Sunday 14 December 2008

Wettest day of the year in London?



Yesterday was the wettest day of the year with 25.4mm (exactly 1 inch) of rain falling in the 'Rain day' that stretches from 09 to 09 GMT. It was not a record breaker, nearly 32mm fell in December 2002 and almost 30mm fell in 1995. Boxing Day 1886 appears to have been the wettest December day, but as some of the totals included melted snow a cynic may question the validity of the readings. The numbers for that day included 46mm for Kensington and Brixton and 60mm for Hampstead. In recent years, 34mm fell in parts of southwest London during December 1979. Interestingly, the whole rainfall event this December covered 2 'Rain days' and the total came to nearly 36mm. It commenced around 0100 hours on the 13th and then rained continuously until 2300 hours, a total of 22 hours. That in itself is not a record. During June 1903 parts of north London had over 58 hours of continuous rain. By the way, a few days after that rain a three week 'drought' commenced!

No comments: