After what has been officially the wettest
winter on record in the UK it is time to look at just how wet it has been for
Gosport.
December is the meteorological start of winter
in the UK. The first 12 days of the month saw little rain with the maximum
daily amount for the period being 0.8mm recorded on both the 4th and
5th. However, from the 13th the situation changed with much wetter
weather occurring for the remainder of the month. The total amount of rain
recorded for the whole of December was 151.0mm (5.94in) with 148.6mm (5.85in)
recorded after day 12. The maximum wind speed for the month was 49.5mph which
was recorded on the 24th.
January continued the trend of wet weather
with total rainfall amounts of 167.8mm (6.60in). Rain was recorded on 29 days
in January. The strongest wind of 42.5mph was recorded on 3rd
January.
February started where January left off with
rain being recorded on 24 of the 28 days. The monthly total of rain for
February is 147.8mm (5.81in). To compare this to previous monthly totals for
February, 2013 saw a total of 34.6mm (1.36in) with 13 days of rain and 2012 a
total of 10.8mm (0.43in) with 10 days of rain recorded. The maximum wind speed
for February 2014 was 47.1mph which was recorded on the 14th during the
Valentine’s Day storm.
This gives us an overall rainfall total of 466.6mm
(18.37in) for the 2013/2014 winter period. Rain has been recorded on 77 days
out of a possible 90 days up to and including 28th of February. This
means that it has rained for 86% of the 2013/2014 winter period. The 2012/2013
winter period total was 198.2mm (7.80in). So all this considered we have seen
268.4mm more rain this winter than last winter. This is an increase of 235%.
Why did this happen?
Climatologists and scientists are trying to
determine whether climate change is responsible for the increased frequency of
bad weather events, whatever they may be not just here in the UK but worldwide
too. What we have witnessed over the last two or three months is extreme
weather and should not be confused with climate.
So whilst Gosport Weather has recorded some
extreme weather over the last three months I cannot say whether this has been
caused by climate change and refuse to be drawn into that debate as our main
focus is weather and not climate.
The snow in the north of the USA and Canada
and the low temperatures have contrasted with warm air moving up from the south
of the USA and where they met it created the catalyst for the fast moving west
to east ribbon of air six miles or so up from the surface to strengthen markedly
to speeds of 300mph or more. This ribbon of air is called the jet stream, as it
crosses the Atlantic Ocean to the UK from the US it is the birth place for the
big storms that we have endured and because it has been much faster and more
powerful than usual this winter so have the storms, Hence why the amounts of
rain and wind have been so exceptional. What is also remarkable is the
persistence of the pattern for so long which has exaggerated the flooding
problems in the UK that we have seen on the news of late and the sustained
cold, ice and snow across Canada and the NE states.
What does the future hold?
Here in Gosport we can expect sunny spells on
Saturday but cloud building in the afternoon in to Saturday night and Sunday morning with a
band of rain crossing over the area on Sunday night in to Monday morning
followed by further outbreaks of rain during the day. Please visit our 7 day forecast page for a longer term forecast.
What is happening with the Gosport Weather
website?
Due to the extreme weather progress in
upgrading and reinstating some services has been delayed. The work has had to
be delayed due to necessity of keeping our website online to enable visitors to
get the latest information. We are hoping to be able to complete work on our
homepage by the middle of this month. This work will tie in with the re-launch
of the ongoing soil station project which is currently in final testing before
being prepped for planting outside.
We are also working hard to upgrade our charts
page with images produced from the weather models from both the UK Met Office
and the US NWS. This project does not have a launch date as there is a lot of
code to write and then quality control testing to ensure each image is in
sequence and is displayed when the appropriate button is selected.
The Environment Agency flood information will
be removed once the last flood alert has been cancelled. The flood line number
along with other local information will be placed on a new page.
To end this post, whilst the recent weather
has been very interesting and has produced some unsurprising statistics it is
important to remember that Gosport has been lucky not to see widespread
flooding despite the rainfall amounts. However others in our county and country
have not been so lucky. Our thoughts are with those who have been flooded or
those who have lost loved ones due to the destructive weather.
