Category: Climate and Weather

1932 – 1934

The prevailing winds of this district come from the south-west, although in the winter months north-easterly winds are frequent and make the valleys very cold. The south-westerly rain-bearing winds are far more pleasant than those from the north-east, which sweep bitingly through the valley and rage unheeded across the downlands. They are too chilly to be pleasantly bracing except in summer when they are not frequent.

Possibly, Wylye situated as it is on the southern side of the river valley, with half a mile or more of low lying water meadows between it and the downlands on the northern side, which would afford some shelter from the cold winds of the north and north-east feels these winds more than do Codford and Steeple Langford. These two villages are on the northern side of the valley and more exposed to the pleasanter effects of the south-westerly winds. Wylye is sheltered from these winds by the downlands lying south of the village, and in the summer months when a south-westerly wind is blowing across the downlands it is stiflingly hot in the village, with scarcely a breath of air to cool the hot and tired inhabitants.

Sudden weather changes are frequent in the district. Generally in summer one day might be very hot and the next of a wintry character, this all depending on prevailing weather over Britain, which in turn is dependent on the low pressure centres so often situated over Ireland, and the high pressure areas in Southern Europe in the winter months and over the Atlantic Ocean in the summer.

Sometimes there are long periods of drought, which are generally experienced when England as a whole is having hot, rainless days. Such a drought season occurred in 1921, when numerous wells in this district were dry and the river was very low. Nothing has since been done to provide a more adequate water supply for the villages, and again in 1933 (summer) the water shortage caused anxiety. The winter 1933-34 has been an extraordinarily dry one, and following on a summer drought period, it seems likely that should this coming summer be as hot as the previous one, the shortage of water will be a very acute problem indeed. In these chalk regions the water supply is entirely dependent on the rainfall.

Usually the yearly rainfall total for this district varies from 30.25 inches to 32.37 inches. On the 4th of August 1931 an extraordinarily heavy downfall was recorded. The day’s rainfall was 5.18 inches, and of this amount 5.10 inches fell in two hours during a thunderstorm. This was the heaviest day’s downpour experienced for many years, and caused the pond at the west end of the village to overflow and made the streets like rivers, whilst the ploughed fields on the downland slopes were cut in many places by miniature river valleys.

On the whole there is no very high daily or seasonal range of temperature. In the winter months it is not generally below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, although on March 18th 1930 18 degrees of frost was recorded. This was a very unusual temperature however. The usual temperatures experienced in July are between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit but in August, if the weather is fine and the sky cloudless, temperatures are often higher, being sometimes more than 80 degrees Fahrenheit. In 1933, during August, a temperature of 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded.

The watermeadows contribute to the general humidity of the air and very often heavy mists arise from them in the mornings.

Snow is seldom seen here in December – when January comes the inhabitants expect to see snow, but not generally before then. Heavy falls have been known, and drifts are frequent in the lanes and along the road sides. More than once Wylye and other villages in this district have been isolated from each other by heavy falls of snow, occurring in the latter half of the winter or the early spring months.

Occasional thunderstorms disturb the serenity of the Wylye Valley during the summer and early autumn. When they come they are generally bad storms, for the thunder clouds seem to gather and stay over the valley, as if hemmed in by the downlands. Heavy downpours of rain sometimes accompany these storms and can cause havoc in the corn fields, especially before the harvest.