Following on from a rainy December, January was another wet month. Although it rained on only about 14 days, there were two exceptionally wet periods, from 13th-16th and 18th-20th, the latter coinciding with named storm Christophe. This storm produced the wettest 3-days in Northwest England and North Wales since records began in 1891.
It was a wet one; measurable rain fell in Formby on 20 days during December. The 13th, 19th and 26th were especially damp, the latter coinciding with named storm ‘Bella’. It was also relatively mild, with frost largely restricted to a few mornings late in the month. There was no snow; indeed, it is now ten years since the last major snowfall here in December 2010. Unsurprisingly, the sand-dune water-table at my measuring point in the Devil’s Hole blowout rose by about 9cm (3.5 inches), in marked contrast to the previous month, when there was no change in the level.
Although rain fell in Formby on 17 days, amounts were small. Therefore, November turned out to be much drier than October, with no change in the water-level at the Devil’s Hole. It was relatively mild with hardly any frost. As a result, occasional summer flowers, such as Evening Primrose, Ragwort and the Hybrid Stork’s-bill enlivened the dunes throughout the month.
October is normally the second wettest month of the year but this one was exceptional. Due to a persistently energetic North Atlantic Jet-stream, it rained in Formby on 22 days, some of that contribution being from two named storms. The 3rd was the wettest day recorded in England since records began in 1891, though we didn’t have a particularly large amount of rain here. The result was that the water-table at the Devil’s Hole blowout came up 28cm (nearly a foot) during the month, flooding the slack.