Rain Gauge – 25 mm rain = 1 inch
Two years ago this week (11th Feb 2014) I wrote an article on the extreme weather in the UK causing the worst floods “in living memory”. A commentator in the media made a point about the rain being in the wrong place at the wrong time. What he meant was, if the same amount of rain had steadily fallen in the mountains and filled the reservoirs, that would have helped with the managed water supply. Instead we saw flash flooding affecting built up areas and causing immense, and such painful, grief for lots of people.
Out of my own interest in rainfall I put my local rainfall data for Nov, Dec and Jan for the years 2009 – 2014 onto a chart. It showed the Total rainfall in each month fluctuated as expected but there was no dramatic increase in the overall volume that fell. I have just done another chart showing the monthly and total rainfall to include the past three months and the story is now different.…