How come my area has a microclimate?

[mollykins]

I know why my aarea of about 10sq miles has a microclimate by why does it work. I've always been told its because we're on a little island, so if you want to go more than a few miles, you have to cross water at some point.

East, there is the sea.
Running north west, then going east, finally ending in the sea is one river.
And joined onto that river a few miles inland is another river that runs south east, then turns east and ends up in the sea.

I live in one village, on the island, and our rainfall is measured, so is the village next to us, that is the other side of one of the rivers, and we recieve a significant amount less rainfall (sorry can't remmeber figures) than them.

How does this work?

[mollykins]

No, i live near the border with the flattest county in England, some of which is in the 'island'.

[mollykins]

Does the water act in the same way that mountains would? But how?

[mollykins]

And we don't st get considerably less rainfall than a coupl of miles away, we're one of the driest places in the UK.

[mollykins]

Plus where i live is weird. I'm 3 miles from the sea, 1 mile from a river, but not an estuary, if you look out of the back of my house, all you see is countryside, but if you look out of the front, all you can see is the village and town in the distance, 1 mile away recieves nearly double the rainfall we do.

[Huderon]

Everywhere has a microclimate. The definition of a microclimate is 'the physical state of the atmosphere close to a very small area of the earth's surface, often in relation to living matter such as crops or insects. In contrast to climate, microclimate generally pertains to a short period of time.' So the fields and woods near you have an effect, and the town you can see has it's own microclimate.

Although our climate is usually warm summers, mild winters and plenty of rain, the area in the rump of England (Norfolk, Suffolk, parts of Essex) has an almost semi-arid climate (we're back to those microclimates again !). If you think about it a bit, most of our weather comes from the west (red sky at night is valid for us). For your area that means that most of the wet stuff we get from the Atlantic is going to be dumped on the ground before it gets to your area - there are a lot of hills and mountains between you and the west coast.

Now if the other village is closer to the town than yours is, perhaps the town itself is having an effect which means there is more rain in that bit of your area than in your village ... with the other village suffering as a result. Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.o...of_the_United_Kingdom just for the fun of it - there are some surprising things in there :-)

[mollykins]

Its hard to explain, but the town and two villages are joined onto each other, the town half and half in and out of the island and one village in and one village out.

My question really is, how does the surounding water effect our climate and mean that we have so much less rain the just a couple of miles away?

[Huderon]

For that you need a real expert ! There is a programme on Radio 4 called Home Planet which answers listener's questions about all manner of things to do with the environment.

Now obviously there is no way of knowing that your question would be answered, but you could try posting it to them via http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006sdz0 and you might get lucky. You could also try contacting a nearby university - if they have a course covering climate and or meteorology someone there may be able to help

[mollykins]

Norfolk. I thought norfolk was the flattest.

[mollykins]

There can't be much between the two counties.