The rainiest place in Britain... and it's not what you think!

[David_itl]

The local paper put this story out a couple of years ago after looking at Met Office data since 1981 but have stuck it in their "breaking news" feed for today as it's slightly wet today

Revealed: Britain's wettest cities

The top 10 wettest cities are from top to bottom with rainfall in centimetres

Cardiff 115.19
Glasgow 112.43
Preston 103.36
Huddersfield 102.84
Plymouth 100.74
Blackpool 88.27
Carlisle 87.21
Manchester 86.71
Gloucester 84.34
Liverpool 83.66

In terms of rainfall being recorded each day, it's different. Number of days recorded

Glasgow 170.3
Huddersfield 154.4
Preston 153.2
Manchester 151.7
Cardiff 148.6
Carlisle 148.6
Rhyl 145.7
Gloucester 145.6
Blackpool 145.5
Liverpool 144.3


But, when you do the average rainfall on a rainy day, Manchester disappears out of sight! Readings in centimetres

Cardiff 0.775
Plymouth 0.709
Bournemouth 0.693
Southampton 0.680
Preston 0.675
Huddersfield 0.666
Glasgow 0.660
Exeter 0.648
Portsmouth 0.644
Bristol 0.637

Shouldn't be totally surprised that London is the 4th best for least rainy days and the driest city. The only thing I can put my finger on for the "rainy city" reputation for Manchester is that if there's any event that is in the public eye, it tends to rain.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Some years ago someone did a survey of the worst rain affected home teams in the First Class Cricket County Championship looking back over many decades.

Perhaps no surprise that the four worst affected counties were Lancashire, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and Somerset. The county least affected by rain at home was Sussex.

 

[David_itl]

Aye, it cost Lancashire at least 1 title. Mind you, there's been occasions when I've been at Old Trafford and wondered why they didn't get a move on chasing a win - once, they had 4 hours to get around 200 but spent between lunch and tea scoring just 80 of them and in the meantime, we could see the weather closing in all the time then the rains just stated at tea and they couldn't get back on!

 

[Aviador]

Over the years I have carried out numerous journeys across the Pennines travelling from Leeds to Manchester and back, probably weekly for the last two decades. Almost everytime my journey starts dry and usually ends up wet beyond the Saddleworth junction onwards. On many occasions we still foolishly forget our rain coats when leaving our home. It's not just the rain that falls it's usually the murcury as well. I have known many occasions when the temperature has been several degrees cooler on the west side of the Pennines.

I Think the wettest place in the UK is a small town in Cumbria.

I'm not sure where Leeds is on the wettest parts of the UK league table but I have read in Leeds City Council literature that Leeds is drier than some European cities such as Paris. Also worthy of noting, LBA is situated within Leeds 9 miles from Leeds city centre. The airport is generally in it's own micro climate as it sits on a hill some 600 feet above the city centre. It is also usually about 2'c - 3'c degrees cooler than in the city centre.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It's amazing the effect that a range of hills, yet alone mountains, can have on the weather on either side. Even the Mendip Hills (highest point only just over 1,000 feet) can be the weather dividing line. Returning to the cricket/weather theme there was a time some years ago when I regularly drove from Bristol to Taunton to watch Somerset CCC (where I was then a member - Richards, Botham, Garner et al) and on unsettled days it was frequently the case that north of the hills would be dry and south wet, or vice versa.

Perhaps the most extreme weather variation I've witnessed was travelling through the 12-mile long Simplon railway tunnel through the Alps. When we entered on the Swiss side at Brig it was a day not unknown in an English summer - overcast, drizzly and about 16C. When we emerged in Italy the sky was cloudless and beautifully clear with the temperature around 30C - just 12 miles away.

 

[Aviador]

Yes that is so true. The Pennines act in just the same way. On some occasions the revere happens and it's the west the gets the nicer weather but with the prevailing winds coming from the west it invariably leads to the west being wet and overcast with the east staying predominantly dry.

 

[David_itl]

The cricketer's forecast for Old Trafford:

If you can see the Pennines, the rain's on it's way.
If you can't see the Pennines, the rain's already here.

I've only once experienced strange weather - walking to the cricket with my dad, we were as dry as a bone but turned left into Talbot Road and witihn 1 pace, we were saturated?! Literally the traffic lights seemed to be the dry/wet border.

On an aviation related theme, last year's Manchester Airshow at Barton saw me both sunburnt and saturated - brilliant warm sunshine then the cloud bubbled up in the space of an hour and it just deluged down.