‘No end in sight.’ ‘Flooding concerns remain.’ ‘Why is the UK so wet?’ Suffice to say, whether reading the news or staring melancholically out the window, it’s hard to ignore the rain.
Twenty-six weather stations around the country have set new monthly records for January, and more than 150 flood alerts are currently in place.
This year, Northern Ireland experienced its wettest January in 149 years, while southern England has recorded its sixth wettest January since records started in 1836. Rainfall in the south-west of England is 56% above the long-term average, increasing to 88% above average across England’s south-east and central southern regions.
The cause is a ‘blocking pattern’. This, says the Met Office, is an area of high pressure that remains nearly stationary and distorts the usual progression of pressure systems. This pattern is settled over Northern Europe, preventing weather fronts from clearing and causing the rain to stick over the UK.
It’s a little bit miserable but it could be worse, as these very wet years and episodes testify…
- Don't complain about the rain. Here's why science says a downpour is good for your health
- Why aren’t Britain’s insects better adapted to rain?
The wettest years in history
About 232 million years ago...
A period known as the ‘Carnian Pluvial Event’ marked a dramatic shift in the Earth’s climate history. Rain fell for one- to two-million years and coincided with the dawn of the dinosaurs. Huge volcanic activity led to global warming and massive rainfall. Suddenly, this year doesn't feel so bad, does it?
1315 to 1317: The Great Famine
In the latter half of 1314 and then through most of 1315 and 1316, Britain was hit by relentless wet weather, leading to the Great Famine. Torrential rain flooded fields, rotted crops and drowned livestock. Bread grew scarce as stored grain spoiled and harvest yields collapsed.
In 1315, farmers reaped just one grain for every two sown, triggering near-total crop failure for almost two years. By 1316, there were even rumours of cannibalism. Many people begged, stole, and murdered for what scarce food there was. The famine reached its peak in the spring of 1317 before normal weather returned.
1607: Disaster on the Estuary
Over 400 years ago, a disaster struck the South Wales coast and south-west of England. On 30 January, on a calm, bright winter’s day, water surged down the Severn Estuary. The sea rose and water raced inland, sweeping away homes, livestock and people, leaving thousands of acres underwater. Over 2,000 people may have died.
Early explanations blamed an exceptional storm out at sea, though academics from Bath Spa University recently questioned whether the waters arose due to a tsunami. The jury remains out on the flood’s cause.
1799: The wettest ever months in history
The England and Wales Precipitation (EWP) series is one of the longest continuous instrumental climate records in the world, its dataset stretching back to 1766. According to said series, the months of August and September 1799 were the wettest pairing of any two months in its history, with both ranking as the second wettest of their respective months. August 1799 was just 0.8mm drier than August 1912, while September 1799 was 2.7mm behind the record holder, September 1918.
1816: 'The Year without a Summer'
1816 is tagged with the moniker that could apply to many years in the UK: ‘the Year without a Summer.’ Cold, wet conditions dwarfed not only our fair isle but the entire world due to the eruption of Mount Tambora, Indonesia, in April 1815. One of the largest volcanic eruptions in history blasted huge amounts of ash and sulphur dioxide high into the atmosphere.
The particles spread around the world, blocking sunlight and stirring up normal weather patterns. Snow reportedly fell on the English Midlands in May with daytime temperatures more akin to January. A ray of light shone over Switzerland, however. In 1816, Mary Shelley conceived Frankenstein, apparently affected by the sullen storm clouds gathering outside her window at Villa Diodati near Geneva.
1852: Wellington's floods
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, died on 14 September 1852. Two months later the commander of the British forces and allies at Waterloo, and former prime minister, was given a state funeral on an unprecedented scale, funded to the tune of £100,000 by Parliament.
Thousands paid their respects on the streets of London before his final resting place on St Paul’s Cathedral. On the same day, heavy rain combined with a storm surge down the River Thames resulted in record flooding in parts of the capital, an event that became known as ‘the Duke of Wellington’s Flood’.
1903: Storm Ulysees wreaks havock
In 1903, the UK endured unusually extreme rainfall patterns. After a wet spring, June proved exceptionally wet in southern and eastern England, with around 183mm falling at Kew in just two weeks and nearly 59 hours of continuous rain in London. The rain continued through summer and into October.
The same year, a mighty storm tore across the UK and Ireland. Storm Ulysees reached gusts in excess of 100mph with The Times recounting widespread damage, including the toppling of a train as it crossed the viaduct over the Leven River in Cumbria and damage to Morecambe’s West End Pier.
2000: Flooding destroys homes
The year 2000 was, according to the Met Office, the wettest on record in the UK. Total rainfall reached 1,337.3mm, just holding off 2012 by 6.6mm. Thousands of homes up and down the country were flooded, with rivers from the Severn to the Uck bursting their banks. Somehow, after torrid conditions in 1997 and 1998, Glastonbury Festival returned after a fallow 1999 and was spared a muddy year.
