This January has been the wettest on the University’s long meteorological record. Weather observations began at the London Road site in 1908, with a move to Whiteknights in 1968. Records from the Atmospheric Observatory on the Whiteknights campus show that, up to Friday morning, 31 January, 137 mm has fallen, with more rain expected on the last day of the month. The normal precipitation in January (average over 30 years 1981-2010) is 61 mm, and until this week the previous wettest January on record was 1995, which received 129 mm.
Met Office statistics confirm that south-east and central southern England has been particularly wet in January, with a large area from East Devon to Kent and inland across parts of the Midlands receiving more than twice the average rainfall for the month. In contrast, northern Scotland has been slightly drier than normal, having received 83 % of its long term average rainfall so far this month, in marked contrast to the 200 % over southern England.