This accumulated precipitation map for the next 9 days shows you a lot of what you need to know about the pressure pattern - only 4mm forecast for Darren on Sheppey but 200+ in central Cumbria.
It'd be interesting to see the chart for rainfall so far this month! I would imagine it'd show a very similar distribution, albeit with some crazy values in the northwest.
We've had an inch on Sheppey, which as it turns out is helping the grass grow like crazy. I don't really want to have to mow the lawn over Christmas week but it's looking increasingly likely!
Meanwhile the latest ECM-32 control run shows nothing of interest to those looking for cold - only at the very end of the run do we get a NW'ly flow setting in. Before then there's plenty of wind and rain on offer! I'm hoping that its coarser resolution than the likes of GFS and the operational ECM mean it's missing signals for higher pressure in our vicinity, as if nothing else a few dry days in a row would be delightful.
The ECM-15 control from last night has SW'lies over us pretty much throughout, sometimes strong and sometimes light, but relentlessly blowing nonetheless. The final frame has a westerly over the UK. This run shows pressure building to the east but in this case it just acts as a ski-jump for depressions coming in from the Atlantic!