On December 20th, 2021, we started tracking the daily rain on our land. We now have the data for the whole year of 2022.

2022 had a lot less than average rain, right from the start until deep into the Summer. However, in the period September - December that was generously compensated.

From the Portuguese weather institute (https://www.ipma.pt/pt/oclima/monitoriza.dia/) we also collected the data for the nearest cities: Lisbon and Setúbal. The long term rainfall (1971 - 2000) for both cities is almost the same, a little above 70 cm per year.

In Lisbon the total for 2022 was even slightly higher than the yearly average (tot 730 mm, avg 725 mm). Because within a few days in December, it rained a total of 360 mm! This is triple (!) the long year average for December (120 mm) and half of all (!) rain falling normally in 12 months. It caused many problems in the city…

Setubal also had higher than average rainfall in the last few months. But not enough to compensate for the first few months. The total for 2022 was only 533 mm instead of the average 716 mm.

Our own measurements are in line with Setubal: a total of 550 mm. So we assume for now the normal for Setubal is also our normal, meaning we can expect an average rainfall of 70 cm per year.

Looking at the statistics from IPMA, individual years often divert rather much from the average. So we hope the next few years will bring above average rain. Ideally more spread out over the months ;-)

The dry start of the year was an unexpected problem for us. It attracted the wild boars far earlier than normal and it resulted in parts of our efforts to grow things to fail. Eventually we were able to get an irrigation system running, but this was after several months of drought.

The good news is that our waterhole kept a good pressure during the whole Summer. It confirms the idea that below us is a large reservoir of fresh water, replenished now by the rains.