For The Love Of Port

I said:

but so far this year these longer range predictions have had a tendency to wither away as the date draws closer

You could almost accuse the weather people of being wantonly sadistic this year..

Good rain for the end of March was forecast, then it receded a little, then came back strong..

..now it's evaporated altogether..

And it's not the first time this year that hopes have been dashed..

Earlier today the Meteo forecast promised a run of April showers starting on the 2nd, but now they're back-tracking a little..

Accuweather are promising some useful rain on the 4th and 5th and a good wetting between the 13th and 19th..

..but given their recent track record, it will be more by luck than judgement if it comes to pass..

'Change in the month - change in the weather' runs the adage..

..in the UK at least, this may be true - temperatures plummeted yesterday at the end of what is believed to have been the third warmest March since records began in the 17th century - frosts, and even snow, may be on their way.

Vila Real's cumulative rainfall for March came in at just 33% of the monthly average. This was concentrated on two brief wet spells, the first of which does not appear to have delivered much of note in the Cima Corgo - we shall have to wait for the next Douro Insider to get the full detail.

Looking at the forecasts I am minded of the soliloquy in Macbeth:

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
Til the last syllable of recorded time
And all our yesterdays light fools the way to dusty death

Dusty - certainly, death - hopefully not!

But the promises of rain do persistantly creep back day by day, and promises of a soaking reduce to the odd shower.

The rain currently forecast over the next few days is in the nature of home grown stormy weather moving up from the south, rather than a well laden atlantic system; and given the extreme aridity of the Iberian peninsular at present, I do wonder where the atmospheric moisture necessary for such rain is expected to come from - we shall see..

What is really needed is for the large high pressure system that has been blocking and deflecting atlantic weather systems from western europe to disperse, and allow a succession of fat rainy weather systems to sweep in off the sea.

So far, this is still not on the radar..

I'm not growing grapes here in Colorado, and perhaps that is a good thing given the weather, which was perhaps even drier than the Douro. From 9news.com:

Sunday set a new record high of 84 degrees, smashing the 78 degree mark from 2004. Saturday was a record setting day with a new mark of 81 degrees, besting the old record of 80 degrees last set in 1946.

March went down as the driest on record for Denver, with only a trace of snow back on the 7th. We typically see close to a foot of snow during this, our snowiest month on average. Total liquid precipitation for the month was only .03".

There was some rain in the Douro, as posted on the Graham's Facebook page. Lets pray it continues to rain as they really need it.

It rained for a short while yesterday in the Douro but nothing long or too measurable.

Roy Hersh wrote:It rained for a short while yesterday in the Douro but nothing long or too measurable.

The poor place needs a good soaking and right soon. Where's the rain dance emoticon.

I am pleased to report that it has rained in the Douro - rainfall in the first half of the month was close to the seasonal average, and green shoots and weeds are emerging everywhere - there are even puddles to be found, if you look hard enough..

As I drove down to Porto this morning there was a thin steady drizzle that turned into a foggy downpouur as we crossed the mountains..

So far though we are back to normal without a measure of catch up, and today's rain also came with some unseasonal winds attached - enough to bring a tree down, blocking the drive to Q. Crasto..

The forecast is moderately encouraging however, and if three weeks of drizzle can be followed by a dry spell in the late spring to ensure good flowering and fruit set, then all might come right for the vintage, but it's still a rather big ask..

..here's hoping!

Tom Archer wrote:I am pleased to report that it has rained in the Douro - rainfall in the first half of the month was close to the seasonal average, and green shoots and weeds are emerging everywhere - there are even puddles to be found, if you look hard enough..

As I drove down to Porto this morning there was a thin steady drizzle that turned into a foggy downpouur as we crossed the mountains..

So far though we are back to normal without a measure of catch up, and today's rain also came with some unseasonal winds attached - enough to bring a tree down, blocking the drive to Q. Crasto..

The forecast is moderately encouraging however, and if three weeks of drizzle can be followed by a dry spell in the late spring to ensure good flowering and fruit set, then all might come right for the vintage, but it's still a rather big ask..

..here's hoping!

Any rain is good news at this point. Hopefully they get even more soon.

Miguel at Portal told me today that they've had .56 mm of rain in the past two weeks and unfortunately the Douro Superior has received about half of that.

They did, there was rain, off and on again for several days and nights. Light but steady which was good. If it had been a heavy rain, the ground would have been resistant to absorbtion and there would have been lots of run off. This way the full extent of the precipitation found its way into the schist and ground soil and was very beneficial.

.56 mm of rain in the past two weeks and unfortunately the Douro Superior has received about half of that.

Half of 0.56mm is a light dewfall - should that be inches instead of mm?

No, what was meant was 56 mm, not .056. and half tht would have been 28 mm.