2023 Wettest Year On Record?

[Cwmbran Eira]

I've been following a great website - Starlings Roost Weather - which is fantastic for weather data and trends.

Its currently showing Central England having the wettest year (up to the 12th November) in a record set going back to 1931 and most other regions top 5.

Will be interesting to see where 2023 finishes.

 

[reef]

Its at 105% of the annual average here so far with 695.4mm. We'd need another 163.8mm to beat the previous wettest year on record which was 2019. The Autumn did the damage that year, with 437.4mm from Sep-Nov.

[ChannelThunder]

After a remarkably dry Feb and another lengthy dry period May/June, that's some going! 

[Cwmbran Eira]

Yes, that’s does make 2023 unusual. The chart clearly shows these periods flat lining. But July onwards has really built up the totals.

Unfortunately the link does t take you to the chart. 

Starlings Roost Weather

STARLINGSROOST.DDNS.NET

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Cwmbran Eira

[Weather-history]

At the moment, its the 7th wettest year on record for the EWP.  

 

[Sun Chaser]

Insane to think about how wet this year has been considering it's had two 6 week spells of bone dry weather. The other 40 weeks were just so poor they alone dragged it to become one of the very wettest of years! 

[Addicks Fan 1981]

On 29/12/2023 at 09:56, Sun Chaser said:

Insane to think about how wet this year has been considering it's had two 6 week spells of bone dry weather. The other 40 weeks were just so poor they alone dragged it to become one of the very wettest of years! 

Think el niño has exacerbated the wet year, but also it has been a pretty tropical year as well.  I don't see any sign of a let up now if I'm brutally honest for future years.    

[reef]

Up to 826.8mm for us now, which is 4th wettest behind 2019 (859.0mm), 1980 (831.7mm) and 2012 (827.0mm).

Depending on how much the cold front drops later, we could reach second place.

[Summer8906]

Any info on the Jul-Dec period specifically?

Are we on course for the wettest Jul-Dec on record?

21 hours ago, Addicks Fan 1981 said:

Think el niño has exacerbated the wet year, but also it has been a pretty tropical year as well.  I don't see any sign of a let up now if I'm brutally honest for future years.    

Hope that's not the case, the UK will become truly miserable if almost every year is as wet and dull as 2023 with max temps not varying much from winter to summer.

Edited December 31, 2023 by Summer8906

[SummerShower]

March 2023 was comparable to April 2012, July 2023 was comparable to July 2007, October was one of the wettest in the EWP series.  Its not surprising this year is right up there tbh.

The only sub 10mm month in this area was February.  I find it very unusual in this increasing world of extremes, to have just 1 sub 10mm month.

Edited December 31, 2023 by SummerShower

[MP-R]

2012 will take some beating here.

Had Jan-Mar 2020 been in 2019, that would’ve probably taken 1st place. 

[SummerShower]

25 minutes ago, MP-R said:

2012 will take some beating here.

Had Jan-Mar 2020 been in 2019, that would’ve probably taken 1st place. 

Yes, I do wonder if either Jul 19 to June 20, or Apr 19 to Mar 20 would have beaten 2012.  One of the wettest 12m periods ever recorded has to be in this date range somewhere.

[Addicks Fan 1981]

59 minutes ago, Summer8906 said:

Any info on the Jul-Dec period specifically?

Are we on course for the wettest Jul-Dec on record?

Hope that's not the case, the UK will become truly miserable if almost every year is as wet and dull as 2023 with max temps not varying much from winter to summer.

Summer of this year was pretty average actually if you take into consideration we had the hottest June on record, followed by the wettest July since 2009 and August was very nondescript indeed.   In actual fact on stats June and September were joint warmest months of the year which is a complete rarity.     

[reef]

22 hours ago, reef said:

Up to 826.8mm for us now, which is 4th wettest behind 2019 (859.0mm), 1980 (831.7mm) and 2012 (827.0mm).

Depending on how much the cold front drops later, we could reach second place.

Now up to 835.6mm, so comfortably 2nd wettest in 43 years here.

[Metwatch]

Via @Bablakewx on twitter: Up to the 26th December, 2023 is currently the sixth wettest year on record in Coventry, records dating back to 1892.

1912: 939.6mm

2007: 894.2mm

2012: 892.9mm

2008: 890.8mm

2019: 886.2mm

2023: 869.8mm so far up to 26th December.

 

December has now been the second wettest since 1978 with Bablake station seeing 143mm, 1978 had 149mm.

[Summer8906]

3 hours ago, Metwatch said:

Via @Bablakewx on twitter: Up to the 26th December, 2023 is currently the sixth wettest year on record in Coventry, records dating back to 1892.

1912: 939.6mm

2007: 894.2mm

2012: 892.9mm

2008: 890.8mm

2019: 886.2mm

2023: 869.8mm so far up to 26th December.

 

December has now been the second wettest since 1978 with Bablake station seeing 143mm, 1978 had 149mm.

Interesting that all but one of those have been since 2007.

[Metwatch]

 

On 31/12/2023 at 15:42, Metwatch said:

Via @Bablakewx on twitter: Up to the 26th December, 2023 is currently the sixth wettest year on record in Coventry, records dating back to 1892.

1912: 939.6mm

2007: 894.2mm

2012: 892.9mm

2008: 890.8mm

2019: 886.2mm

2023: 869.8mm so far up to 26th December.

 

December has now been the second wettest since 1978 with Bablake station seeing 143mm, 1978 had 149mm.

With 904.2mm in 2023 for the Bablake station, that has made it the second wettest year here. Almost 300mm wetter than 2022!

Edited January 1 by Metwatch

[Weather-history]

23 hours ago, Summer8906 said:

Interesting that all but one of those have been since 2007.

Something I mentioned in the “worryingly dry” thread and another thread is that wetness has been dominative in the last 16 years.

 

[Summer8906]

8 minutes ago, Weather-history said:

Something I mentioned in the “worryingly dry” thread and another thread is that wetness has been dominative in the last 16 years.

 

Indeed: it also seems to come in spikes, with (from memory) 2007-08 wet, 2009-11 somewhat drier, 2012-14 mostly wet, 2015-18 somewhat drier, and since June 2019 it's again (from memory) been largely wet (except the first 8 months of 2022). Perhaps we're due for a drier interlude of a year or two now.

Edited January 1 by Summer8906

[The PIT]

We started recording the weather in 1954. Looking at our figures the first year to hit or go over 1000mm was 1960 with 1030.1mm. A wait of five years for the next one 1965 with 1001.7mm

A long wait of 21 years before the next time it happened when 1004.1mm fell.

A wait of 14 years for 2000 when 1065.9mm fell. Only 2 years for the next one 1036.9mm .

10 years for 2012 our wettest year with 1217.7mm

7 years for the next time when 2019 clocked up 1132.6mm and then this year 1179.6mm

The 2000's also crop up a fair bit in the driest years as well so more variation these days it seems.

[In Absence of True Seasons]

1 hour ago, Weather-history said:

Something I mentioned in the “worryingly dry” thread and another thread is that wetness has been dominative in the last 16 years.

 

There's literally nothing about this country, and this year particularly, that can be considered dry lol. Let alone "worryingly dry".

Having a dry spell of 2-3 weeks isn't worrying. It's a bloody relief and a god send.

[Metwatch]

17 hours ago, In Absence of True Seasons said:

There's literally nothing about this country, and this year particularly, that can be considered dry lol. Let alone "worryingly dry".

Having a dry spell of 2-3 weeks isn't worrying. It's a bloody relief and a god send.

Completely agree, even if we in central - southern areas had a dry year similar to examples of 1921, 1973/75, 1996, 2003, 2005 or 2011 repeat this year we shouldn't have much issues especially if 2025 was to be wet again.

[cheeky_monkey]

here in Edmonton we had 430mm of precip in 2023..350mm of that fell in June July and August ..so only 80mm in the other 9 months of the year.

[B87]

It was certainly amongst the wettest on record at Heathrow, with 769mm. The wettest remains 2014, with 830mm of rain.

[Sun Chaser]

985mm here, making it the second wettest year of the century behind 2012 which recorded a truly exceptional 1212mm. Beaten some very wet years 2014, 2019 and 2020 by a very comfortable margin all of which were below 950mm.

Also the dullest year since 2017 coming in below average despite an exceptionally sunny 5 week period starting in mid May. And i really mean exceptionally sunny, as that spell beat any period of the same length from the famously sunny lockdown spell. Shows how bad the rest of the year was. In particular the second half of the year was the dullest in a long long time here!!