Wet. Wet. Wet
As promised, I have found a way of dissecting the
Environment Agency rainfall data for England to compare the chalkstream
regions with everywhere else.
You’ll see from the figures that the non-chalkstream region
consistently receives more rainfall than the chalkstream region, often by
as much as 40%, though both largely march in step based on the long term
averages. The long term average is based on, for reasons I am yet to
discover, rainfall in the years 1961-1990. There must be some reason why
the past 32 years are being ignored. Perhaps someone reading this knows?
As for the more recent you will see December was pretty well
on par, though I’m told, again for reasons I don’t understand, that
snowfall understates what would have otherwise been rainfall. Aside from
that the wet November and December have really boosted the figures with a
third more rain than usual in the final quarter of 2022. That made the
figures for the period July-December respectable but for the full year you
will see we are still cycling the terribly dry start to the year,
especially January 2022 when we had just 15% of normal rainfall. In
contrast, from just looking out of your window, you will know this January
to be very different.
All we need now is an averagely wet February and March to be
home and dry, if you know what I mean, for the chalkstream season ahead.
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