Average of 21.7 hours of rain on the wettest day of the year
Okay, so we’ve just (about) survived Blue Monday, with all the doom-laden misery that brought with it, thanks to things like our pay packets being mostly spent already, Christmas credit card bills still to pay off and the freezing cold weather.
What’s more? Worries over Brexit, and the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States, just to mention a few are all things that can make the most calm and happy person succumb to stress.
Great.
However, brace yourselves, as there’s another miserable 24 hours in the pipeline: Britain’s wettest – and gloomiest – day! Yes, that’ll be the day you just want to stay indoors and hibernate on the sofa, watching TV with the lights comfortingly down low. But when is this hideous day arriving, we hear you ask? Well, online lighting superstore Scotlight Direct (scotlightdirect.co.uk) have analysed weather data from the past 30 years to find out, as you can see on this handy infographic, below:
It turns out that statistically, the wettest day of the year in the UK is January 29th – and, on average, it will pour for 21.7 hours out of the 24. Fun! So if you don’t like jumping through muddy puddles (like Peppa Pig), or getting caught in the rain (like US singer Rupert Holmes), we recommend you make other plans – like not leaving the house.
Looking more broadly at the UK as a whole, the research found that the absolute wettest area is going to be the East of England, which can expect 23 hours of rainfall on the 27th of January. So steer clear of Ipswich, Colchester and Peterborough.
That’s closely followed by the North West and Northern Ireland, who, on the 13th and 14th of February respectively, can expect around 22.7 hours of showers. That’ll put a dampener on any plans for romance then…
Interestingly, the wettest place ever recorded in England is the village of Martinstown in Dorset, where 279mm of rain fell in 24 hours on July 18, 1955. We imagine people just swam to work…
The driest place to be will be the North East, which will have only 16.8 hours of rain on the 1st of February. Why, that’s positively Sahara-like in comparison to the rest of the country!
‘As long as you know what to expect in advance, you can make plans to spend the wettest and gloomiest day doing something nice instead,’ says Andrew Fraser, Managing Director at Scotlight Direct. ‘Arrange your living room so the lights are nice and bright, to combat the gloom outside, and treat yourself to a box set or a takeaway – or both! It’s important not to let it get you down. After all, it’s not that long before spring will be on its way.’
