Weatherwatch: earlier harvests show UK?s climate is changing

Harvest start time has advanced by about a month in 60 years, with 2022?s one of the earliest on recordIt has been an exceptional year, but 69% of the winter barley crop in England, Wales and Scotland was harvested by 19 July. By then in the south and east farmers were already well on with the wheat crop too. One problem was that overnight temperatures were so high that to avoid the risk of fire and damage to the crop, the grain had to be cooled before it could be put in grain stores. This is the earliest recorded harvest of recent times ? the previous record was set in 2006.This is in sharp contrast to the harvests of the 1950s and 60s. August was when harvesting usually began, even in the south, and sometimes ran on into September if the weather was particularly wet. Continue reading...