Almond blossoms herald the end of a cold wet winter. Is climate change at play?

In the vineyard the long winter task of pruning is soon coming to an end, while the days get longer and the sun gains in strength, the long, wet cold winter begins to peter out. Early morning frost has been a common phenomena this January, freezing the fingertips of the women pruning in the vineyard. On the way to Vidigueira, the roadside almond trees have now blossomed, heralding budbreak in the vineyard only some short weeks away in early March. The vineyard workers need to step up their tempo, none to soon to finish the long task of pruning!

Not in the past 30 years have we received so much rain as has fallen in December and January (645mm). Since October an abundant 890 mm of rainfall has fallen, twice the annual average of 450mm! Portugal is not alone in having experienced extreme weather this winter, witness the November floods in the UK. Climate change predictions warn of drier summers and wetter winters, with more intense rainfall the likely consequences. Is this climate change at play? Can we expect a hot, dry summer? Well, if so, at least we now have sufficient water resources for this year to help our vines through the long summer months.

(“Warmer temperatures allow the atmosphere to hold more water vapor – 6 per cent more for every 1ºC increase- and give it more energy, amplifying existing weather patterns. 2009 had the sixth-highest ocean temperatures since 1880 – again in line with climate change predictions.” Financial Times Weekend 6.2.10).

The abundant rains have not only filled our dam to the brim (capacity 500.000 m3), but have also filled our mammoth neighbor, the Alqueva, Europe’s largest manmade dam which, for the 1st time since it’s completion 8 years ago, reached it’s maximum 152m level at the beginning of 2010. According to the National Water Institute (INAG) a drought situation, in place since last March, has disappeared from the country with most water reservoirs from north to south of Portugal now filled.