Perhaps the least surprising story you'll read all year: November was wettest ever

Published on Tuesday 1 December 2009 21:59

SCOTLAND saw its wettest ever November last month, forecasters revealed last night.

A new record average of 10.1in of rain fell in the 30 days – compared with the previous record of 9.6in in 1938. The average rainfall for November is 6.5in.

Eskdalemuir, near Moffat, had its wettest ever month, with 17in of rain for November, beating its previous record of 15.8in, set in February 1997.

However, the record for the wettest place in Scotland last month is held by Tyndrum, near Crianlarich in Perthshire, which saw 18.26in of rain.

Last night, the Met Office confirmed that last month was the wettest November on record, with an average of 8.5in of rain across the UK, with Cumbria particularly badly hit.

The previous record of 7.6in dated back to floods of 1951.

A Met Office spokesman said: "The interesting thing is not that it's a new record wettest November, but how isolated the heaviest rain was through the month. Places like Cumbria, south-west Scotland and Snowdonia have received by far the most rainfall and turned it into a record month despite pretty dry conditions further east, where lots of places have recorded less than 100mm (3.9in] of rain."

The weather station recording the highest rainfall last month was in Shap, Cumbria, with 24.4in.

The second wettest November was in 1940 with 7.5in, the third 7.4in in 1929, and fourth 7.1in in 1954.

Eskdalemuir saw the worst of its rainfall over 24 hours to Friday 20 November when more than 3in fell. Up to 40 roads were closed in the area and emergency services had to rescue people trapped in their homes and cars.

Many parts of Cumbria are cleaning up after last week's flooding. Army engineers have begun building the foundations of a footbridge to reconnect the two halves of Workington.

Householders in the north of the town face long detours to get to the town centre or local schools and supermarkets.

There were 28 flood warnings put in place by the UK Environment Agency yesterday, 17 of them in the north-east of England.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency issued no flood watches, warnings or severe flood warnings across Scotland.

Meanwhile, Scotland has a better than one in three chance of its first white Christmas for five years, forecasters said.

The prediction came as Britain was hit by the winter's first big chill, with Monday night's temperatures dropping as low as -8.9C (16F) in Braemar, Aberdeenshire – the UK's coldest temperature.

Benson, in Oxfordshire, had a low of -4.9C (23F) the same night, while Chesham, Bucks, registered -3C (27F).

The last official white Christmas was in 2004, with snow in Scotland and parts of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Positive Weather Solutions, which makes long-range forecasts, said the chance of snow this Christmas Day in Scotland and the north-east of England was 35 per cent, with a 33 per cent chance for the rest of the east coast.

AND THE FORECAST IS … BALTIC

THE miserable weather is set to continue, according to the Met Office forecast for Scotland.

It will be bright at times today, but snow and sleet will spread in from the west.

Temperatures across the country are set to plummet as low as -5C over the next 24 hours.

On Thursday, there will be wind and rain across the whole country.

On Friday, many areas in the east will be dry and bright, but rain will come in later and continue into Saturday, while Sunday will be wet and windy.