Met Office Confirms This Summer As Wettest For England & Wales Since 1912 - Guardian

[hatrack]

Forecasters have confirmed what many suspected: summer 2012 in England and Wales has been the biggest washout for a century. The Met Office said it had been the one of the dullest on record, one of the coolest, and the soggiest since 1912. As if to illustrate the point, Cumbria was hit by heavy rain and flash flooding on Thursday, , forcing people to leave their homes and causing a train carrying about 100 passengers to derail.

A landslide is thought to have caused the derailment of the two-carriage train, which was travelling towards Sellafield nuclear plant. No injuries were reported.

While the month is not quite over, Met Office figures up to 29 August make grim reading. Not only has this summer experienced just 399 hours of sunshine, it has also been cool, with a mean temperature of 14C (57F), some 0.4C below the long term average.

The Met Office does not expect summer rainfall (currently at 366.8mm) to exceed the 384.4mm seen in the summer of 1912, and Scotland has escaped relatively lightly with 357mm.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/aug/30/rain-chaos-summer-wettest-years

[pipoman]

1. Interesting considering the widespread drought in the US..