Ah, we just love a bit of weather chat here in the UK. After all, it HAS been so rainy recently, hasn’t it? So much so that news have been pouring in cautioning the country to brace for “50 days of rain“, making it the “wettest summer since 1912“. As many of us refuse to accept this, I have set on a quest to determine how accurate these predictions REALLY are: and it looks like there’s still hope, folks.
LBC reported that the UK could once again face one of the wettest summers in history since the records began in 1910.
The Met Office long-range forecast said: “The chances of a wetter-than-average period are higher than a drier-than-average one. Rainfall at this time of year has a greater risk of localised heavy downpours and thunderstorms.”
Over the years, media outlets like the BBC have covered this catchy headline, such as during the summer of 2012 when it was named the “wettest in 100 years”, with 366.8mm of rain falling during the season.
However, while the UK did experience the fourth wettest winter on record, the fate of our summer is yet to be fully determined. The Met Office did comment further regarding the weather speculations, saying it is too early days to say anything for certain.
The Met Office told the i: “In short, no, the claims are not true. As is typical for forecasts made at this time of year, signals for prevailing weather patterns over the UK during summer are relatively weak.”
“However, signals show the chances of a wet or dry summer are fairly balanced. Whilst rainfall signals are limited, some spells of unsettled weather can be expected.”
So, there you have it – it is too soon to know what the weather gods will really bring for the UK this summer, as we might need that sunscreen after all.
What happened in the summer of 1912?
Overall, last summer we saw 40 days of rain, while the summer of 1912 faced a whopping 55 days of rain out of 100. Over a million gallons of water fell onto the country, resulting in massive flooding, including devastating consequences for the City of Norwich. As a result, the floods caused plenty of deaths and destruction, with its news echoing across the world.