Driest location in UK?
Keith Harris
Essex, to be the driest location, on average, in the UK. I thought it was in
the 'Guinness Book of Records', but I can't find it in the 1998 edition, nor
'The Guinness Book of Weather Facts & Feats'. A book I have had since 1975
by Gordon Manley 'Climate and the British Scene' it has a mention, and I
quote:-
'it may be added here that it is considered that the village of Great
Wakering, near Shoeburyness in Essex is probably in the driest area, with an
average annual rainfall (1881-1915) of 18.4 inches, falling on about 150
days (for 1916-1950, about 19.2 inches)'
I am located approximately 6 miles to the west of Great Wakering, and the
past 21 years my rainfall has averaged out at 21.4 inches, so am intrigued
to know whether I am located near to the 'officially' driest location in the
UK.
Can anyone either confirm this or bring me up to date with the current
records?
Regards
Keith (Southend)
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Scott Whitehead
I remember reading somewhere last year that Grays, Thurrock, was
officially the driest spot in the UK.
Cheers,
Scott
Edward Milan
<keith.r....@btinternet.com> wrote:
>I have always believed the Village of Great Wakering, near Shoeburyness,
>Essex, to be the driest location, on average, in the UK. I thought it was in
>the 'Guinness Book of Records', but I can't find it in the 1998 edition, nor
>'The Guinness Book of Weather Facts & Feats'. A book I have had since 1975
>by Gordon Manley 'Climate and the British Scene' it has a mention, and I
>quote:-
> 'it may be added here that it is considered that the village of Great
>Wakering, near Shoeburyness in Essex is probably in the driest area, with an
>average annual rainfall (1881-1915) of 18.4 inches, falling on about 150
>days (for 1916-1950, about 19.2 inches)'
>I am located approximately 6 miles to the west of Great Wakering, and the
>past 21 years my rainfall has averaged out at 21.4 inches, so am intrigued
>to know whether I am located near to the 'officially' driest location in the
>UK.
>
>Can anyone either confirm this or bring me up to date with the current
>records?
>
>Regards
>
>Keith (Southend)
I have always understood that there is a position in Lincolnshire that
has about 8" rain a year its down in the fens, but I cannot recall the
exact location.
Jeff Milan
Paul Bartlett
<jeff....@virgin.net> writes
>I have always understood that there is a position in Lincolnshire that
>
>has about 8" rain a year its down in the fens, but I cannot recall the
>exact location.
You can go down 15 miles of road and get to a dead end.
I am from Lincoln not Lincolnshire, but I have a great respect of the
fens.
I would have a wild guess at Suffolk being the overall driest.
Cheers
Paul
--
"Wisest are they that know they do not know." Socrates
A COL member. Site 25 miles on a bearing 240deg from the Wash.
Height 408FT amsl. 52.80'N 00.75'W. irc 'PaulB'
Paul Bartlett
(01572) 812715
Michael David Silverstone
On Mon, 3 Jan 2000, Keith Harris wrote:
> I have always believed the Village of Great Wakering, near Shoeburyness,
> Essex, to be the driest location, on average, in the UK. I thought it was in
> the 'Guinness Book of Records', but I can't find it in the 1998 edition, nor
> 'The Guinness Book of Weather Facts & Feats'. A book I have had since 1975
> by Gordon Manley 'Climate and the British Scene' it has a mention, and I
> quote:-
> 'it may be added here that it is considered that the village of Great
> Wakering, near Shoeburyness in Essex is probably in the driest area, with an
> average annual rainfall (1881-1915) of 18.4 inches, falling on about 150
> days (for 1916-1950, about 19.2 inches)'
> I am located approximately 6 miles to the west of Great Wakering, and the
> past 21 years my rainfall has averaged out at 21.4 inches, so am intrigued
> to know whether I am located near to the 'officially' driest location in the
> UK.
>
> Can anyone either confirm this or bring me up to date with the current
> records?
>
> Regards
>
> Keith (Southend)
Keith, I have seen in a couple of books I have that Southend should, on
average (based on 1961-1990 data, from these books I have although I don't
remember the titles off hand), receive about 525mm rain in a year (about
20.6 inches). Indeed, the Southend area is the driest in the UK, although
pretty much all of south and east Essex seems to receive the same rain
total in a year on average according to these books. I have also,
however, seen St Osyth mentioned as the driest, based on 1951-1980 data,
with about 500mm in a year average, and even Tilbury with 500mm mentioned
as the driest. Books seem to disagree a little as to the driest place but
not the area, and the totals are roughly the same, to within an inch.
For 1999, I had about 18.5 inches for Southend (according to papers, the
value based on adding up each day's total given by the Guardian). What was
your total? I haven't worked out any average over my record span, but as
you live just a few miles from me, our values probably won't differ a
great deal (by less than an inch probably). Interesting how each set of 30
year averages seems to give a larger total for average annual rainfall, as
we have moved through the last century...global warming effects perhaps?
Michael S.
David Mitchell
newspaper a few years ago, I came up with Lee Wick Farm, St. Osyth in Essex,
which averaged 513mm (20.2 ins) of rain for the period 1964-1982.
--
David Mitchell.
210 amsl. Penistone. S. Yorks.
Keith Harris <keith.r....@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:84qsll$c4v$1...@uranium.btinternet.com...
> I have always believed the Village of Great Wakering, near Shoeburyness,
> Essex, to be the driest location, on average, in the UK. I thought it was
in
> the 'Guinness Book of Records', but I can't find it in the 1998 edition,
nor
> 'The Guinness Book of Weather Facts & Feats'. A book I have had since 1975
> by Gordon Manley 'Climate and the British Scene' it has a mention, and I
> quote:-
> 'it may be added here that it is considered that the village of Great
> Wakering, near Shoeburyness in Essex is probably in the driest area, with
an
> average annual rainfall (1881-1915) of 18.4 inches, falling on about 150
> days (for 1916-1950, about 19.2 inches)'
> I am located approximately 6 miles to the west of Great Wakering, and the
> past 21 years my rainfall has averaged out at 21.4 inches, so am intrigued
> to know whether I am located near to the 'officially' driest location in
the
> UK.
>
> Can anyone either confirm this or bring me up to date with the current
> records?
>
> Regards
>
> Keith (Southend)
>
Keith Harris
before as well. I guess there is no 'offical' place listed :-(
1999 I totaled 20.13 inches (511.3mm) - Southend-on-Sea.
By the way how do you get Saturday's rainfall from the Guardian?
Regards
Keith (Southend)
bl...@met.unimelb.edu.au
Something to watch for with this sort of statistic is that, if our
experience in Australia is anything to go by, some stations are less
than diligent in reporting small daily rainfall totals (<2mm). This can
have quite an impact on the long-term mean at a site that consistently
fails to report small rainfall totals (especially as I'd expect - but
don't have any figures to prove - that most British sites get more of
their total rainfall from such events than most Australian sites do).
The evidence I've seen so far suggests that, even now, something like
50% of daily rainfalls below 2mm are not reported, and in the early
years of this century that figure is closer to 70%. (For this reason,
one of the first checks we did when selecting stations for use in
monitoring long-term climatic trends was a check on the frequency
distribution of daily rainfall totals).
Because of the impact of this, the true lowest Australian annual mean
rainfall - widely quoted as being about 100mm - is probably in the 130-
150 range.
Blair Trewin
National Climate Centre, Bureau of Meteorology
Australia
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