Comparative Rainfall - driest, wettest and current year

[RayProudfoot]

Most observers in the British Isles may well have recorded their wettest year in 2023. Here in Cheshire it was by far the wettest since I started in May 2009.

I anticipated this year would be drier but looking at my data below it's exceeding last year's rainfall .... so far.

I'm also including my driest year for comparison - 2018 when 24.89" fell compared to 48.29" last year. I wonder how this year will pan out. Anyone else fancy posting theirs? I used Microsoft Access to extract my dayfile data and then exported it to Excel.

2018-2023-24 ComparisonRainfall.jpg

[RayProudfoot]

What is interesting is rainfall in 2023 was very close to that of my driest year - 2018 - until mid-June when the heavens opened for the rest of the year.

Maybe the taps will be turned off very soon.

[RayProudfoot]

Looking more closely at the 2023 rainfall up to the half-way point - 30 June - 16.17" of rain had fallen. What transpired from 1 July until 31 December is that a whole year's worth of rain - 32.05" - fell in those six months. Wow!

As things stand in 2024 if no more rain falls between now and 31 July this year's rainfall will match that of last year. on that date Unfortunately some is forecast for Thursday but as things stand it's looking a lot better for the next 10 days or so.

[philpugh]

Ray

Here's my comparitive data for North Cheshire. Created with LibreCalc and data extracted from SQL database.

AntrobusRain.png

[philpugh]

Like Ray's 2018 was the driest year and last year was the wettest - but this year may beat that!

[RayProudfoot]

Like Ray's 2018 was the driest year and last year was the wettest - but this year may beat that!

Nice to have a discussion about it Phil. I think that wet spell is coming to an end. June was the first month since May 2023 with below average rainfall. Whilst this July won’t be the 3.18” to date is significantly less than the 7.74” last July.

I’ll stick my neck out and predict between 37-40 inches this year. Weather goes in cycles. Maybe even snow this winter.

https://www.cheadlehulmeweather.co.uk/NOAA.php?yr=2024

[PaulMy]

Over here 2024 is also the most rain to date over the 16 years with Cumulus

Code: Select all

		July To Date	Days	A/Day		Rank	
2024		763.8		206	3.71		1	
2023		667.0		212	3.15		2	
2022		420.4		212	1.98		11	
2021		444.6		212	2.10		10	
2020		399.0		213	1.87		13	
2019		490.0		212	2.31		5	
2018		452.2		212	2.13		8	
2017		483.6		212	2.28		6	
2016		394.0		213	1.85		15	
2015		405.2		212	1.91		12	
2014		395.6		212	1.87		14	
2013		584.3		212	2.76		3	
2012		359.0		213	1.69		16	
2011		472.8		212	2.23		7	
2010		450.6		212	2.13		9	
2011		573.8		212	2.71		4	
				
		484.7		2.29						

From my daily manual observation and reporting to CoCoRaHS https://dex.cocorahs.org/stations/CAN-O ... -over-year

Enjoy,
Paul

[RayProudfoot]

@PaulMy, seems 2023 was a bad year over there too. Is that a subscription service you upload to?

[PaulMy]

Hi Ray,
No, that is a free and volunteer program https://www.cocorahs.org/Content.aspx?page=aboutus
It is a widely used source of data by our Conservation Authorities and other agencies to track drought, potential spring flooding from snow melt, etc. I have been contributing since February 2014 with daily manual reading and reporting of precipitation in the 4" gauge (we have to buy the gauge), new snow and snow on the ground and its water content (SWE). A new account was created in June 2018 when we moved to a new home. Their charts and historical information has been greatly improved over the years. My pet peeve is that it is a Fahrenheit database and in the conversion that goes from Celsius to Fahrenheit, the reported Celsius such as today my 1.2 mm reading/reporting is converted to 1.3 mm USA dominated

p.s. It is my contribution to CoCoRaHS that the Ministry of the Environment was able to lay a charge, and a guilty plea by an area contractor, for failing to adhere to environmental law while doing some development work nearby a water stream (Thames River). My reporting to CoCoRaHS was used by the Ministry to approach me, and my handwritten daily notes used to submit to CoCoRaHS had the proof of rain amount at the time of the violation that the Ministry used to proceed with the charge. The guilty plea was made just a few days before the trial was to start (so I didn't end up going to court as a prosecution witness).

Enjoy,
Paul

[RayProudfoot]

Well done Paul. Just goes to show what a useful public service we provide.

[RayProudfoot]

My annual rainfall to date is now 24.94". It has just exceeded the 24.89" recorded in the whole of 2018 - the driest year I've recorded.

Another 137 days to go. The next driest is 2010 with 27.61". That's bound to go soon too but rainfall since mid-July has eased significantly.

[De Hout]

alltime_top10_rain.png

This is a screenshot I've taken from my top15 extremes page. Location Alkmaar, Netherlands. This is one of the wettest regions in our country because of the very nearby North Sea coast. Based on long term statistics by the official Dutch meteorological office average yearly rainfall is 873 mm.
The 2015 totals is only from september that year, so that value doesn't count. My station history covers 9 years of full data.
This year is still last placed, but the theoretically wettest months still have to come.
I predict this years rainfall will reach 1000-1250 mm, around 2nd and 4th place since my measurements started.

[HansR]

No fancy graph or coloured display but the current standing in Wagenborgen is 656,5 mm against 576,6 mm last year on this date which was a record then and 2023 totalled on 1126 mm which is high. The normal value here is 815 mm. The station average (or my local normal value if you wish) has already climbed to 901 mm.

The wettest months have still to come so yes, I think we're heading for a new record here as well.

[RayProudfoot]

The very wet weather that started in England last June seems to have finally eased off in mid-July. Rainfall for July was above average but not significantly so.

Rainfall for August is currently about average. I hope this drier air bakes it across the North Sea.

[RayProudfoot]

Rainfall in Cheadle Hulme has continued to decline in recent months bar the 30 Sept when 1.9" fell. November rainfall to date is just 15.5% of that expected.

The year is much drier that 2023 which was our wettest. Rainfall has just exceeded that for 2020 and it will be interesting to see how much more falls by the end of the year.