2014 Season so far

[Al B.]

In 2012 and 2013, rainfall in the Douro was well below normal and growers were commenting that the vines might start to struggle if water levels remained very low. Over the last 6-8 weeks, the UK has experienced its wettest winter for 200+ years and when I have been watching the weather forecasts it looks as though the rain bands which have been soaking the UK have also been affecting northern Portugal.

Does anyone have any information on what the winter weather has been like in the Douro this year?

[Miguel Simoes]

I dont know for Porto and the Douro in particular, but there have been floods all over the news lately in Portugal...

Below in Portuguese, a dam upstream of Porto was flowing 7,000 m^3/s about a week ago vs a typical 400 m^3/s... it must have rained a ton further up the river.

http://www.publico.pt/local/noticia/cam ... 1622960#/4

[Roy Hersh]

I keep in touch w/ this and it will be the very first thing that Cynthia blogs about.

But there has been a ton of rain in both Porto and the Douro. I've heard the stats and Cynthia will get these put forth in the blog next week.

[Cynthia J]

It has been soggy. Seriously soggy... From a couple days before Christmas right up to last week we basically had some kind of rain just about every day here on the coast. And I am not exaggerating! At least some drizzle, varied by periods of lashing bucketfulls. The sun would break through and I would venture out only to get hailed on, scamper home and be housebound while it heaved steadily for a few hours... or days.

Out in the Douro Superior, north of the river they had over 100 mm in January and as of 11 Feb had 96 mm more --- and we had another week or so of rain after that. Normal is 400 mm per year out there, and they basically had half of that in a 6 week period! On the other hand, this is the first time in 3 years this guy has been happy about rainfall and looking forward to a a good year.

When it rains heavily, the Douro turns its namesake golden from the silt washed into the river. In the past few years I have seen it up around Tua just once or twice ... the other day I noticed the river here in Porto is that golden colour.

I am going over various weather statistics and working up an article just on the stats for the past couple years, and I am also due to visit the Douro this week to get a view from someone in the Cima Corgo and will be writing about his perspective so far... stay tuned! Weather will be an ongoing focus of mine, it's just taking time to pull all the stats and construct the graphs. I cannot tell you how I miss Miles Edlmann right now!

And guess what just started pattering on my roof?