February 4th, 2025
Hi All,
A brief blog this week and a day late I know (I apologise but I was having my annual shoulder joint work in Notts hospital yesterday ).

Weather Update - w/c 03-02-2025
This week we will see quite a change after Wednesday when a milder, south westerly airstream is replaced by a north easterly one that may put the mocker on those lovely Crescent Moon / Venus nightscapes that we have enjoyed. (sorry for quality of my image). Winds from the north east in our case travel across the North and Irish Sea's and tend to bring cloud cover / dull conditions, so the 2nd part of the week for Ireland, the U.K and Denmark will see a wind reversal from SW to NE and a consequential drop in temperatures to low single figures at their best. I also expect a run of night frosts from overnight Thursday and this may last awhile. As we approach the weekend, there's a risk of a southerly low pressure to bring rain to the south east and east coast particularly. This low pressure will pull moisture off The North Sea and as it heads north over the weekend into the early part of next week, we may see wintry showers across The North East and eastern Scotland. So not the greatest weekend coming up, although I think despite the wind direction and wind chill, we will still see some sunshine. On the subject of wind, Friday in particular looks very windy with a pronounced wind chill.
As we move into next week, that wind will swing round to the SE and move the rain / wintry shower mix further north to leave drier conditions behind it and possibly slightly milder as well. We may also see some showers across eastern coasts of Ireland and the U.K. Denmark to me looks dry and cold next week with that prevailing south easterly wind in place there too.
As we approach the end of next week, things start to get complicated. We have a deep Atlantic low pressure out to the west trying to push into the west of Ireland. This low pressure will butt up against high pressure sitting over the U.K and continental Europe. Now I think that Atlantic low pressure will eventually prevail and bring strong, south westerly winds and cold air as well to the U.K & Ireland. The interesting part is what happens when this meets cold air sitting over us and Denmark. Possibly a cold interlude with snow ?
So a very complicated weather picture, predominantly dry, but not completely so, with those southerly and easterly low pressure systems likely to bring some rainfall I think to the south and east at some point. You can see how complicated it is from the animated GIF below with weather systems moving east to west (against the normal flow of the jet stream which is fragmented)


Agronomic Notes
From an agronomic perspective, I thought I'd pick a January 2025 summary via our Prodata Reports software as a basis for discussion. This golf course is located in Kent.
A couple of numbers jump out of the above pdf.
Rainfall y.t.d of 109.2mm in January vs. E.T y.t.d of 6.86mm, so not surprisingly soils are wet with a soil moisture surplus of 102.3mm on this particular site. That said, half of January's total rain at this location came in the first 5 days and cold interlude that followed, with penetrating frosts has allowed the course to dry out a tad before more rain at the end of the month.
Despite the above rainfall / E.T dynamic, the greens at this location have had a good hollow core and Air2G2 work over. Grist to the mill I'd say.

Growth-wise, if we look at the daily Growth Potential (G.P), we can see very little growth has taken place, with only 4 days in January recording a daily G.P > 0.20, the bare minimum I'd say for noticeable shoot growth. Now whilst this might not be great with very little top growth above ground to repair pitch mark areas, disease scars and the like, below ground we will probably be picking up some nice root growth and that's why the above aeration work could prove very timely.
Not shown on the above readout because there isn't a PAR sensor on this particular Davis weather station, the daily DLI (Daily Light Interval) through January from one of our other stations in the south of England hasn't broken 10mols per m2 since the end of October 2024, that is 3 months and counting..... If you bear in mind that Lolium perenne has a minimum sufficiency level of 11mols per m2 according to research, its been a very dull winter so far with most areas receiving 50% of their normal sunshine (1991-2020 average as reported by The Met Office) during December 2024. (read it here).
So far then we have been cool, wet and dull with very little growth. The latter is probably a benefit in disguise because with low light levels, photosynthetic rates have been sub-optimal and so energy production correspondingly low. If temperatures were conducive to growth, that grass plant would struggle. So if your surfaces are looking a bit on the thin side vs. the autumn, don't be unduly concerned as firstly it is out of your control and secondly, we are heading in the right direction growth and light-wise with longer days and the prospect of some better temperatures in the spring (not always a given I know). In the meantime that grass plant is probably developing some nice roots, so if its dry enough, why not give it a helping hand with some aeration and oxygen !
Ok, that's me for another week. I'm off to stare at my Danish Rye Bread (Rugbrød) Buttermilk Bread starter mix that has failed twice so far and been consigned to the bin. I have high hopes for this one, third time lucky and all that and who knows I may get to bake my first ever loaf this weekend. The power of positive thinking eh ?
All the best.
Mark Hunt
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