The site is located in East Devon, three kilometres north of the Cobb, Lyme Regis and four hundred metres west of the county border with Dorset.
Map reference is SY334944 at 113 metres above sea level.
The recording of rain falling on this site was originally begun in January 1994. But data gathered before 2000 is a little suspect and accordingly has been removed (see Accuracy of the Data below).
Following the convention, readings are not taken until 09:00 GMT (10:00 BST) on the day following that to which the data refers . This strange procedure originated when all readings were taken manually and it was not at all convenient to take the readings at midnight or 1 am in the summer. This practice does give rise to a certain amount of confusion. For instance in early October 2004 it was recorded that 44.5mm of rain fell on the 3rd. Most of this rain however occurred during the early morning of the 4th before the reading for the 3rd was taken and is therefore recorded for that day.
For the first time since recording rainfall at this site the amount of rain falling in any 12 month period has fallen below 800mm. This was achieved during the 12 months to 31st January 2005 with 794.9mm and further decreasing to 734.30mm. by the 20th March 2005.
Click here to see A Rolling Chart of the yearly rainfall.
Updated
1st February 2010
Number of Wet Days in a Year
Does it really rain nearly every day! Take a look at this
Chart
showing the number of days on which it rained over the previous twelve months.
Updated
1st February 2010
Monthly Averages
What is the wettest month of the year?
Chart
showing the average monthly rainfall over the years 2000/9.
Since 16th May 2002 readings have been obtained using a Meteorological Office Mk11 Gauge kindly supplied by the Environment Agency and the site has now been registered as an official Met Office rainfall recording station.Consequently since that date the readings can be assumed to be accurate.
Prior to this, as the equipment that I had been using was a non-standard home-made rain gauge , the accuracy of the data cannot be guaranteed.
I made a slight modification to the home-made gauge at the end of 1999, for I was becoming concerned that the gauge in certain conditions was reading falsely. Following the modification I am confident that the data for the period from the beginning of the year 2000 until the change to the Met gauge on 16th May 2002 is reasonably accurate.
It is generally accepted that the British Isles will experience hotter and drier summers and wetter winters as climate change takes hold, but although my records only go back 15 years an opposite trend seems to be playing out regarding the summers.
Since 1994, when recording rainfall began at this site, I have noticed that the proportion of the annual rainfall that is recorded in the winter half of the year (January to March and October to December) has decreased. By dividing the winter rainfall by that of the summer I arrive at a factor which peaked out at 2.69 in 1995. The general trend is declining, dipping to 1.00 in 2008, with rainfall of 526.0 mm in the summer and 527.2 mm in the winter. This has been due to both an increase in summer rainfall and a decrease in winter rainfall. The increase in summer rainfall being mainly due to wetter Julys. These two trends are graphically illustrated in the following two charts (click for larger images)
The Met Office in a forecast for the summer of 2009 named it the "Barbecue Summer" and suggested that we would not have a repeat of the atrocious summers of 2007 and 2008. The 146 mm of rain recorded for July 2008 made it the wettest July since records began at this site in 1994. July 2009 has now taken that title as the wettest July in this period with 166.2 mm.
Are we experiencing a couple of freak summers or is it an indication that global warming is not happening?
I think neither. Climate change was never going to manifest itself by universal global warming and is reflected in that we now prefer to use "climate change" rather than "global warming" . The British Isles sitting down wind of 2000 miles of ocean is perhaps the problem. As climate change warms the Atlantic Ocean during the northern hemisphere's summer more water vapour is taken up into the atmosphere which is discharged once it reaches land. In recent years before high summer's maximum warming the British Isles have benefitted and experienced some wonderful continental like springs . But the increasing temperatures during the warmest month of the year - July - may be causing an unprecedented increase in atmospheric moisture. Can it merely be a coincidence that July has now become one of the wettest months of the year?
Of course this is just a theory of someone with no education in the field of meteorology but I do fear that as global temperatures continue to increase very wet Julys will become, at least in the west of the country, the norm. Further with Atlantic temperatures in June and August warming to those now found in July these months will also become increasingly wet.
Meteorologists already have a name for this little known phenomenon. "The European monsoon". I think that we will be hearing more of this and doubt if "Barbecue Summer" will ever be heard again.
An early spring view from close to the recording site, looking across the Harcombe Valley towards where the local town council - Lyme Regis - and Lyme Regis Football Club wished to develop a sports complex on Strawberry Field, the top field just left of the copse in the picture. That threat has temporarily retreated with the withdrawal of the planning application. Three planning applications, by Lyme Regis golf club, then followed to install a covered golf driving range on the field left of Strawberry Field were then refused. and a "TETRA" transmission mast that was installed under questionable Emergency Powers was given its marching orders by the district council. If you would like to help stop these insensitive intrusions into hitherto unspoilt countryside within an AONB, go to the campaign website dedicated to opposing these developments.
Total Rainfall for the year was 1122.5 mm making it the wettest year since 2002
There were 168 Days (46.0% of days) with at least 0.2mm of rain
Rainfall for the three summer months of June, July and August grouped closely with the two previous years, 10mm covering the spread with 284.7mm in 2007, 294.0mm in 2008 and 285.1mm in 2009.
There were 172 Days (47% of days) with at least 0.2mm of rain
Although June was the driest month of the year it was followed by the wettest month and a fairly wet August making the three summer months of June, July and August with 294 mm the wettest summer since 1997 - 9.3 mm wetter than the summer of 2007. It is interesting that 124.3 mm of July's rain fell in the first nine days of the month and this represented 42.3% of the "summer's" rainfall. August's rainfall was more evenly spread giving the impression of a wetter month.
There were 156 Days (42.7% of days) with at least 0.2mm of rain
2007 will be remembered for its particularly wet summer causing widespread flooding particularly of the Severn in Gloustershire. Except for 1997 the total of 284.7 mm for the three summer months of June, July and August was the wettest for this same period since records began at this site in 1994. The average for these three months since 2000 is 176 mm, this summer's rain was 61.8% above that.
The wet summer followed an exceptional dry April but a wet May
There were 164 Days (44.9% of days) with at least 0.2mm of rain
2006 was the second driest year since records began at this site in 1994. 2003 was drier by 12.4 mm.
The driest 12 month period ending within the year was that up to 8 November with a total of 770 mm. See chart 12 Month Total
There were 138 Days (37.8% of Days) with at least 0.2mm of Rain
This was the driest year since I began collecting data in 1994. Also March, April, August and September were drier than any other of those months, with September and August being the driest and 3rd driest of all months since 1994.
The relatively dry spring put a stop to land slippage and work began on emergency measures to arrest the slippage east of the town.
There were 196 Days (53.7% of Days) with at least 0.2mm of Rain
With rainfall for the last three months of the year literally head and shoulders above the gentle decline in rainfall up until September, illustrated graphically in the above chart, the danger of landslips was again of great concern. The whole town seemed to be on the move specially to the west and east of the resort. The imminent danger has now abated somewhat but with the return of heavy rainfall in the last third of December the fear is that if the rains continue into the new year then further slips can be expected.
Plans have in the last few months been agreed for the stabilization work to protect the Langmoor and Lister Gardens above Marine Parade. Of course the finished project is some years away.
There were 177 Days (49.5% of Days) with at least 0.2mm of Rain
It is at times like last winter - 2000/2001 - with higher than average rainfall that one of the three things that Lyme Regis is famous for, comes to light. That is it's landslips, the other two being fossils and the French Lieutenant's Woman! For pictures and details of the landslips, together with fossils and local geology take a look at
Lois's site .
ClimateChange and Barbecue Summers
rhodehill.co.uk
