England’s rainfall record since 1836
One hundred and ninety years of areal rainfall for England, computed rather than quoted. The driest year in the record is 1921 and the wettest is 1872, and the three most recent decades average about nine per cent wetter than the three earliest — a difference large enough to be worth stating and small enough to require the caveat about gauge density that accompanies it.
The extremes
Across 190 years, the driest was 1921 at 559 mm — 36% below the 1991–2020 normal of 870 mm. The wettest was 1872 at 1156 mm, 33% above it. Neither figure is quoted from anywhere: both are computed from the ingested Met Office series, and the normal is computed from the same series rather than transcribed.
Decade by decade
View the data behind this chart
| Period | Decadal mean rainfall (mm) |
|---|---|
| 1840 | 803 |
| 1850 | 752 |
| 1860 | 816 |
| 1870 | 864 |
| 1880 | 820 |
| 1890 | 769 |
| 1900 | 786 |
| 1910 | 859 |
| 1920 | 844 |
| 1930 | 841 |
| 1940 | 789 |
| 1950 | 831 |
| 1960 | 854 |
| 1970 | 792 |
| 1980 | 845 |
| 1990 | 828 |
| 2000 | 892 |
| 2010 | 865 |
The three earliest complete decades average 790 mm; the three most recent average 862 mm. That is a shift of 9.0%.
Data behind this
Every figure above is computed from these datasets at build time rather than written into the text. If the underlying record changes, this page changes with it.
Citation
Hydrionis (2026), England’s rainfall record since 1836, version 1.0. Retrieved from https://hydrionis.com/research/england-rainfall-since-1836/