Rainfall Stats May 2011

[damianslaw]

After the very dry Feb, March and April, May has got off to a rather average note rainfall wise for the north i.e. scotland, nw england and n ireland, though well below further south and east.

Would be interested to hear what the current rainfall stats are for this month region by region. I think this month is going to show a very marked contrast between NW and SE, with the NW recording above average rainfall and the southeast well below.

Thankfully here in the Lake District we are seeing some very useful rain, days like yesterday and today are delivering the 'right type of rain', i.e. long lasting stuff which is not evaporating and will be doing wonders for groundwater levels. At this time of year the southeast will always struggle to see similiar type rainfall, the only synoptics which can deliver this are cyclonic conditions with low pressure direct over the country and slow moving fronts - these synoptics don't often tend to show up till later in the summer when the atlantic tends to rev into gear, though some recent summer months have delivered these set ups notable June 2007 and July 2008.

[ocean]

Heres the stats from the Channel Islands

Jersey Monthly Weather Stats

[Kentish Kiwi]

Very little real rain here and things are looking just as dry, if not more than they were at the end of April. Woke up one morning to find that some overnight showers (maybe a couple of mm) had made the ground temporarily wet but quickly dried during the day and have had the odd spit of rain on a few days that's dampened the grass a little and a moderate shower on Saturday night that lasted for 10 minutes but nothing noticeable.

We also completely missed out on any precip from quite a significant thunderstorm that provided areas of Sevenoaks just a couple of miles further to the south with heavy rain, hail and moderate localised flooding from what I've heard, but still thankfully got the thunder/lightning show. However, that doesn't seem to have had any impact on how brown and dry the grass is compared to here, ie. I doubt it really helped relieve the dry conditions.

Would have thought we would still be around the middle single digits for mm of rainfall so far this month but that's entirely an estimation and could be quite far off the actual figure... Anyone know somewhere I could find rainfall data for a nearby location? (or alternatively have there own data that they've collected nearby?)

Edit: Just gave it a quick search and found a weather station in Kenley which is reporting 5.58mm so far this month which supports my estimations nicely, has been a very dry spring here indeed.

Edited May 16, 2011 by Kentish Kiwi

[Alex]

I wonder what Writtle or andrewsfield in Essex show, im not moaning cause I like it dry but i bet the figures are below 5mm, we have had no thunderstorms or heavy showers, all have been if any light showers mostly not covering the ground.

[Weather-history]

After the very dry Feb,

February was actually wet, 123.4mm for NW England and N Wales

Driest springs on record for England and Wales

1785: 54.8mm

2011: ~55.8mm (up to 14th)

1893: 71.5mm

1990: 85.4mm

1938: 95.4mm

1956: 96.5mm

1852: 99.4mm

[Terminal Moraine]

February was actually wet, 123.4mm for NW England and N Wales

Driest springs on record for England and Wales

1785: 54.8mm

2011: ~55.8mm (up to 14th)

1893: 71.5mm

1990: 85.4mm

1938: 95.4mm

1956: 96.5mm

1852: 99.4mm

Interesting that the summers in all of these years produced at least one wet month, and in the case of 1956 and 1852 were generally wet summers.

67.7 mm here so far this spring which is 23.9 mm behind 1990 which was the driest spring on record.

The record for the driest season on record is safe once more as the summer of 1983 produced only 62.1 mm of rain.

[Osbourne One-Nil]

Squeezed 45mm of rain out so far this month, and despite the majority of April being bone dry, the month overall yielded 77mm. With March giving 49mm, the total for spring so far here is 172mm, with the 10yr average being 182mm.

[Weather-history]

Driest seasons on record for England and Wales (less than 100mm)

Spring 1785: 54.8mm

Spring 2011: ~55.8mm (up to 14th)

Summer 1995: 66.9mm

Spring 1893: 71.5mm

Summer 1976: 74.0mm

Spring 1990: 85.4mm

Winter 1964: 88.9mm

Summer 1800: 91.5mm

Winter 1858: 92.2mm

Spring 1938: 95.4mm

Spring 1956: 96.5mm

Summer 1869: 98.9mm

Spring 1852: 99.4mm

[Coast]

Nothing for 8 days and the only rain for the month so far has given 9.4mm total

[osmposm]

Heres the stats from the Channel Islands

Jersey Monthly Weather Stats

That hyperlink is not quite right, Ocean, and doesn't work - it has an extra 'http//' in it!

This should work, though: http://www.mantonjersey.co.uk/userimages/Current_Vantage_pro.htm

Edited May 17, 2011 by osmposm

[Weather-history]

Driest seasons on record for England and Wales (less than 100mm)

Spring 1785: 54.8mm

Spring 2011: ~55.8mm (up to 14th)

Summer 1995: 66.9mm

Spring 1893: 71.5mm

Summer 1976: 74.0mm

Spring 1990: 85.4mm

Winter 1964: 88.9mm

Summer 1800: 91.5mm

Winter 1858: 92.2mm

Spring 1938: 95.4mm

Spring 1956: 96.5mm

Summer 1869: 98.9mm

Spring 1852: 99.4mm

Wettest season for England and Wales (400mm+)

Autumn 2000: 502.7mm

Autumn 1852: 455.8mm

Autumn 1960: 438.6mm

Autumn 1935: 424.1mm

Winter 1915: 423.0mm

Winter 1990: 420.9mm

Winter 1877: 418.3mm

Winter 1995: 415.6mm

Summer 1912: 409.7mm

Summer 1879: 409.2mm

Autumn 1770: 402.4mm

Autumn 1772: 400.6mm

Edited May 17, 2011 by Mr_Data

[MP-R]

25.4mm of rain at home in Bristol, about 10 from a thunderstorm on the 6th, 11 from another period of heavy rain on the 7th and the remaining from heavy showers on the 9th. Nothing since then however.

[osmposm]

I wonder what Writtle or andrewsfield in Essex show, im not moaning cause I like it dry but i bet the figures are below 5mm, we have had no thunderstorms or heavy showers, all have been if any light showers mostly not covering the ground.

Don't know about those two stations, Alex - or official figures for May so far - but here are the rounded monthly rainfall figures for the (most important) November-April months for Hampstead (North London), Wattisham (Suffolk) and Wittering (Cambs) from http://www.climate-uk.com/page3.html , together with the percentage of the mean (starting with April and working back):

Hampstead - 03mm (06%). 14mm (25%). 56mm (143%). 93mm (141%). 31mm (50%). 39mm (57%). = 70% overall

Wattisham - 05mm (14%). 12mm (25%). 47mm (128%). 67mm (137%). 20mm (38%). 50mm (98%). = 73% overall

Wittering - 03mm (07%). 04mm (08%). 44mm (101%). 29mm (053%). 14mm (26%). 43mm (75%). = 45% overall

Wittering must really be suffering

A Wunderground automated site also in Hampstead gives just 4.7mm for May rainfall so far, but this is not reliable - its rainfall stats for the earlier months are well below the official station's, by as much as a third or more.

Far more trustworthy, and just 17 miles from you, is the excellent Epping Weather Site http://www.eppingweather.co.uk/ - rainfall there is measured manually and checked for consistency against an automated system. Epping is in Essex, just outside NE London, and here are his stats for the same months:

Epping - 2.1mm (04%). 8.8mm (20%). 41.4mm (95%). 79.1mm (128%). 27.8mm (48%). 41.5mm (69%). = 61% overall

And your guess about this month's total seems spot on - so far in May he has recorded just 4.3mm, around 8% of what you'd expect.

Ossie

[damianslaw]

Squeezed 45mm of rain out so far this month, and despite the majority of April being bone dry, the month overall yielded 77mm. With March giving 49mm, the total for spring so far here is 172mm, with the 10yr average being 182mm.

Thanks for these stats - overall the Lake District is experiencing a rather average spring rainfall wise contrary to how it has felt. However, most of the rain in March and April came in short bursts, especially April where the majority fell before the 6th with little after. However, this month so far the rain has been much more evenly spread with many rainfall days producing similiar amounts. This looks to continue for the foreseeable future and I wouldn't be surprised to see the NW recording an above average month rainfall wise though only slightly so - I do think we in Cumbria will easily record an above average month mind and a dissapointing one for sunshine.

The spring will definately go down as a marked one in contrast rainfall wise between the NW and SE.

[Summer of '47]

Since the last "proper" rainfall, just a few light rain shower in the last week.

5.3mm to add to 1.1 mm in April.

Edited May 18, 2011 by Summer of '47

[Andy Bown]

36mm in Warminster so far of which 25mm fell overnight into the 7th and another 7.5mm the following night!

We actually had an unexpected 2mm yesterday from persistent drizzle/light rain which, although not much, was

considerably needed - especially as today's forecast frontal light rain has barely dampened the ground let alone

provided anything measurable!!

With April having just 12.5mm and March just 43mm* it is a very dry 3 months.

*43mm may sound decent and it is compared to a lot of places, however 25mm of that came in less than 1 hour from

an unforecast thunderstorm on March 26th! So only 18mm in the month apart from that 1 hour!

Thinking about it some more, we really and truly are lacking frontal rainfall : in March the vast majority came from

that unforecast storm, in April 2 fronts gave a few mm and the rest came via showers, and now this month the thundery

pulses from the Spanish Plume gave the majority that weekend of 6th/7th and the rest has come from showers until the

very weak warm front yesterday!

[AderynCoch]

A surprisingly low 20.2mm so far at Crosby (my nearest station - I suspect it's slightly drier here), given how many days it has rained (and often heavily). I suppose the fact that the rain has generally been ephemeral has stopped the total building up too much.

Wittering badly needs rain.

[Thundery wintry showers]

Norwich must be in serious need of rain- true, there has been some rain on a good half-dozen days so far this month, but it's generally been little dregs here and there, apart from two days when we had a couple of heavy showers. The grass started to sprout into life at the weekend following the showers but I've looked around today and it's still pretty parched.

Cleadon in Tyne and Wear has had 15mm rain so far this month, but considering that April had only 4mm, it's pretty dry up there as well.

[Bluebreezer54]

0.9mm today bought the May total up to just 12.6mm in North West London so far.

[TonyH]

41mm so far here, nothing unusual out west then.

However for the Midlands and south-east a truly exceptionally dry Spring.

Coventry on course for the driest Spring on record (srb 1870) should no more heavy rain fall in May:

Bablake WS

[mk13]

Here in Colchester we are currently at 1.4mm to the 19th, Shoeburyness is currently 2.4mm to the 19th. Add the full yearly stats to the Essex drought thread.

[TEITS]

Wittering badly needs rain.

You ain't kidding i've never seen anything like it for Spring.

As Wittering is 20 miles NW of Peterborough I thought I would post some rainfall figures for Peterborough over the last few months.

March 2mm, April 3.7mm, May so far 6.3mm.

We really have been very unlucky and missed virtually all showers. What also doesn't help is Dec was also incredibly dry with only 6.4mm recorded.

Edited May 20, 2011 by THE EYE IN THE SKY

[Osbourne One-Nil]

Couldn't believe how dusty and brown everything looked when I had the misfortune to have to go to Bedford and Northampton yesterday...especially considering it's still May!

Raining heavily here this afternoon with plenty more forecast overnight and Monday. Currently just over 47mm for the month.

[The PIT]

Well the bad news is that front is fizzling out already I'd be surprised if any made it over the Pennines and into eastern England. 23.7 mm so far this month. Tomorrow could be interesting if the Thundery showers show up.

[TEITS]

Well the bad news is that front is fizzling out already I'd be surprised if any made it over the Pennines and into eastern England. 23.7 mm so far this month. Tomorrow could be interesting if the Thundery showers show up.

Just been looking at that. Despite the Met O predicting rain for my area tonight I reckon I will be lucky to see more than 1-2mm. Looks like I may have to wait until the end of next week for any decent rainfall.