners and more especially farmers have been particularly badly affected by the cool weather.

Many keen veggie growers know that a soil temperature of between 7 and 10 degrees Celsius is required to start germination of various common vegetable seeds such as beans etc. However, some vegetables (eg cucumbers, aubergines, peppers and courgettes) require much higher temperatures.

Of course, if it is too wet (or dry), then this again can have a detrimental effect on seed germination and subsequent harvests. Warm and wet weather is generally good for plants, but it is also good for other living things - pests tend to thrive in damp and humid conditions! So what is the perfect weather? Plants need sun to grow, but also rainfall. You could say that overnight rain followed by sunny skies all day would be pretty much the perfect combination – here’s hoping!

Compiled by Norman Spoint (greenish fingers)

Crown Copyright 2012. Met Office.

Met Office  Ascension Island Base