Wednesday 28 May 2008

Rain Records? No.

The 54mm of rain that have fallen in Morden during the last 4 days have certainly made the ground soggy. However, the first 23 days of the month only yielded 7mm of rain. So no records, at least so far. During the last 110 years, there have only been 2 Mays when rainfall exceeded 100mm in south London, namely in 1932 and 1979. Statistics will show this to be a wet month, but for much of the time it has been dry and warm. May 1992 was similar in many respects. It was a very warm month with plenty of sunshine, but there were 65mm of rain, 54mm of which fell on just 3 days. At Heathrow Airport, there was a total of 95mm, with nearly 62mm falling on the 29th. The wettest May day in the last 100 years occurred on the 31st May 1911. At Banstead, over 91mm of rain fell, over 81mm fell at Harrow, and nearly 73mm fell at Epsom, of which almost 62mm fell in just 50 minutes. This became known as the 'Derby Day' storm, on account of the 5 people that were killed by lightning at the end of the Epsom Derby. Several other people were struck by lightning, including a police cyclist who died in Garth Road, Morden.

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