Jersey Royal Potato farmers welcome Bank Holiday rain

It has been very dry in the Channel Islands recently, which has concerned the potato farmers. Jersey Royal season is upon us, with the early potatoes beginning to appear in supermarkets across the British Isles. They are only available for a few months so this harvest has to count. 

There are various stages of dry weather and drought. Guernsey reached absolute drought around the 19th, Jersey the next day

• Dry spell: 15 consecutive days where rain does not exceed 1mm.
• Partial drought: 29 consecutive days where the mean daily rainfall doesn't exceed 0.2mm.
• Absolute drought: 15 consecutive days where rain does not exceed 0.2mm.

Farmers had to start irrigating their crops, which mean working extra hours laying irrigation pipes and watering systems in fields. This was often working early in the morning before the sun got to work and all before the main harvest time.

Finally, along with the May Day weekend, came the rain. 75% of the usual April monthly rainfall fell at the weekend, with more on the Monday 1st.

Usually, the warm sunshine is accompanied by rain from Atlantic low pressures, keeping the spring weather quite mixed. This year, many parts of the British Isles have been very dry with gardeners and farmers warily watching their crops and plants, especially in southern areas. UK wide Met Office data shows:

For the UK as a whole it was the driest October-March period since 1995/96

The main outdoor crop is planted from January to April with harvesting from the end of March through to the July. The peak of the season is May, when up to 1,500 tonnes of Royals can be exported daily. It has a PDO - Protected Designation of Origin, look for the red symbol. Some farmers fertilise the fields with ‘Vraic’ seaweed which washes up on the shores of Jersey helping with the distinctive taste of these new potatoes.

Their unique flavour comes from Jersey's rich fertile earth, gentle climate and the way our farmers grow them.

Forecast

It's looking dry and breezy for the rest of this week, with a cool NE wind subduing the temperatures somewhat. A frontal band tries to reach the Channel Islands on Saturday creeping up from the SW, but it could fade before reaching Jersey, or just bring very patchy light rain. High pressure centred away to the north of the UK will remain well into next week, so the dry conditions just continue.

Current Radar