Rainfall Records

For as long as I can remember my father has taken daily weather records. Some of his enthusiasm has rubbed off and I have been taking rainfall readings since 1992. My equipment is simple. A graduated plastic funnel of the sort you can often buy in garden centres. It is just pushed into the soil away from overhanging plants. Readings are taken each day nominally at 09:00. I make no claim to any great degree of accuracy for individual readings but the cumulative results are accurate enough to expose long term trends. For this reason I have restricted the figures below to monthly totals.

My location is in the Stroud Valleys at about 250 feet. The surrounding hills are around 500-600 feet, no doubt the hill tops get more rainfall than the valleys.

.	Jan	Feb	March	April	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	October	Nov	Dec	Totals
1993	132	7	13	82	87	71	83	18	94	97	56	144	883
1994	103	86	48	57	80	24	15	37	118	67	77	118	830
1995	136	106	36	19	53	14	10	4	106	76	86	86	731
1996	56	64	63	49	36	25	41	87	29	60	108	33	651
1997	10	107	16	21	62	88	18	97	38	80	107	89	733
1998	119	12	91	91	10	112	18	42	115	130	70	94	905
1999	149	36	65	103	100	49	17	164	130	58	60	138	1069
2000	32	92	25	196	94	42	54	56	124	186	172	152	1226
2001	63	74	94	93	49	21	65	83	56	135	49	25	808
2002	107	148	41	53	118	63	85	28	32	166	140	116	1101
2003	77	24	44	59	70	48	120	13	13	60	101	95	726
2004	115	39	75	91	55	39	33	135	58	163	54	58	917
2005	50	35	74	65	58	48	36	26	39	123	97	90	741
2006	23	33	106	33	135	25	79	69	88	96	125	146	958
2007	124	100	73	6	138	136	136*	56	24	60	76	105	1034
2008	149	44	103	50	88	60	142	.	.	.	.	.	.

* true total higher, rain gauge overflowed!

As you can see below the best months here for outdoor events is June and July. Leave it till October at your peril.

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