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Chipping set to be county’s wettest spot?
The rain record in Chipping has been well and truly smashed.
Last year was the wettest since daily rain recording started in 1968 by official Met Office recorder Muriel Lord at Nat King’s Farm.
The total rainfall figure was 1,984mm - approximately 6ft 6ins. The previous wettest year at Chipping was 2000, with 1,947.4mm.
Mrs Lord says nine months of 2012 were wetter than average. June with 213mm and September with 312.8mm broke records.
March was an odd exception with a record low rainfall total of only 30mm.
Higher amounts than that were recorded on 10 individual days during the rest of the year. The wettest days were June 22 with 72.4mm and Sept 24 with 54mm while there were only 96 dry days in the year.
Late January and early February were cold with the lowest temperature -5.2C recorded overnight Feb 2-3. There was a short warm spell in late March when temperatures rose to 19.2C.
However, she says this early warmth faded as an air stream from the north or north east persisted for much of the spring. April was chilly.
May’s weather was unsettled until the dry spell in the last two weeks of the month, when temperatures rose at last, reaching the maximum for the year, 25.8C. (78.4F)
Muriel said: “Summer never came, as the weather turned cool and very wet in June. There were only 15 dry days to the end of August. We had little sunshine throughout and temperatures rarely reached 70F ( 21.1C). Thunderstorms in the area late June, early July and early August added to the risk of flash floods.
“We hoped for an improvement in September or even October. But wet cloudy weather persisted as weather systems came in from the Atlantic for the rest of the year. Temperatures have mostly been mild.
“A brief dry frosty spell in early December brought hopes of a change. But the rain came back with a vengeance, giving us a wet Christmas and bringing the year to a soggy and record breaking end.
“The land has been saturated for most of the time and there has been much flooding. It has been a cloudy year with reduced sunshine, poor evaporation and suppressed temperatures.”
Last week, provisional figures released by the Met Office showed Stonyhurst as the wettest place in Lancashire in 2012, with 1,727.8mm of rain, making it one third wetter than normal, which has since been beaten by the Chipping figures.
Myerscough, Preston, Morecambe and Blackpool all received more rain than average.
In Myerscough it was a fifth wetter than usual with 1,258.4mm, Preston had 1,344mm, Morecambe had 1,316mm. Blackpool had a more modest 1,096.2mm.
Overall 2012 was being recorded as the second wettest year for Lancashire since national records began in 1910.
With a provisional county wide average of 1,519 mm of rainfall, the only wetter year was in 1954 with 1,537mm.
l THE table of summer totals (above) is based on June-July-August rain combined together and coloured according to the amounts. Dark pink for totals well below average. Dark blue for well above average. Pastel shades for less dry or less wet. White for about average.
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Weather for Longridge
Wednesday 19 June 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 17 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Light rain
Temperature: 12 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South
