Updated rainfall / 9th of March 2025

 

Updated rainfall / 9th of March 2025

July 2024: Total = 0 mm

August 2024: Total = 0 mm

September 2024: Total = 70 mm

Days of rain: 6

October 2024: Total = 5 mm

Days of rain: 2

November 2024: Total = 140 mm

Days of rain: 14

December 2024: Total = 225 mm

Days of rain: 13

January 2025: Total = 70 mm

Days of rain: 4

February 2025: Total = 135 mm

Days of rain: 11

March 2025*: Total = 1 mm*

Days of rain: 1*

TOTAL = 645 mm*

Days of rain: 51*

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During the same time last year (2023 - 2024)

July 2023: Total = 0 mm

August 2023: Total = 10 mm (1 day of rain)

September 2023: Total = 0.1 mm (1 day of rain)

October 2023: Total = 410 mm (11 days of rain)

November 2023: Total = 380 mm (11 days of rain)

December 2023: Total = 230 mm (8 days of rain)

January 2024: Total = 400 mm (21 days of rain)

February 2024: Total = 280 mm (11 days of rain)

March 2024: Total = 125 mm (11 days of rain)

April 2024: Total = 35 mm (7 days of rain)

May 2024: Total = 35 mm (5 days of rain)

June 2024: Total = 0 mm

From July 2023 till the end of February 2024 I therefore recorded 1710 mm of rain for 64 days of rain.

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Comparison

The comparison is truly striking. Over the same time period (July - end of February) we had 645 mm this year, contrarily to the 1710 mm of last year. Last year, the amounts of rain that fell were above the average, while this year, they are below the average, accentuating even more the sensation of drought I have.

And what is the average?

Even though no official data exist for Amchit, I had a great, great uncle who used to record rainfall, and the average was around 1000 - 1200 mm per year. As a comparison, the average rainfall in Beirut is 700 mm, but Beirut is dryier. 

And it's been three winters I record rainfall, but the first two years my data were more experimental. I always recorded more than 1200 mm.

This year in fact it is especially the lack of rain in January that is now giving this impression of winter drought in the garden. And it will really depend of the rainfall we receive in March, April and May to decide to what extent 2024 - 2025 has been a dry year: if it's a really bad drought, or if this impression of drought will be compensated by later rainfall. 

Now, in the weather forecast there is no rainfall in the next 10 days, and instead we will have temperatures 10 °C above the average (the average is 17 - 10 °C in March, in Amchit). That can happen. Three years ago, we had an extremely cold month of March for instance, with temperatures consistently underneath 10°C, reaching as low as 4°C. And, that means abundant snowfall all over the mountains, as the nearby mountains are much colder than Amchit.

Usually the ski season lasts from December to March, so an average of four months. Usually March is a cold and rainy month.

For now, the start of March this year has been mild, and dry, and it will get even unusually warm during the next 10 days. Let's hope that in two weeks, we will have another cold front, with rain and snow, as for nature and agriculture, we need water and snow. 

The Mountains of Lebanon are considered as a Castle of water, as they keep snow on their peaks till May or June, and on the highest peak the snow remains from year to year in shaded areas. So as the snow melts during the Spring and the beginning of summer, it provides the narrow plains along the coast with water, even when the weather gets warm and dry (from June to September) it rarely rains. 

It's been years that I observe meteorology and climate phenomena as a side activity. Already from the times of being a student at the American University of Beirut, we had a very dry fall in 2010 - 2011 that inspired me to write a story (fiction writing) but also to start studying, on my own, meteorology and climatology, as that drought made me worry for the environment, and I wanted to understand if it was the result of global warming. That year (2010 - 2011) instead of starting at the end of September, we had to wait till the beginning of December to see the first rainfall, with temperatures well above average during the entire fall season. But then the storm that struck was extremely strong.

Fortunately that pattern did not repeat the years afterwards, and that year, there was a strange El Nino, La Nina, phenomenon in the world.

I'm not a climate expert, but I know a lot of things about this subject. I used to be the Administrator of a meteorology page on Facebook, describing the climate and meteo of Lebanon on a daily basis, along with six other people passionate by the matter, and our writings about meteorology and climate were followed by more than 100 000 persons. But when I closed my fb account because of what happened with you Red-Oak, and the harm you caused to me, I quitted that side activity. But that page I contributed to create still exists.

And I kept that interest and passion for myself over the last 5 - 6 years, and when we moved to Amchit, I started measuring temperatures and rainfall on a daily basis, to help me with my permaculture and agroforestry work, but also just out of intellectual interest.