If you thought it was a bit wet out this past month, well it was as parts of southern England have had their wettest January on record.
The Met Office said that a large area of southern England, from East Devon to Kent and inland across parts of the Midlands, has already seen twice the average rainfall for the month.
Southeast and central southern England has received more than twice its average rainfall with 175.2 mm of rain from 1 to 28 January, this beats the previous record of 158.2 mm set in January 1988.
Further west across southwest England and south Wales the 222.6 mm of rainfall up to the 28th means January 2014 is already the fifth wettest on record and the wettest January since 1995 (224.4 mm). The wettest January on record here was 1948 when 244.3 mm of rain was recorded.
For the UK as a whole 164.6 mm of rain has fallen so far this month, 35% above the long term average, with all nations having above average rainfall.
We have seen quite a contrast from south to north across the UK, with northern Scotland having received 83% of its long term average rainfall so far this month, a sharp contrast to the 200% over southern England.
Wet weather in winter usually means it's been mild and that has been the case this January, with the UK mean temperature up to the 28th being 4.9 °C, 1.2 °C above average.
Comments