This has just been tweeted, it shows the really wet area is quite small and large areas (including here) have only been a bit wetter than average.
But because the wet area is in the SE we have heard nothing else for weeks.

Sorry have to disagree with that slightly. There is a significant amount of England, Wales and Scotland that are in the blue shaded area for 130 to 150% of rainfall. I would guess in the next blue shaded area for 150 to 175% of rainfall you have just under half of England, Wales and Scotland. To me that is not just the SE and is noteworthy country wide! Certainly those in Somerset, Worcestershire, Aberystwyth, Cornwall etc. would have something to say about it being perceived as just the SE I would imagine.........

Interesting map and does show that some areas have been only slightly above average, as you point out, but also large swathes more than slightly above average and still 8 days to go!

😁

This has just been tweeted, it shows the really wet area is quite small and large areas (including here) have only been a bit wetter than average.
But because the wet area is in the SE we have heard nothing else for weeks.

Originally Posted by: Deep Powder 

Sorry have to disagree with that slightly. There is a significant amount of England, Wales and Scotland that are in the blue shaded area for 130 to 150% of rainfall. I would guess in the next blue shaded area for 150 to 175% of rainfall you have just under half of England, Wales and Scotland. To me that is not just the SE and is noteworthy country wide! Certainly those in Somerset, Worcestershire, Aberystwyth, Cornwall etc. would have something to say about it being perceived as just the SE I would imagine.........

Interesting map and does show that some areas have been only slightly above average, as you point out, but also large swathes more than slightly above average and still 8 days to go!

Originally Posted by: four 

As the SE has most of the population the original contention is always likely to be the case, but as DP has pointed out, its not just the SE that has suffered the effects of severe flooding

As you know only too well the official figure using the mean volume from the network of gauges for England and Wales is close to if not now above the previous record for Dec-Feb.

True the distribution has been centrered in the South but what the media coverage of this exceptional period of weather has to do with the statistics is irrelevant and your comment is odd.

What is striking is that area around the Moray Firth, Lossiemouth? is below average, yet look at that patch on the east coast between Aberdeen and Edinburgh and how wet that is.

That is very strange, not sure what happened there for that to happen for that area of Scotland to be so wet when you consider that this winter has been so Atlantic dominated.

This has just been tweeted, it shows the really wet area is quite small and large areas (including here) have only been a bit wetter than average.
But because the wet area is in the SE we have heard nothing else for weeks.

well i am in east dorset / west hants and i would not really consider to be s.e. and it has been extremely wet here, the wettest i have known in my lifetime . winterbournes have been running at flood level for months now.

i feel you are a little jealous of the rain and attention we southerners are getting

Yes, it is an interesting point that Kevin. I wonder if the southerly tracking Lows which have brought in a lot of rain to parts of the south have dragged in lots of moisture on a SEly flow impacting the eastern parts of Scotland leaving the Moray Firth and Edinburgh more sheltered from the deluges. Sadly we have not been as lucky and E Scotland has also had its wettest winter on record.

Another observation that I find odd given the weather has been Atlantic dominated is the small brown blob over Liverpool...

That's just pollution [sn_clown]

This might have something to do with why it''s been so wet here:

SE flows are just exceptionally wet here - the wettest direction by far. Moray is obviously sheltered from a SE flow so the east coast bears the full brunt of it. The first half of the winter was more SW dominated and I only had 89.8mm up to 14th January but have had 215mm since then. 

January/February will be the wettest on record here beating 1994, which itself was some way above the next wettest (1883).

However due to the dry first three weeks of December the winter will only end up as 6th wettest in 158 years with the wetter winters being:

1876/77, 1882/83, 1993/94, 1899/1900, 1914/15

The wettest two had over 400mm and the other three over 360mm which is not likely to be reached this year. Dyce has recorded about 330mm so far which is about 25mm ahead of my more sheltered location.

This winter has been more consistently awful than any of those though. There have been no extreme rainfall events, that wouldn't normally be expected, it has just been persistently wet but with no rain total over 25mm and no snow contribution at all. 

1989/90 and 1994/95 were dry here due to being dominated by SW'lys rather than vile SE'lys as a result of the southerly tracking lows this winter.

Fascinating and amazing all this is. I've got away with the worst of the wet weather by some margin as shows up on this map.

Also in between the wet weather I have had loads of sunny days - Indeed I regard this winter as having had more sunshine than what I experienced in the summers of 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012. Those were all horrors for me with endless grey days.

This winter although its had quite a lot of rain where I live- when its not been raining - its been very pleasant indeed. I can imagine a lot of people are surprised to hear me say this.

And to cap it all - I've only 3 air frosts.

Interesting wind frequency diagram, and demonstrates well the rainfall distribution.  The ties in with the fact lows have generally passing close to or over the UK rather than further north which is often the case.  It's remarkable however, that whereas SE is the most prevalent wind direction, just 45 degrees anticlockwise, there have been no Easterlies at all!

424.8 2013-14 up to 19th February

423.0 1914-15

Wettest seasons on record for England and Wales: W for winter, S for summer, A for autumn

A 502.7 2000

A 455.8 1852

A 438.6 1960

W 424.8 2013-14

Wettest February on record for England and Wales (mm)

158.6 1833

152.7 1923

143.6 1950

143.2 1990

143.2 1977

142.1 1937

132.0 1916

131.7 1900

130.0 1848

129.6 1966

129.1 1768

124.2 1925

123.5 1915

116.0 1918

115.3 1812

115.1 2002

114.9 1995

114.1 1851

114.0 1823

113.5 1776

112.1 1904

111.6 2007

109.1 1881

107.7 1883

107.4 1866

107. 2014 up to 19th February

Yes, our misery has now become official.  Thanks for keeping us up to date on the way to this infamous milestone.  I see the figures quoted by the media yesterday were for the UK and not England & Wales as yours are.  Seems a little coincidental bearing in mind that some areas  in the North were below average.  Whats the odds on it being the second wettest saeson.... 50%......more?

Whilst its been a wet winter here in the East Midlands its not beating the wettest since Autumn/winter 2000 which was by far wetter much wetter with severe flooding across the East Midlands.

Cheers Kevin - Thanks for those excellent stats.  So we passed the milestone now.

Very much doubt we'll break the all time wettest season though.

Can't agree with that assessment. See the important text in red on that map - these data aren't yet for the whole winter yet and normally you should expect to see those figures only showing 90% of the total so far.

In other words, most of the country should be appearing as brown, or perhaps white on that map in an average winter. In reality, almost none of it is. At a glance at least three-quarters of the country has had well above average rainfall, if you compare the shading to the 90% mark which it should be.

Both mountain rain shadows.

But presumably the mountains are always there, so would be factored into the local averages which this map compares against? Although I suppose if the angle of the winds was different from usual then that could come into play, with different areas being sheltered?

Surely they have been different this winter, with weather relentlessly coming in from S & W; averages would expect to factor in spells of northerly or easterly weather

Here are a few station totals for the winter so far:

Glasgow Bishopton 629.2mm

Keswick 800.6mm (173% of mean)

Hereford Credenhill 378.6mm (209% of mean)

Odiham 514.2mm (242% of mean)

Bournemouth Hurn 586.8mm (239% of mean)

Impressive figure from Hurn there, and not far from my home location, where the total to the end of today (assuming it remains dry for the next 22 minutes) is 560mm.

That's 260% of the average for the entire winter! 

I reckon these places have had far more rain than what I've had - these figures are quite amazing.