Mark Hunt’s Weather Assessment
25th March – 29th April 2010
Well the weather is kind of settled into an unsettled pattern for the foreseeable future with a high jet stream meaning our weather is going to be influenced by Atlantic low pressure systems for as far ahead as I can see (to the end of next week).
This means periods of windy, wet weather, followed by calmer, but cooler conditions before the next weather system arrives, with sunshine and showers definitely the theme for the next 10 days.Temperatures will drop back a little from their low double figure average at the moment probably to high single figures through the week, but we should be relatively frost-free, unless skies clear at the end of the day. It will feel noticeably cooler though the more we progress into the week. Not cold, but cool.
Currently soil temperatures are around about 8.5°C here in sunny Leicestershire and it was very noticeable over the weekend after Saturday's rain, how quickly the grass began to green up. Indeed I must have been the only person in Market Harborough walking around with a smile on my face as it lashed it down!
It's clear that the lack of growth was very much down to cold temperature desiccation and, with the arrival of moisture and some milder temperatures, the grass plant quickly switched into growth mode. The purpling observed so much over the last few weeks will grow out very quickly, not least because cuts made this week will take off grass and quickly remove discoloured foliage, but more so because sugars that have accumulated in the leaf will translocate down the plant and chlorophyll will take over again as the dominant pigment in the leaf.
Mark Hunt
Technical Director
Headland Amenity Ltd
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