Still no real rainfall in your area?

[Tom D]

Not even 1 spot yesterday. Surrounded by rain, and I could see the rainbows, but none for here.

Exactly the same happened here. I was at Elveden Center Parcs yesterday and there was a big summer shower quenching the thirsty forest, but just got back home and not a drop recorded here, yet the radar shows rain all around. I'd like to put my location forward for being the driest in the country this year!

[The PIT]

We're now at 148% of normal after yesterdays 23.8 mm of rain. Amazing the difference a day makes.

[RichardR]

We might need rain, but not every bloody day JUST when July arrives.

[Weather-history]

Here's some depressing facts for northwest England and north Wales.

The last 4 Julys including the present one have totalled nearly 530mm

8 of the last 11 summer months including the present one have averaged over 100mm.

Those 11 summer months totalled nearly 1200mm! (about 140% of the 1961-90 average)

Edited July 23, 2010 by Mr_Data

[Terminal Moraine]

We're now at 148% of normal after yesterdays 23.8 mm of rain. Amazing the difference a day makes.

Having missed all the rain yesterday we're on 69% of the average for the whole of July; 47.4 mm so far.

[J07]

I have relatives from Sydney with two small children under 6 who visited last year and they'd never seen rain before, or so they said. so just for a laugh I looked up the rainfall in 'drought-stricken' Sydney Australia — 54.4 mm over 11 days this month, 164 mm over 13 days last month.

Our rainfall to date for July 2010 is 0.23 mm, June's was 1.32 mm. Unbelievable!

Hahaha. Sydney is really not that much of a dry place. They have no guaranteed dry season unlike places such as western Australia, California, Mediterranean. Sydneysiders sure as heck see rain. Sometimes buckets and buckets of it for several days...and it can be in summer, winter, autumn or spring.

[Iceni]

Hahaha. Sydney is really not that much of a dry place. They have no guaranteed dry season unlike places such as western Australia, California, Mediterranean. Sydneysiders sure as heck see rain. Sometimes buckets and buckets of it for several days...and it can be in summer, winter, autumn or spring.

But these Sydney kids, aged 4 & 6, said they'd never seen rain… and when I looked surprised their mum said it was true. Of course it may have rained when they were too young to remember, but a couple of years is quite a long time… south Aus has just emerged from the worst/longest drought in 100 years, it was on the news over here.

And still the wait for rain here continues. I said earlier in the week that I wouldn't be surprised if we missed the rain here but I didn't expect to be in such a dry spot with accumulation all around as the nw 24 hour rain accumulation shows! I guess I will be getting the hosepipe out again tonight!

I feel your pain. From your screen shot I'm situated in the very light blue. If you look at EA there's an area that looks like someone doing the splits — I'm just at the point of his left toe. =, bugger all.

Did some potato harvesting today and despite a couple of moderate showers yesterday, the soil's as dry as dust below 1 cm.

[Derp Patrol]

I just looked at Sydney average weather conditions, and I was actually quite surprised! I thought it would have been much warmer than it is in summer for its latitude and being on quite a large landmass, average summer max temps are about 25-26C which is only about 3C higher than London, although Sydney does have much warmer nights on average at about 18-19C compared to 14C..and obviously Sydney is more prone to extreme heat above 40C. I didn't expect Sydney to average over 1200mm of rain a year though! that's more than double what London gets!

[The PIT]

Having missed all the rain yesterday we're on 69% of the average for the whole of July; 47.4 mm so far.

Looks like Summer and Thundery rain is the only way I can beat you mate.

[Tim]

I just looked at Sydney average weather conditions, and I was actually quite surprised! I thought it would have been much warmer than it is in summer for its latitude and being on quite a large landmass, average summer max temps are about 25-26C which is only about 3C higher than London, although Sydney does have much warmer nights on average at about 18-19C compared to 14C..and obviously Sydney is more prone to extreme heat above 40C. I didn't expect Sydney to average over 1200mm of rain a year though! that's more than double what London gets!

I was aware it gets double the rainfall of many parts of the south of the UK. I've got not idea how kids aged 4 and 6 who come from a place that gets around 4/5 inches of rain pretty much every month of the year had never seen rain!!!!!

[Nick F]

I've got not idea how kids aged 4 and 6 who come from a place that gets around 4/5 inches of rain pretty much every month of the year had never seen rain!!!!!

Is rather odd!!!

Well, looks like no meaningful rain for the many areas of the Uk save the far north/NW on the horizon, so long as the Azores high dominates. I imagine the E&W average for July will not be very representative rainfall wise this month, with huge variations in rainfall. Philip Eden's site had it at 127% on the 18th, and this may have gone up since then with the deluges over Wales and N England earlier in the week. SE/central southern England and E Anglia have seen well below average rainfall, while SW England, Wales and parts of N England have recently gone above average.

[J07]

I just looked at Sydney average weather conditions, and I was actually quite surprised! I thought it would have been much warmer than it is in summer for its latitude and being on quite a large landmass, average summer max temps are about 25-26C which is only about 3C higher than London, although Sydney does have much warmer nights on average at about 18-19C compared to 14C..and obviously Sydney is more prone to extreme heat above 40C. I didn't expect Sydney to average over 1200mm of rain a year though! that's more than double what London gets!

I think it has an over-rated climate. Be careful of where you look though because the inner suburbs are a fair bit hotter.

The sunshine hours are much more than the UK, around 2800 I think (Similar to Southern Spain) whereas London gets 1500. Sydneys warm season is very long and maybe that gives a good impression if you live there a long time. It´s pretty warm September to May. In summer, dewpoints are always 18-23C in the middle of the day if the max is 27C. If the dewpoints are much lower its because they are getting W or NW flows with maxima of 35C or above.

I honestly think the whole east coast of Australia is over-rated for climate. It´s variable and at any time of year they can get depresions that make a real mess of sea conditions, hence messing up your beach holiday. It is pretty sunny and warm for much of the year though. "Beautiful one day, perfect the next" is generally a bit of a tall story. It can easily be horrendous one day and even worse the next (when they get persistent strong on shore flows).

Southern and Western Australia though is very good, if you like guaranteed dry, warm seasons and winters that are more like September/October in the UK.

One thing to bear in mind is the sun in Australia is much stronger than anywhere in Europe, and indeed most of the northern Hemisphere. So on a 26C day if you´re out in the sun it will feel as hot as the fiery pits of hell, whereas in Europe is would merely be a warm day.

[reef]

Here's some depressing facts for northwest England and north Wales.

The last 4 Julys including the present one have totalled nearly 530mm

8 of the last 11 summer months including the present one have averaged over 100mm.

Those 11 summer months totalled nearly 1200mm! (about 140% of the 1961-90 average)

July has been a pretty poor month for rainfall amounts here in the east too. From 2001-2010, six out of ten Julys have had more than 150% of average rainfall (and four of those were more than 200%).

This month though is exceptionally dry at only 13.0mm (34%) so far. This comes after:

March: 39.7mm (87%)

April: 23.9mm (56%)

May: 9.0mm (21%)

June 33.0mm (66%)

So only 118.6mm since February compared to the 1971-2000 average during the same period of 219.9mm. A notable dry period.

[sunny scunny]

About 15 minutes of drizzle here, so the grass will be staying brown for a while longer yet

[Norrance]

Just back from hols here to find that my rain gauge is showing 146 mms for July, way over average and more than the total for the three previous months combined.

[Iceni]

Just back from hols here to find that my rain gauge is showing 146 mms for July, way over average and more than the total for the three previous months combined.

How about starting up another thread entitled "We've had enough rain" and post there — It might be more on topic.

Meanwhile in our neck of the woods (or should that be parched desert?) the drought continues…

[ZONE 51]

athough we have had some rain during the last couple of wks, it actually hasnt done much, the grass is brown, all soil dust, and trees leafs covering the ground like auturmn, really crunchy orange, rivers are very low, the thames not as low like in 2006 yet.

[Andy Bown]

Today's line of rain disappeared just West of here just after 09.30 and reappeared to the east around

an hour later. I'm certain it wasn't a radar glitch because I was out working and felt just a few drops

of at around 10.00!

[WBSH]

It has been attempting to rain for the last 25/30 minutes, but so far not a great detail. It is needed in my location, the grass has gone very brown.

[The PIT]

Well a short term whoopsea as far as the forecast went. Much further south than they predicted which they admitted too this lunchtime so today's rain didn't turn up while the day before's was a lot more active than predicted. Two lemons two days running.

Anyway the weeds have enjoyed the recent rainfall as has the hedges. Can't see any more rain here for a few days. I was briefly wondering if we'd get too 100mm's again.

[sunny scunny]

Well a short term whoopsea as far as the forecast went. Much further south than they predicted which they admitted too this lunchtime so today's rain didn't turn up while the day before's was a lot more active than predicted. Two lemons two days running.

Yep, once again the forecast was absolutely abysmal.I was hoping for some much needed rain today, but it's been dry again

[peterf]

just dug some new potatoes.everything below 2" is bone dry and the bed was spread with 4 tonnes of cow muck back in october.

Edited July 27, 2010 by reef
Attempting to evade the swear filter, its there for a reason!

[The PIT]

just dug some new potatoes.everything below 2" is bone dry and the bed was spread with 4 tonnes of cow muck back in october.

Clearly Cow Muck absorbs water. No wonder it stinks. Tough s*it for the spuds though.....

[peterf]

Clearly Cow Muck absorbs water. No wonder it stinks. Tough s*it for the spuds though.....

it can only absorb it if it recieves it.the idea being that once absobed it can then retain a moist root run and release nutrients when needed.

but as afraid it got dried to shoe leather this year.only the autumn and winter rains will resaturate it,especially in the raised beds.

Edited July 27, 2010 by peterf

[PersianPaladin]

it can only absorb it if it recieves it.the idea being that once absobed it can then retain a moist root run and release nutrients when needed.

but as afraid it got dried to shoe leather this year.only the autumn and winter rains will resaturate it,especially in the raised beds.

I personally don't have moisture problems in my potato and leak patch. I've been using a mixture of leaf mould (from the nearby woods) and dry grass as a thick mulch and it's always moist underneath.