Why does rainfall vary so much in the UK?????

[Bossfarmer]

Been noticing a big difference in rainfall this week some farmers too wet to even plough not even 5 miles away and theyre drilling spring barley? These wetter areas seem to be wetter more often than not surely there must be something causing it and not pot luck? Does being near hills have a big effect?

 

[Jerry]

Topography has a big impact. We are in a rain shadow here so a dry farm. Go 3 or 4 miles away and much wetter.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Location location location.
The trouble with living on an island [emoji52]
An area near my hometown, every mile further along Slopedown road meant another inch of annual rainfall, so I imagine it's the same but worse in the UK! As the name suggests, the road is actually losing altitude all the way, but getting further back into the hills.
Our west coast gets absolutely huge rainfall, and the other side of the alps has a 'rain shadow' with minimal rainfall.
I also watch the rain go around my place more often than not, due to being in the leeside of a little hill, it either sneaks down the estuary behind us or cuts around and sweeps through town, hence our farm name Leeside.

 

[GTB]

It's always raining here on the west coast. Don't think we've had a single day with no rain for at least six weeks.

 

[Northeastfarmer]

Because clouds aren't 450 miles wide?????

 

[Bossfarmer]

Topography has a big impact. We are in a rain shadow here so a dry farm. Go 3 or 4 miles away and much wetter.

Whats a rain shadow? Its surprising out on the east coast of scotland its hardley ever raining yet over towards crieff etc it rains all the time

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Water is heavy and lazy!

 

[Farmer Miggins]

Why does rainfall vary so much in the UK?????
Because we wouldn't have anything to talk about?

 

[Henarar]

It always seems the same to me
wet

 

[willy]

Maritime climate.....simple

 

[nick...]

Allways get less in the east as prevailing wind is from the west and rain seems to get dumped there before getting to us
Nick...

 

[Sonoftheheir]

Showers seem to follow the rivers around here. Storms usually go one way or the other following the rivers and miss us.

 

[joe soapy]

Location location location.
The trouble with living on an island [emoji52]
An area near my hometown, every mile further along Slopedown road meant another inch of annual rainfall, so I imagine it's the same but worse in the UK! As the name suggests, the road is actually losing altitude all the way, but getting further back into the hills.
Our west coast gets absolutely huge rainfall, and the other side of the alps has a 'rain shadow' with minimal rainfall.
I also watch the rain go around my place more often than not, due to being in the leeside of a little hill, it either sneaks down the estuary behind us or cuts around and sweeps through town, hence our farm name Leeside.

used to be like that here, we have tidal rivers each side of us. Could watch showers coming up from the south, split where the rivers met leaving us dry, recently things have changed with showers coming from the west and dumping on us more often

 

[Bossfarmer]

strange that the rain is following rivers?? someone once told me that hills have a magnetic force and pull clouds towards them, could there be any truth in that? ive noticed flat areas with no hills nearby seem to get less rain

 

[Sonoftheheir]

strange that the rain is following rivers?? someone once told me that hills have a magnetic force and pull clouds towards them, could there be any truth in that? ive noticed flat areas with no hills nearby seem to get less rain

Do the hills/mountains squeeze the clouds to let the rain out? More pressure?

 

[KMA]

argh where to start, purely my understanding as a greybeard peasant (apologies to anyone who knows the proper stuff). We seem to be where 4 weather thingies converge, you've got the Azores high, to the southwest (warm/wet) the continental systems coming in from east russia/eastern europe (cold/dry), the Atlantic systems to the west which seem to be a series of lows (mild/wet) blown along on the gulf stream, then finally the Arctic stuff to the northwest, coming down from Greenland (cold/wet). 3 of the 4 systems bring in wet from the west which when it meets hills has to rise, as it rises it cools and cooler air can't carry the same amount of moisture so it drops as rain.

There's actually an interesting effect I've noticed around Dumfries which seems to be big enough to create it's own effect. Generally Dumfries is a couple of degrees higher than the surrounding countryside so the warm air rising from Dumfries forces the weather to either split either side of the column of warmer air rising from the town or rise to get over it therefore cooling so that it can't carry as much moisture, creating very localised heavy showers.

I've also noticed thunderstorm tend to track rivers, oddly enough round here although the Nith is the bigger river they tend to follow the Ae and the Cairn/Cluden.

 

[Paddington]

Somebody does a monthly account of the weather in our local magazine with rainfall figures for each day, interestingly their monthly total is similar to mine, but each days rainfall can be quite different although they are only a few miles away.
Read an article once about how ley lines define local weather, thought it was a bit far fetched at first, but the examples they gave of rain patterns being different on say, either side of the A303 and A30 for example seemed to run true.

 

[Farma Parma]

12mm here last 24hrs 45miles north of Newcastle not far off east coast
12miles to the west there was 23mm in the same period.

 

[Hilly]

12mm here last 24hrs 45miles north of Newcastle not far off east coast
12miles to the west there was 23mm in the same period.

I dont measure rain fall, but this side of the cartebar had some rain yesterday and last night, Kale was in full flood this morning and cold today pretty pish to be fair but cant alter the weather

 

[Farma Parma]

Never sow Crops here in before April & ya normally stuffed after the middle of Oct as well Same year in year out