"gary" wrote in message
...
I am an avid reader of the messages on here but not having a weather
station myself do not contribute regularly.
snip
Over the winter we in Southern England have had minimal rainfall, and I
can't remember having a decent day's rainfall since last October. The High
that has dominated our weather for the last 4 months or so looks set to
continue ...
snip

Gary, I posted some statistics a few days ago which show that,
although very dry, it has certainly not been unprecedentedly so.
You can see how the high pressure has dominated our part
of the world during the winter season at
http://www.climate-uk.com/monpre/05Q1.htm
and also by following the monthly links.

Here are those stats again:

A quick calculation indicates that, for England and Wales,
the rainfall for the winter quarter has a return period of about
10 years, and for Southeast England a return period of
about 16 years.

The Nov-Feb rainfall has a return period of ~25 years.

According to my figures, in the last 80 years we have had:

England and Wales:
2004-05 Dec-Feb 171mm; Nov-Feb 223mm
1991-92 Dec-Feb 143mm; Nov-Feb 236mm
1975-76 Dec-Feb 146mm; Nov-Feb 219mm
1963-64 Dec-Feb 89mm; Nov-Feb 255mm
1962-63 Dec-Feb 145mm; Nov-Feb 215mm
1933-34 Dec-Feb 119mm; Nov-Feb 165mm
Southeast England
2004-05 Dec-Feb 105mm; Nov-Feb 147mm
1991-92 Dec-Feb 73mm; Nov-Feb 134mm
1980-81 Dec-Feb 101mm; Nov-Feb 144mm
1975-76 Dec-Feb 77mm; Nov-Feb 141mm
1963-64 Dec-Feb 73mm; Nov-Feb 195mm
1933-34 Dec-Feb 83mm; Nov-Feb 121mm
1931-32 Dec-Feb 85mm; Nov-Feb 182mm

Philip Eden