This rainfall event was major by any standards. Apart from a 24 hour
total of 82.1mm, the intensity of the rain in the evening caused the
river in Bone valley, a few yards from me, to rise to record levels,
washing mud through houses. Yet in the world according to the MetO it
doesn't exist. The wettest place in the 24hours to 18:00 yesterday had
18mm, Around 59mm of my total would have fallen in this period. So far
emails to certain weather presenters have gone unanswered, no even a
mention on Spotlight (no NT properties involved?)

I think this is all a reflection on modern weather
forecasting/recording. You can excuse localised extreme weather events
in largely rural areas going largely unrecorded by the MetO, but when
the collation of data is so bad that a major event over a medium sized
town is ignored hasn't somethjing gone wrong? After all, to the casual
observer searching CEEFAX or the BBC/MetO websites the wettest place
was Harwarden with 18mm. As Chris said in the earlier thread about the
storm, the rainfall radar showed an extremely localised area affected -
essentially Penzance.

The other 2 big rainfall events in west Cornwall this century, St Ives
2002 (only newsworthy because of the extreme flooding in such a well
known resort) St Merryn storm of 2005, also missed any official
stations (both had similar in totals of around 80mm or so). There may
well be others, who knows?

Penzance is about to restart it's official station, with all local
money, but this is only happening because it's a tourist resort and
there are benefits from doing so. Apparently the MetO can see no
benefits in spending relatively small sums of money in a improved
network of automatic stations. If they did so, not only might they
actually record some of these extreme events, but they might learn from
it & be able to predict them more accurately.

Graham
Penzance

"Graham Easterling" wrote in message
ups.com...

The other 2 big rainfall events in west Cornwall this century, St Ives
2002 (only newsworthy because of the extreme flooding in such a well
known resort) St Merryn storm of 2005, also missed any official
stations (both had similar in totals of around 80mm or so). There may
well be others, who knows?

Does Boscastle enter here, Graham ? Do excuse my ignorance if I am wrong.

Regards, Joe

"Graham Easterling" wrote in message
ups.com...
This rainfall event was major by any standards. Apart from a 24 hour
total of 82.1mm, the intensity of the rain in the evening caused the
river in Bone valley, a few yards from me, to rise to record levels,
washing mud through houses. Yet in the world according to the MetO it
doesn't exist. The wettest place in the 24hours to 18:00 yesterday had
18mm, Around 59mm of my total would have fallen in this period. So far
emails to certain weather presenters have gone unanswered, no even a
mention on Spotlight (no NT properties involved?)

Well, Graham, it will certainly feature in the Sunday Telegraph
(and The Week) ... unless, of course, something heavier comes
along before the end of the week!

Philip Eden

Graham, all duly noted for reference. Many thanks.

Will.
--

"Graham Easterling" wrote in message
ups.com...
This rainfall event was major by any standards. Apart from a 24 hour
total of 82.1mm, the intensity of the rain in the evening caused the
river in Bone valley, a few yards from me, to rise to record levels,
washing mud through houses. Yet in the world according to the MetO it
doesn't exist. The wettest place in the 24hours to 18:00 yesterday had
18mm, Around 59mm of my total would have fallen in this period. So far
emails to certain weather presenters have gone unanswered, no even a
mention on Spotlight (no NT properties involved?)

I think this is all a reflection on modern weather
forecasting/recording. You can excuse localised extreme weather events
in largely rural areas going largely unrecorded by the MetO, but when
the collation of data is so bad that a major event over a medium sized
town is ignored hasn't somethjing gone wrong? After all, to the casual
observer searching CEEFAX or the BBC/MetO websites the wettest place
was Harwarden with 18mm. As Chris said in the earlier thread about the
storm, the rainfall radar showed an extremely localised area affected -
essentially Penzance.

The other 2 big rainfall events in west Cornwall this century, St Ives
2002 (only newsworthy because of the extreme flooding in such a well
known resort) St Merryn storm of 2005, also missed any official
stations (both had similar in totals of around 80mm or so). There may
well be others, who knows?

Penzance is about to restart it's official station, with all local
money, but this is only happening because it's a tourist resort and
there are benefits from doing so. Apparently the MetO can see no
benefits in spending relatively small sums of money in a improved
network of automatic stations. If they did so, not only might they
actually record some of these extreme events, but they might learn from
it & be able to predict them more accurately.

Graham
Penzance

Joe Hunt wrote:

"Graham Easterling" wrote in message
ups.com...

The other 2 big rainfall events in west Cornwall this century, St Ives
2002 (only newsworthy because of the extreme flooding in such a well
known resort) St Merryn storm of 2005, also missed any official
stations (both had similar in totals of around 80mm or so). There may
well be others, who knows?

Does Boscastle enter here, Graham ? Do excuse my ignorance if I am wrong.

Regards, Joe

Boscastle was certainly major, but I was really treating west Cornwall
as west of Padstow/St Austell.

Graham

Philip Eden wrote:

"Graham Easterling" wrote in message
ups.com...
This rainfall event was major by any standards. Apart from a 24 hour
total of 82.1mm, the intensity of the rain in the evening caused the
river in Bone valley, a few yards from me, to rise to record levels,
washing mud through houses. Yet in the world according to the MetO it
doesn't exist. The wettest place in the 24hours to 18:00 yesterday had
18mm, Around 59mm of my total would have fallen in this period. So far
emails to certain weather presenters have gone unanswered, no even a
mention on Spotlight (no NT properties involved?)

Well, Graham, it will certainly feature in the Sunday Telegraph
(and The Week) ... unless, of course, something heavier comes
along before the end of the week!

Philip Eden

Philip,

Thanks, I'll watch out for it

Graham

... unless, of course, something heavier comes
along before the end of the week!

Philip Eden
Philip.
There were a number of showers locally today, the heaviest of which gave
3.3mm.
However, and this is the newsworthy bit for you, the rainfall rate was
103.1mm per hour.
If this rain had actually commenced dead on 0900 (GMT) and lasted for
eaxactly 24 hours, this would have given a total daily rainfal total of
2474.4mm, which I believe may well be a record, possibly.
It certainly would be a new record here at least (though to be honest I
haven't had time to check my records yet).
Do I get a mention please??
Co-incidentaly, I was born and raised in the area of West Cornwall to which
Graham refers. There must be some climatological link.

--
David Mitchell, 70m amsl, Langtoft, East Riding of Yorkshire.