Record rainfalls were recorded in the north and west of the UK following the passage of several storms in November and December, but what of the Liverpool area?
Met office caveats informed in some areas of the UK rainfall was just average, or below.
Rainfall recording, by the author, with a simple garden centre funnel (since 2009), revealed, not only was last December’s rainfall not exceptional, it was only the 4th wettest December in the last 5 years!
2011: 160mm; 2012: 143 mm; 2014: 101mm; 2015: 91mm.
Indeed only storm “Eva” , on Christmas Eve, deposited notably high amounts in one go (28mm).
All readings for rainfall were taken in L16, and latterly L14.
Recollections, or feelings, about the weather can often be misleading.
For instance my “Phillip’s” school atlas from 1969 shows the 25”-30” (inches, that is) isohyet (lines joining places of similar rainfall) running from Liverpool, down through Cheshire, into the west Midlands, the Chilterns, North Downs and finally, the Kent coast!
Rainfall this year in Liverpool? 673 mm (28 inches), right in the middle of the range above.
Counterintuitively, in Liverpool, we are in one of the drier regions of the UK and this year have not exceeded our “banding” of nearly half a century. In fact we haven’t in 5 years out of the last 7.
Does this amount to what’s known as a “rain shadow” given the prevailing winds and their passage over the Welsh mountains?
Rob Duffy
