Rainfall Statistics, 2012

[Stationary Front]

Wettest year since 2007. Just another 1.4mm would have made it the wettest since 1912. Only 8 wetter years since records kept from 1870. Figures taken from Bablake Weather Station at Coventry.

Edited January 1, 2013 by Stationary Front

[TonyH]

Hi stationary front.

Indeed only the wettest at Bablake since 2007. At my parents prior address in Coventry 2007 drier than Bablake so the wettest since 1966 according to my research.

[Terminal Moraine]

December ended with 210.7 mm making it the wettest since 1993 here and the 7th wettest month of any in the last 35 years.

The annual total was 1392.1mm, 15.2 mm more than the previous wettest year in 2000 and therefore the wettest year since my records began in 1963.

[SteveB]

Final count for 2012

Jan 78.9mm

Feb 39mm

Mar 44mm

Apr 178.3mm

May 121.3mm

Jun 209.6mm

Jul 267.9mm

Aug 141.7mm

Sep 143.6mm

Oct 128.6mm

Nov 196.7mm

Dec 194.9mm

Total 1744.5mm

Edited January 2, 2013 by SteveB

[Bobby]

Final count for 2012

Jan 78.9mm

Feb 39mm

Mar 44mm

Apr 178.3mm

May 121.3mm

Jun 209.6mm

Jul 267.9mm

Aug 141.7mm

Sep 143.6mm

Oct 128.6mm

Nov 196.7mm

Dec 194.9mm

Total 1744.5mm

What's your yearly average, that has to be the wettest year ever by some distance?

[reef]

2012 rainfall for Hedon (results from manual rain gauge as Davis VP2 was found to under-read by 27%):

Jan: 25.8mm

Feb: 15.2mm (driest since 1998)

Mar: 24.6mm

Apr: 139.6mm (wettest on record)

May: 50.4mm

Jun: 112.2mm (wettest since 2007)

Jul: 61.8mm

Aug: 78.4mm

Sep: 41.6mm

Oct: 61.2mm

Nov: 102.0mm (wettest since 2002)

Dec: 114.0mm (wettest since 1983)

Total: 826.8mm (wettest since 2000, which was only 2mm more)

Rainfall was almost double 2011 and nearly as much as 2010 and 2011 put together.

[SteveB]

What's your yearly average, that has to be the wettest year ever by some distance?

Not sure mate, will have to look into it, but certainly a very wet year.

[Summer Sun]

Not sure mate, will have to look into it, but certainly a very wet year.

899.6mm was the 1981-2010 average

[Andy Bown]

December was the wettest month of the year, taking the total to my highest yearly figure of 1218.5mm!

Here's a stat ; Feb had 16.5mm total and since then 22 single days had more than that amount!

[TonyH]

Rainfall 2012, Llanwnnen, Ceredigion

Jan: 108.2mm = slightly dry

Feb: 64.2mm = dry

March: 23.5mm = very dry

April: 126.0mm = very wet

May: 52.7mm = rather dry

June: 218.3mm = exceptionally wet!

July: 100.5mm = rather wet

Aug: 158.9mm = very wet

Sept: 80.3mm = rather dry

Oct: 149.9mm = average

Nov: 185.4mm = rather wet

Dec: 257.1mm = very wet

2012 Total 1525.5mm = very wet, not so wet as 2008 (1553mm)

[SteveB]

899.6mm was the 1981-2010 average

Cheers

[TonyH]

Final count for 2012

Jan 78.9mm

Feb 39mm

Mar 44mm

Apr 178.3mm

May 121.3mm

Jun 209.6mm

Jul 267.9mm

Aug 141.7mm

Sep 143.6mm

Oct 128.6mm

Nov 196.7mm

Dec 194.9mm

Total 1744.5mm

What rain gauge are you using that total seems extreme even in such a wet year for your part of the world? The upper limit for annual rainfall tends to be 160% for any given location, but your figure is nearer 195%, an astounding amount!

For example the wettest ever year at Coventry is 1000mm which is only about 150%.

Edited January 2, 2013 by TonyH

[TonyH]

Through correspondence with Stephen Burt of COL, and who used to live and record rainfall at Long Lawford, Rugby, the 874mm my parents recorded there for 2012 would appear to be the wettest in the area since 1882 (916mm)! Not bad considering it was the first complete yearly total as they only moved there in 2011.

Edited January 2, 2013 by TonyH

[Evening thunder]

Here are my figures for 2012. These are from a combination of Davis VP2 records and also corrections based on manual rain gauges, also used for calibrations of the VP2 to bring it in line, as I have had some problems with it seemingly 'changing' calibration even after I have calibrated it a few times. Interesting to note reef's comment, unlike other parts of the station I have not been particularly impressed with the reliability of the Davis VP2 rain gauge..

With that and being at Uni much of the time from September it has been hard keeping my data super accurate like I want, but hopefully I have a pretty good result in the end, looking at manual gauges and nearby sites.

Anyway my totals are..

Jan: 60.8mm

Feb: 29.2mm

Mar: 20.0mm

Apr: 166.0mm

May: 46.8mm

Jun: 186.0mm

Jul: 149.4mm

Aug: 136.2mm

Sep: 79.6mm

Oct: 132.6mm

Nov: 188.4mm

Dec: 190.8mm

Total: 1385mm

The average is around 850mm..

7 months of the year over 100mm, and from April-December only May came in just below average.

[Bobby]

I use a manual raingauge too, don't trust the electronic ones though I am bit of a luddite.

Looking at the records while the year wasn't the wettest ever the summer was as was the Apr-Dec period.

Summer: 640mm - 206% the long term average of 310mm

Apr-Dec: 1,795mm - 140% the long term average of 1,285mm

[Summer Sun]

The past 12 months were the second wettest on record in the UK, according to data released by the Met Office. The total rainfall for the UK during 2012 was 1,330.7mm (51.5in), just 6.6mm short of the record set in 2000. Most areas were affected by the extreme weather, with thousands of homes flooded and farmers struggling to grow crops in the saturated soil. The latest data comes as analysis says the frequency of extreme rainfall in the UK may be increasing. BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin said statistics showed that days of particularly heavy rainfall had become more common since 1960. The study into extreme rain was based on statistics from the National Climate Information Centre, the UK's official climate record. The Met Office said this was the wettest year on record for England, the third wettest for Wales, the 17th wettest on record for Scotland and the 40th wettest for Northern Ireland. The records date back to 1910.

The Met Office added that four of the top five wettest years had occurred since 2000. "The trend towards more extreme rainfall events is one we are seeing around the world, in countries such as India and China, and now potentially here in the UK," said Met Office chief scientist Prof Julia Slingo. "Much more research is needed to understand more about the causes and potential implications."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20898729

[Bobby]

Have a read of this from the Met Office

http://www.metoffice...-precip-AMJ.pdf

SUMMARY - PRECIPITATION:

The forecast for average UK rainfall slightly favours drier-than-average conditions for April-May-June as a whole, and also slightly favours April being the driest of the 3 months.With this forecast, the water resources situation in southern, eastern and central England is likely to deteriorate further during the April-May-June period.

The probability that UK precipitation for April-May-June will fall into the driest of our five categories is 20-25% whilst the probability that it will fall into the wettest of our five categories is 10-15% (the 1971-2000 climatological probability for each of these categories is 20%).

As a legacy of dry weather over many months water resources in much of southern, eastern and central England remain at very low levels. Winter rainfall in these areas has typically been about 70% of average,whilst observations and current forecasts suggest that the final totals for

March will be below average here too. The Environment Agency advises that, given the current state of soils and groundwater levels in these

areas, drought impacts in the coming months are virtually inevitable.The degree of impact will be greater if warm, dry conditions prevail. On

the upper (wet) portion of the graphs on Figure P2 note how theforecast curves for both April (pink) and April-May-June (blue) lie to the

right of the climatology curves (black), implying reduced probability of wet conditions compared to climatology.

A bit off. Not knocking the Met Office though, it's just almost possible to forecast far to forecast that fare out which is why I am very sceptical of any LRF forecast.

Edited January 3, 2013 by reef

[SteveB]

What rain gauge are you using that total seems extreme even in such a wet year for your part of the world? The upper limit for annual rainfall tends to be 160% for any given location, but your figure is nearer 195%, an astounding amount!

For example the wettest ever year at Coventry is 1000mm which is only about 150%.

I use a manual rain gauge. I know it to be fairly accurate as Ian Fergusson used a local weather station on his local forecast the other night( infact he used several) just up the road from me in Congresbury & they recorded 1800+mm for the year. Someone on the Mendips recorded over 2m's

[reef]

Here are my figures for 2012. These are from a combination of Davis VP2 records and also corrections based on manual rain gauges, also used for calibrations of the VP2 to bring it in line, as I have had some problems with it seemingly 'changing' calibration even after I have calibrated it a few times. Interesting to note reef's comment, unlike other parts of the station I have not been particularly impressed with the reliability of the Davis VP2 rain gauge..

Indeed, the calibration of my rain gauge from the factory was appauling. The most annoying thing was I had to wait 2 years collecting duplicate data with the manual gauge to be sure, fortunately I did, as the results from the Davis were useless. The factory specification says it should be +/-4% out, but through 24 months of data and using the manual 'tip test' (544ml of water dripped slowly through the funnel) I found it to be 27% out of range (at least it was consistent). Even more annoying is that the suggested method of calibration is inaccurate - one turn of the screw should be a 6% change, but its more like 15%! I finished calibrating it the other day and managed to get a figure 2% out using the 544mL water, however I still dont trust it so I doubt Ill ever stop using the manual gauge now.

Ironically the £120 Lacrosse WS2300 I used from 2005-2010 was always within 5%, so Davis have some improvements to make I think!

Edited January 3, 2013 by reef

[reef]

This thread is for discussing rainfall statistics from 2012, not the 'who said what' thread.

Thanks.

[WestCountry11]

And it is hard to believe that at the start of 2012,we had drought conditions....

[Andy Bown]

Re Steve B's rain total from Weston Super Mare ; 2012 had an inordinate number of occasions when Bristol Channel showers formed and much

of the time they were very heavy along the coast, all due to the amount of LOW pressure and the fact that those showers form even when a HIGH

ridge is building from the W/SW behind a LOW - something which is only rarely forecast but nearly aways happens.

[Verglas]

Summary for 2012

Rainfall (mm):

Total for year 1640.7

Wettest day 66.6 day 11/10

High rain rate 68.4 day 18/07

Rain days 248

[TonyH]

I use a manual rain gauge. I know it to be fairly accurate as Ian Fergusson used a local weather station on his local forecast the other night( infact he used several) just up the road from me in Congresbury & they recorded 1800+mm for the year. Someone on the Mendips recorded over 2m's

In that case your area has indeed had an astounding amount of rain!

Edited January 3, 2013 by TonyH

[dave.p]

Total of 1659mm here.

Wettest month was June 212.5mm.

Driest month was March 48mm.

Wettest day 16th June 49mm.