Record-breaking rainfall

5 Mar 2020 02:54 PM

Those interested in the UK’s climate records have only had to wait two months of the new decade for a significant new rainfall record to be set.

February 2020 set a new UK record for February rainfall in a series stretching back to 1862. Storms Caira, Dennis and Jorge, brought 44% of the month’s rainfall, beating the previous record that was set in 1990.

Rainfall amount Winter 2020 UK

Three individual peaks stand out in the February 2020 daily rainfall record. These peaks from left to right are: Storm Ciara; Storm Dennis; and Storm Jorge.

Dr Mark McCarthy is head of the Met Office’s National Climate Information Centre. He said: “Of the top ten wettest winters, four have occurred since 2007 and seven since 1990. Associated with these changes we have also observed a 17% increase in the total rainfall from extremely wet days and a paper published in 2014 showed the 2010s contain more monthly to seasonal UK rainfall records than any other decade in the observational record.”

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