Met office: December 2015 has seen record-breaking levels of rain

With a couple of days to go the Met Office is already saying that during December 2015 many parts of the UK have experienced record-breaking levels of recorded rainfall.

Here is a selection of the highest two day rainfall totals from Met Office observing sites for Christmas Day and Boxing Day:

48hr UK RAINFALL TOTALS 9am 25 DEC – 9am 27 DEC 2015
SITEAREARAINFALL TOTAL (MM)
CAPEL CURIGGWYNEDD210.6
STONYHURSTLANCASHIRE100
PATELEY BRIDGE, RAVENS NESTNORTH YORKSHIRE97
BINGLEYWEST YORKSHIRE93.6
BAINBRIDGENORTH YORKSHIRE89.8
BALAGWYNEDD89.4
SHAPCUMBRIA86.4
SPADEADAMCUMBRIA79.4
PRESTON, MOOR PARKLANCASHIRE73.2
MYERSCOUGHLANCASHIRE72.4
BRADFORDWEST YORKSHIRE69.4
ROCHDALEGREATER MANCHESTER68.2
MORECAMBELANCASHIRE65.8
MONAISLE OF ANGLESEY63.6
KIELDER CASTLENORTHUMBERLAND61.2
DISHFORTH AIRFIELDNORTH YORKSHIRE
60.8

This wet spell has added to the heavy rainfall through the rest of the month to make December 2015 already the wettest on record in parts of the UK.

Here is a small selection of new December records from Met Office observing stations around the UK for December to date:

SiteTotal (mm)81-10 avg (mm)Previous record
Shap (Cumbria)773.2215.6504.4mm in 2006
Keswick (Cumbria)517.6173376.4mm in 2013
Warcop Range (Cumbria)281.694.1218.4mm in 2006
Stonyhurst (Lancashire)331.4141.6319.3mm in 1951
Morecambe (Lancashire)281.4109.2272mm in 1909
Bainbridge (North Yorkshire)496.2156.5327.2mm in 2006
Bingley
(West Yorkshire)		241.4114.3247.2mm in 2006
Eskdalemuir (Dumfries and Galloway)500184.9390.4mm in 2014

Clearly for the next few weeks at least getting everyone through the winter should take priority over post-mortems or allocating blame. But we're going to have to sit down as a country and review our flood prevention programme in the light of this winter's weather and the consequences and ask very seriously if more needs to be done.

Comments

Jim said…
Chris, Hello, Its an el nino year, erm.......what were you expecting?, a heat wave?

We know its coming, it always has. but building on flood plains is pretty much asking for it.
1:13 pm
Jim said…
I feel I must add RIP Mr Lemmy Kilmister. even if you have no idea who that is.
1:17 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
Yes, it's a good idea to avoid building on flood plains and as a planning committee or Local Devlopment Framework steering group member I always urged caution about such schemes.

You will probably not be astonished to learn that I am not the UK's most devoted follower of Heavy Metal in general or Motorhead in particular, and yes, I did have to look up Lemmy Kilmister.

However, he was obviously a very talented musician who gave a lot of pleasure to millions and will be missed. Rest in Peace.
2:12 pm
Jim said…
Another point is this one. A lot of people are quick to blame the Environment agency, or "government cuts" for the floods. But to my mind no amount of money thrown at flood defences would have held back that amount of water. IMHO the flood defences in Cumbria did work. OK they did not stop the flood, but they did buy people time to evacuate, I can't help but think this disaster would have been a lot worse without them, and with a lot of dead people do deal with.

Cumbria has many known flood plains, it rains a lot here. We call it the lake district for a reason. Building homes and business property's on them has to be one of my pet hates.
7:31 am
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