Just to confuse the issue, Thorney has ended up with the MetO (official stations only, of course) highest rainfall for yesterday at 20.6mm

And if they had a rain gauge at gosport fleetland then the total would have been higher. 

I wonder why it is that only select metoffice stations have rain gauges?

Any way were sitting around 35mm for the month now - close to average.

Here in Edinburgh, the data from SEPA has actually been rounded downwards from what I have reported already out of the data from weathercast.co.uk.

This means that according to SEPA, this month's rainfall totals are currently just 0.4 mm at Edinburgh Gogarbank over the entire month, along with 0.8 mm at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh. Indeed, we have to go all the way back to 26 March to find the last time that an official rain day was recorded at either of those two stations.

In addition to that, there hasn't even been a single day during this month as I write, where a total of more than 0.2 mm of rain has been recorded at Edinburgh Gogarbank and even at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh, a total of just 0.6 mm of rain was recorded on this month's wettest day of this month so far at that particular station.

Apart from that, there has been one other day with a total of 0.2 mm of rain being recorded at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh, with every other day of this month being completely dry. The result of this is that we are now into the 8th day of the latest dry spell at both of those stations.

There are now only 12 days left of this month after today, and there are still no signs of any appreciable rainfall at either of those two stations during the more reliable time frame of the GFS model. This means that as things stand just now, we continue to be on course for this month to go down as our driest April on record at both of those stations.

 

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As John says, remarkably dry in Edinburgh with less than 1mm at Gogarbank. Here in the southern suburbs a heavy evening shower earlier in the month has given Swanston 1.9mm for the month but we look like staying dry sunny and cool for another 7 days !

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Yesterdays / last nights rain gave 10.5mm

Month total : 10.8mm

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1.2mm added to the April total today from patchy light rain around noon. Brings us to 3.4mm for the month.

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Still on 0.5mm here for the month, the shower we had today resulted in nothing measurable.

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10.8  mm Yesterday

18.0  mm  This Month

204.3 mm Year To Date

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1.8mm

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The deluge is on the way. Will it hold off until May, or spoil our monthly stats? My money's on things wetting up a bit this month but with the real biblical flooding happening in May, June and July.

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Still on a total of 18mm this month.

Chance of rain for the 29th and on the 30th.

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Still no change in the rainfall totals here since my last report and so, we are now in our 12th observation day in a row without any recorded rainfall whatsoever at either Edinburgh Gogarbank and the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

As at midnight, the wetter of those two stations is the botanic gardens in Edinburgh and even there, a total of just 0.8 mm of rain has been recorded over the course of this entire month since 10am (09:00 UTC) on 1 April 2020. Edinburgh Gogarbank is even drier with just 0.4 mm of rain in total over that same period.

In order for this month to be the driest April on record at both of those stations, this month's total only needs to finish on less than 3.2 mm at Edinburgh Gogarbank and less than 4.0 mm at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh with the current observation month finishing at 10am (09:00 UTC) on 1 May 2020.

That is a record which was set as recently as 2017 but for the botanic gardens in Edinburgh, that wasn't the driest month on record. However, the driest month on record at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh according to records which go all the way back to 1959, was in February 1993 when a total of just 3.7 mm of rain was recorded over the course of that entire month.

So far, we are even well on course to beat that record from 1993 at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh. The latest model output suggests that we might just get enough rain at the end of this month to prevent that from actually happening, but there are no guarantees that we will actually get that and if that long standing record from the 1990s at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh is beaten, that will be extremely remarkable when you consider that this is happening just two months after our wettest February on record at both of those stations.

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It shows how very hard it is to break the "driest on record", certainly at regional and national levels, this April may not even be in the top 20 come at the end of the month. 

The most recent month  the 1766 series to break the " driest on record" is August 1995 and that was 25 years ago whilst the most recent month to break "wettest on record" was last February. 

The total number of top 5 wettest for each month of the year since and including 1900: 34  (7 since and including 2000)

The total number of top 5 driest fo each month of the year  since and including 1900: 23 (1 since and including 2000)

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It shows how very hard it is to break the "driest on record", certainly at regional and national levels, this April may not even be in the top 20 come at the end of the month. 

The most recent month  the 1766 series to break the " driest on record" is August 1995 and that was 25 years ago whilst the most recent month to break "wettest on record" was last February. 

The total number of top 5 wettest for each month of the year since and including 1900: 34  (7 since and including 2000)

The total number of top 5 driest fo each month of the year  since and including 1900: 23 (1 since and including 2000)

Yes, one of those interesting outliers. No real trend in long term average rainfall over the year, and no trend or even a slight reduction in rainfall frequency. Suggests the net impact of warming so far is neutral hence dry month records don’t come along very often, as you’d expect in a steady climate. But when it does rain it does so mord intensely with more moisture capacity in the atmosphere, so the record wet months keep coming.

But if net annual rainfall shows no trend, we know certain months are getting wetter (autumn and winter) and others moderately drier (spring, some evidence for July), so why aren’t they breaking records? Perhaps because the occasional rogue shower in those drought periods, like 2018, is that much beefier.

PS I thought Jan 1997 was a dry record but maybe it just came close.

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PS I thought Jan 1997 was a dry record but maybe it just came close.

Jan 1997 is the driest January for my region - NW England - in a record going back to 1873. Whether a month is driest on record depends partly on region selected and also length of record. The E&W rainfall data goes back further - 1766 - as mentioned by Kev Brads.

Just 4.8mm to date.

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Still just 0.4 mm for this month at Edinburgh Gogarbank along with 0.8 mm at the botanic gardens in Edinburgh.

At 10am (09:00 UTC) this morning, we will have come to the end of our 15th day in a row without any recorded rainfall at either of those stations, our 26th day in a row without a single rainfall total of more than 0.2 mm at either of those stations and our 30th day in a row without even a single official rain day being recorded at either of those stations.

This means that we are clearly, now in the midst of an unofficial absolute drought at both of those stations, which is still not expected to come to an end over the next couple of days.

The latest BBC forecast for each remaining day of this month with the exception of Thursday, is indicating nothing more than the odd scattered shower, or only a small chance of rain. Where that forecast is for the odd scattered shower, we are within the region which is least likely to be unaffected by that, at least as far as Scotland is concerned.

Our only realistic chance of getting any significant rainfall during the rest of this month is on Thursday according to that forecast and if we don't get any rain on the preceding days leading up to that, then even that might not necessarily be enough in the end to prevent this month from being our driest month on record.

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It shows how very hard it is to break the "driest on record", certainly at regional and national levels, this April may not even be in the top 20 come at the end of the month. 

A statistical effect? 'Driest on record' can never go below zero, only approach that limit asymptotically, whereas 'wettest on record' is open-ended.

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Still on 0.5mm here for the month, the shower we had today resulted in nothing measurable.

I believe the driest 'official' place in the country this month is Bingley which has recorded 1.4mm of rain.

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Sitting at 33mm of rain this April so far we could end up wetter than average should next weeks rainfall materialise. 

 

I believe the driest 'official' place in the country this month is Bingley which has recorded 1.4mm of rain.

Which at 262m amsl is no mean feat.

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