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Rainiest towns in Uk?


boywonder

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Posted
  • Location: Manchester
  • Location: Manchester

  Lancaster is probably the wettest city in England.

 

 

 

This interests me as a graduate of the university- do you have any statistics of just how wet it is? I personally would be surprised if it's a lot wetter than Plymouth, which averages just over 1000mm. There aren't really many other candidates for English cities though. Other western cities such as Liverpool and Carlisle are actually not that wet due to being in rain shadows.

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This interests me as a graduate of the university- do you have any statistics of just how wet it is? I personally would be surprised if it's a lot wetter than Plymouth, which averages just over 1000mm. There aren't really many other candidates for English cities though. Other western cities such as Liverpool and Carlisle are actually not that wet due to being in rain shadows.

 

Morecambe is around 1048mm (Closest I can find for Lancaster)

 

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate/gcw52qce5

Edited by J10
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Posted
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire
  • Weather Preferences: Sunshine, convective precipitation, snow, thunderstorms, "episodic" months.
  • Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire

This interests me as a graduate of the university- do you have any statistics of just how wet it is? I personally would be surprised if it's a lot wetter than Plymouth, which averages just over 1000mm. There aren't really many other candidates for English cities though. Other western cities such as Liverpool and Carlisle are actually not that wet due to being in rain shadows.

I did my undergraduate degree there and if I remember rightly Hazelrigg, just to the east of the university campus, averaged just over 1050mm per year.  Thus, it's likely to be a very close-run thing between Lancaster and the top few wettest English cities elsewhere.  Lancaster is about 5% less sunny than Morecambe but still around 5-10% sunnier than England's cloudiest cities.

 

While sunshine and rainfall tend to show a strong inverse correlation from one month to the next, especially in the summer half-year, it is notable that there is less of a correlation when comparing locations within lowland Britain.  Western locations tend to be wetter than in the east, but many are not significantly cloudier, while many south-coast locations in the southeast are, rather contrarily, wetter and sunnier than places further inland.  Sunshine tends rather to decline with altitude and the further north you are, which suggests a strong inverse relationship with the frequency of rain (rather than the quantity).

Edited by Thundery wintry showers
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I did my undergraduate degree there and if I remember rightly Hazelrigg, just to the east of the university campus, averaged just over 1050mm per year.  Thus, it's likely to be a very close-run thing between Lancaster and the top few wettest English cities elsewhere.

 

Apologies for me being a bit like a bone with this (but you know why)

 

I was looking at the Met Office and Preston,Truro, Plymouth, Lancaster and Bradford/Leeds all seem to have average rainfall of around 1000mm or thereabouts, although I am sceptical on the Bradford Leeds one as this is based on Bingley and geographically it doesn't seem to fit.

 

Scorcher above was correct about Liverpool and Carlisle being in rain shadows.

Edited by J10
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Posted
  • Location: East Devon
  • Location: East Devon

The thing with Swansea and the Mumbles Head station, Mumbles will basically be the driest in the area. As the air moves onto the mainland and over higher ground it rises creating more rainfall. The figure of around 1360 seems a bit high perhaps, maybe it was taken from another station in the northern suburbs or one near but not in the city?

 

I do also wonder if the high wind at the exposed location effects things, I'm not sure if it would as it is an official station and they probably try to correct for wind by providing correct sheltering of the rain gauge or something, but I know wind can cause issues for gauges even at the standard 30cm height when recording totals and comparing between stations.

Those Met Office average maps often contradict the actual figures at weather stations.

 

If you look at Mumbles it is in a little area of 600-1100 colour, so 999mm could fit into that just about.

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The thing with Swansea and the Mumbles Head station, Mumbles will basically be the driest in the area. As the air moves onto the mainland and over higher ground it rises creating more rainfall. The figure of around 1360 seems a bit high perhaps, maybe it was taken from another station in the northern suburbs or one near but not in the city?

 

I do also wonder if the high wind at the exposed location effects things, I'm not sure if it would as it is an official station and they probably try to correct for wind by providing correct sheltering of the rain gauge or something, but I know wind can cause issues for gauges even at the standard 30cm height when recording totals and comparing between stations.

 

If you look at Mumbles it is in a little area of 600-1100 colour, so 999mm could fit into that just about.

 

I think the 1360mm figure seems erroneous as an average, as a one off figure yes, but as an average it seems way off.

 

BBC used to report - on their local weather pages - which I don't seem able to find - that rainfall rose from around 1000mm to around 1100 in the centre (which is still on low ground) to around 1200mm in the hilly areas north of the city. But Mumbles rainfall does seem to be mainly consistent with weather stations on the sea front.

 

Certainly towns further inland and hillier such as Neath and Merthyr are considerably wetter. (as Bobby pointed out).

 

But his makes any absolute comparison between different places almost impossible, when even within short distances, there are such variations.

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Posted
  • Location: Manchester
  • Location: Manchester

 

 

I was looking at the Met Office and Preston,Truro, Plymouth, Lancaster and Bradford/Leeds all seem to have average rainfall of around 1000mm or thereabouts, although I am sceptical on the Bradford Leeds one as this is based on Bingley and geographically it doesn't seem to fit.

 

 

 

Yes Bingley's statistics are quite dramatically different from Leeds-Bradford Airport I believe, given that it's a good few miles further west. The airport only averages 660mm surprisingly.

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Posted
  • Location: Leeds
  • Weather Preferences: snow, heat, thunderstorms
  • Location: Leeds

Leeds has never had 1,000mm in a single year. We had 800mm in 2012 and that was exceptionally wet by our standards.

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Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.
  • Weather Preferences: Anything extreme
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District. 290 mts a.s.l.

I would think Buxton would make the top 20 with a 1981-2010 average of 1326 mm; the higher suburbs probably approaching 1400mm over the same period.

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Posted
  • Location: caernarfon, Gwynedd
  • Weather Preferences: very cold or very hot
  • Location: caernarfon, Gwynedd

Capel curig which is about 18 miles.from me has had 2600+ mm in one year. I believe this too but lately it has been so dry

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Posted
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl
  • Location: Windermere 120m asl

I think Windermere averages something like 1300 mm a year, Ambleside closer to 1400 mm being closer to the central fells. These are averages, many years have delivered much larger totals, 2012 notably so.

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Posted
  • Location: Northern Lake District. 150m asl
  • Location: Northern Lake District. 150m asl

I think Windermere averages something like 1300 mm a year, Ambleside closer to 1400 mm being closer to the central fells. These are averages, many years have delivered much larger totals, 2012 notably so.

 

Amblesides average is 2005.1mm http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate/gctvss7w7

 

I think Windermere is around 1800mm though no offical station. 

 

Keswick is 1521mm

 

Ambleside should easily be one of the wettest towns in the UK

Edited by Lake District Blizzard
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