Watering gardens in Geneva

Water today

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

Updated this morning
Today

Has it rained enough in Geneva?

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

Geneva has had 21.3mm of rain in the last 30 days. A normal September here brings 99.6mm — and the driest September in the last 30 years still managed 37.6mm. This is drier than anything on that record.

Rain reaching the roots · 14 days
15 SeptToday
Thirty years

Rain in Geneva through a normal year

Across a normal year Geneva gets about 1355.7mm of rain, most of it in May (137.9mm) and least in February (95.8mm).

A normal September in Geneva has rain on 14 days. Only 10 of them bring enough to reach a root.

That makes Geneva one of the wetter places this site covers in Europe in September — 9th 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.