The Met Office has confirmed that the first half of the year were the driest first six months of any year since 1929. So now of course its started to rain!
Official figures released show that January to June had average rainfall of 356.8mm, making this period the second driest for 100 years. In 1929 275.7mm of rain was recorded in the first six months of the year.
The Met Office said the drier conditions have been caused by a lack of Atlantic weather systems, which usually cross the UK bringing bands of rain, especially to western regions.
Its ironic that one of the worst hit regions, the North West saw the worst flooding in Cumbria just last autumn. It is statistically unsound to try to extrapolate a long term trend from short term events like this but the gut feeling has to be that we are experiencing more extreme weather conditions. If you have not read already Nassim Taleb’s excellent book on Black Swans (the impact of the highly improbable) – it would be worth adding to your holiday reading list.
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