Watering gardens in Bern

Water today

It is over a fortnight since any rain reached the roots.

Updated this morning
Today

Has it rained enough in Bern?

The last rain heavy enough to soak in fell over a week ago. What has fallen since wet the leaves and no more.

Bern has had 26.3mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal September here brings 90.8mm — and the driest September in the last 30 years still managed 47.1mm. This is drier than anything on that record.

Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
15 SeptToday
Reached the roots Rain that did not one day of 14
Thirty years

Rain in Bern through a normal year

Across a normal year Bern gets about 1164mm of rain, most of it in May (123.3mm) and least in February (73.6mm).

A normal September in Bern has rain on 15 days. Only 10 of them bring enough to reach a root.

That makes Bern one of the wetter places this site covers in Europe in September — 16th of 116, against Salzburg at the wet end (166.3mm) and Athens at the dry end (19.4mm).

JFebMAMayJJASOND
Average rainfall by month, 1995–2024
What it means

What that means for what you grow

  • Pots and hanging basketsWorst hit, and first to suffer. Very little soil, fully exposed, and nothing to fall back on — in this weather they can empty in a day.
  • Salad and leafy vegShallow-rooted and quick to bolt once they run dry. First priority of anything in the ground.
  • Beds and bordersA long soak that reaches the roots is worth more than a daily sprinkle, which only wets the surface and is gone by lunchtime.
  • Established shrubs and treesFine as they are. They draw from far deeper than a dry spell reaches.