In article
,
David writes:

By the way, that 34-hour period of continuous heavy rain,
from 2000z on the 18th to 0600 on the 20th, deposited
377.8mm.


Philip

That's half our annual rainfall!
Puts it into perspective a bit, there was 15mm here in the same period
which is still about twice the amount you would expect.

David Mitchell. Langtoft. E Riding.

It's also substantially more than the lowest annual rainfall ever
recorded anywhere in England, which if memory serves was 9 point
something inches somewhere in Essex in 1921.
--
John Hall "[It was] so steep that at intervals the street broke into steps,
like a person breaking into giggles or hiccups, and then resumed
its sober climb, until it had another fit of steps."
Ursula K Le Guin "The Beginning Place"

On 21 Nov, 17:55, John Hall wrote:
In article
,

*David writes:

By the way, that 34-hour period of continuous heavy rain,
from 2000z on the 18th to 0600 on the 20th, deposited
377.8mm.

Philip

That's half our annual rainfall!
Puts it into perspective a bit, there was 15mm here in the same period
which is still about twice the amount you would expect.

David Mitchell. Langtoft. E Riding.

It's also substantially more than the lowest annual rainfall ever
recorded anywhere in England, which if memory serves was 9 point
something inches somewhere in Essex in 1921.
--
John Hall *"[It was] so steep that at intervals the street broke into steps,
* * * * * * like a person breaking into giggles or hiccups, and then resumed
* * * * * * its sober climb, until it had another fit of steps."
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Ursula K Le Guin "The Beginning Place"

Almost! It was Margate (Cliftonville) in Kent which saw an annual
total of just 236 mm (9.29 inches) in 1921, which remains the lowest
accepted annual rainfall total on record anywhere in the British
Isles. In the context of the Seathwaite discussion, the latter saw
this amount fall in just under 16 hours on Thursday last.

I am slightly surprsied that none of the media references that I've
heard to the actual rainfall totals recorded at Seathwaite have placed
this '370 mm' total in this context, nor of 'six months rainfall in
London in 34 hours', for example: a pity because I suspect outside the
audiience of this ng and a few other specialist climatological/
hydrological professionals etc, "370 mm of rainfall" simply wouldn't
mean a thing to the man in the street ...

--
Stephen Burt
Stratfield Mortimer

On 21 Nov, 00:32, Richard Dixon wrote:
Stephen Burt wrote:
Here are the daily (09-09 UTC) rainfall totals at the TBR at
Seathwaite Farm for the last few days:

16th/17th 09-09 *38.6
17th/18th 09-09 *60.8
18th/19th 09-09 142.6
19th/20th 09-09 246.6

Thank you Stephen - best read on here in ages.

I assume that the 142.6 is up there in the top 10 even before we
consider the 246.6!

Richard

To get a place in the Top 10 all-time British Isles rainfall amounts,
even when looking at strictly 0900-0900 rainday totals, the threshold
is just over 200 mm ...

I prepared a list of the known and accepted '200 mm in a day' falls
for my paper on the Boscastle storm, which appeared in Weather in
August 2005.

--
Stephen Burt
Stratfield Mortimer, Berkshire

Stephen Burt wrote:

I am slightly surprsied that none of the media references that I've
heard to the actual rainfall totals recorded at Seathwaite have placed
this '370 mm' total in this context, nor of 'six months rainfall in
London in 34 hours', for example: a pity because I suspect outside the
audiience of this ng and a few other specialist climatological/
hydrological professionals etc, "370 mm of rainfall" simply wouldn't
mean a thing to the man in the street ...

I quite liked the Independent's attempt this morning - a metric ruler down
the right edge of the front page with the 24hr total of 314mm at the top and
labels for the previous record and the monthly average.

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks., UK. E-mail: newsman not newsboy
"I wear the cheese. It does not wear me."

On Nov 21, 6:22*pm, Stephen Burt wrote:


I am slightly surprsied that none of the media references that I've
heard to the actual rainfall totals recorded at Seathwaite have placed
this '370 mm' total in this context, nor of 'six months rainfall in
London in 34 hours', for example: a pity because I suspect outside the
audiience of this ng and a few other specialist climatological/
hydrological professionals etc, "370 mm of rainfall" simply wouldn't
mean a thing to the man in the street ...

It is not surprising then that they are reporting it as a once in a
thousand years event.

Let's face it, most Brits don't know what 370 mm is, and blame
decimalistionl on the EC. When is some one going to say that 370 mm is
one foot two and a half inches? or even over a third of a metre, which
every one knows is a yard?

Meanwhile in Australia, Sydney is being threatened by bush fires, and
in Melbourne the police are telling motorists to drive carefully in
the heavy rain!

It seems that climate change does not mean everywhere gets warmer,
just that everywhere the weather is even more chaotic.

Cheers, Alastair.