The state of the ground.

[musky]

3 minutes ago, Titters said:

2011 was a bit soggy in the week before the festival, but we had some really heavy rain for a couple of hours just as the gates opened, and made the paths a pain to navigate. 

It also rained on and off on the Friday. I remember Mumfords and Vaccines on other being rainy, and particularly so during the headliners. 

Don't remember much rain after that, and Sunday was scorchio, sat on the floor. 

Seemed to have the lot! 

Yeah, it was raining on and off from the start of the festival right up until noon on Saturday. It only really got heavy (but nothing torrential) when the gates opened and on Friday night, apart from that it was light rain and drizzle.

2 minutes ago, BluePaul said:

Didn't it rain most of Thursday afternoon in 2014?  I seem to remember spending most of it holed up in the Kasbah!

I can't remember now, but it may have done. I just remember that the ground didn't really get bad, even after the biblical downpour on Friday. Plenty of surface slush, but it never turned to that boot sucking mud that makes it such hard going.

Just checked my photos and it was raining just before 3pm on Thursday, but it was fine before that and later in the evening.

[Titters]

6 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Any chance of doing the chart again only including rainfall from May onwards? And if it's easy, one for just rain in June?

@stuartbert two hats Here you go. This is just for June - the May & June comparison showed the same patterns as the original chart. 

Suggests that pre-festival rainfall doesn't make THAT much difference - 2016 being a clear exception, as was 2011 to a lesser degree.. 

 

One thing that has come to mind is how localised the weather was on Wednesday 2011 and Friday 2014 - I think the below, being measurements in Bath, undercook both of those numbers

Edited May 27, 2017 by Titters
Memories

[mario man]

1 hour ago, BluePaul said:

Didn't it rain most of Thursday afternoon in 2014?  I seem to remember spending most of it holed up in the Kasbah!

Thursday in 2014 was very nice to start with but the forecasts were spot on, heavy rain arrived mid-afternoon. I think it cleared by the evening as a mate of mine arrived late & I remember meeting him & rain had stopped - but it was muddy 

[warriormonk]

8 hours ago, Titters said:

2011 was a bit soggy in the week before the festival, but we had some really heavy rain for a couple of hours just as the gates opened, and made the paths a pain to navigate. 

Aah yes.  2011.  The year of the great comedy mud slide near Gate D!!

[Padgey]

Anything firmer than last year will be a bonus. 

[oneeye]

3 minutes ago, Padgey said:

Anything firmer than last year will be a bonus. 

That's what Mrs oneeye keeps saying to me 

[Woffy]

52 minutes ago, oneeye said:

That's what Mrs oneeye keeps saying to me 

Not to me, she didn't. ;-)

[oneeye]

2 hours ago, Padgey said:

Anything firmer than Woffy will be a bonus. 

[Woffy]

2 hours ago, Scruffylovemonster said:

Cos she was hoping for soft from you!

 

1 hour ago, oneeye said:

3 hours ago, Padgey said:

Anything firmer than Woffy will be a bonus. 

Thumbing in a softie has done me and your mums just fine thus far. :-)

Edited May 28, 2017 by Woffy

[oneeye]

6 minutes ago, Woffy said:

 

Thumbing in a softie has done me and your mums just fine thus far. :-)

Oh my, my mum's been dead 18 years; you need help 

[arcade fireman]

Never underestimate how much rainfall can fall when its heavy. I lived in Sydney for a couple of years and after a year there was pretty shocked to find out it got more rainfall (1200mm per year) than Manchester (800mm per year). This is despite it being far more sunny and dry most of the time, obviously. Short sharp heavy showers can spill out a lot more rain than dull persistent drizzle. 

[oneeye]

16 minutes ago, Scruffylovemonster said:

And mine nearly 20! 

He's a sick man

[Woffy]

27 minutes ago, oneeye said:

He's a sick man

I didn't realise 'cos I got the same reaction I usually do. 

[stuartbert two hats]

52 minutes ago, arcade fireman said:

Never underestimate how much rainfall can fall when its heavy. I lived in Sydney for a couple of years and after a year there was pretty shocked to find out it got more rainfall (1200mm per year) than Manchester (800mm per year). This is despite it being far more sunny and dry most of the time, obviously. Short sharp heavy showers can spill out a lot more rain than dull persistent drizzle. 

Manchester has slightly less rainfall than the national average, but quite a few more rainy days than average.

[squirrelarmy]

27 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Manchester has slightly less rainfall than the national average, but quite a few more rainy days than average.

It's more of a constant drizzle there no matter what time of year it is rather than intense periods of heavy rain.

[Calvin Klein]

22 hours ago, musky said:

What amazed me is the difference between 2014 and 2011.

In 2014 we had that torrential rain that closed the stages, but that only lasted about an hour. I don't really remember too much other rain during the rest of the festival. Despite the downpour the ground held up pretty well. In 2011 the ground was hard work until the Sunday, by which time it had dried up. That was with half the rain  during the festival compared to 2014, and less in both May and June.

I can't remember what it was like in the immediate run up to the festival in those years, but the ground conditions were like night and day. 2011 wasn't very pleasant but I thought 2014 was fine.

In 2014 it rained for a few hours on thursday afternoon. Then the friday storm. About an hour of heavy rain on saturday afternoon during plant. I think that was it.

[musky]

1 hour ago, Calvin Klein said:

In 2014 it rained for a few hours on thursday afternoon. Then the friday storm. About an hour of heavy rain on saturday afternoon during plant. I think that was it.

Yeah, I was checking my photos from that year and there was more rain than I'd remembered. Makes it even stranger that we didn't get the mud of 2011. I think it was pretty cool during the fest until the Sunday in 2011, and the on/off rain was just getting soaked up rather than burnt off.

[BluePaul]

3 hours ago, Calvin Klein said:

In 2014 it rained for a few hours on thursday afternoon. Then the friday storm. About an hour of heavy rain on saturday afternoon during plant. I think that was it.

Forgot about the Plant rain.  It bucketed down!

[Crazyfool01]

^^ plants always need a bit of rain 

[shoptildrop]

2 hours ago, BluePaul said:

Forgot about the Plant rain.  It bucketed down!

Yeah remember it as we been in JP for 3 bands and sun was out, the moment we headed towards Other the bloody heavens opened and we got soaked to the bone!!! Ended up going back to tent to change but luckily after that no more rain 

2014 was actually my favourite year

[JacquelineS]

I found historical weather for Pilton back as far as 2009. You can research further but not sure if you can for free. 

Edited May 29, 2017 by JacquelineS

[The other Bellboy]

On ‎27‎/‎05‎/‎2017 at 5:22 PM, briddj said:

It had definitely pissed down the week before in 2011. No one could get into the campervan fields, everyone had to be towed in by a tractor.

We put "Out Of Control" on full blast in our van as we were towed in with the back end sliding left and right. People watching on were amused.

Are you sure? We arrived Tuesday evening and we and everyone else drove in under our own steam and then we went and sat on top of the hill on the grass, the ground was fine. It certainly was raining well by the Wednesday morning - was it the Wednesday that they started to tow people in? 

[stuartbert two hats]

6 hours ago, JacquelineS said:

I found historical weather for Pilton back as far as 2009. You can research further but not sure if you can for free. 

Where's this from?  I didn't think there was a weather station in Pilton.  Is this supposed to be actual recorded figures, or an archive of predicted weather?

[Spindles]

32 minutes ago, The other Bellboy said:

Are you sure? We arrived Tuesday evening and we and everyone else drove in under our own steam and then we went and sat on top of the hill on the grass, the ground was fine. It certainly was raining well by the Wednesday morning - was it the Wednesday that they started to tow people in? 

It had been soggy on and off for a couple of weeks before the festival.  A friend had been onsite since the Friday before the festival and he told me that apart from a couple of heavy showers every day recently had followed the same pattern: rain overnight, a foggy, sometimes drizzly morning and then the sun burned the cloud off by lunchtime for a hot afternoon and evening.  The big rain Friday evening was the last of it though, once the sun came out Saturday morning we never saw another drop.

The ground itself wasn't too bad until punters arrived and chewed it all up, I understand.  Certainly the higher, less trodden ground was still green grass and fine to sit on (much like this year) earlier in the festival.

[mr gumby]

Pretty dreary in Somerset overnight and today. I suspect @deebeedoobee's dipstick might actually get its tip wet when she gets home.