Between 2001 and 2023, the average rainfall in the United Kingdom varied greatly. In 2010, rainfall dropped to a low of 1,020 millimeters, which was a noticeable decrease when compared to the previous year. However, the following year rainfall increased significantly to a peak of 1,889 millimeters. During the period in consideration, rainfall rarely rose above 1,500 millimeters. In 2023, the annual average rainfall in the UK surpassed 1,381 millimeters.

Monthly rainfall

On average, rainfall is most common at the start and end of the year. Between 2014 and 2023, monthly rainfall peaked in December 2015 at approximately 217 millimeters. This was the first of only two times during this period that the average monthly rainfall rose above 200 millimeters. This was a deviation from December’s long-term mean of some 134 millimeters.

Rainfall highest in Scotland

In the United Kingdom, rain is often concentrated around mountainous regions such as the Scottish Highlands, so it is no surprise to see that – on average – it is Scotland that receives the most rainfall annually. In 2023, the average rainfall in Scotland amounted to approximately 1,574 millimeters. Geographically, it is the north and west of the United Kingdom that receives the lion's share of rain, as it is more susceptible to rainfall coming in from the Atlantic.

The United Kingdom experienced an average of 1,242.1 millimeters of rainfall in 2024, a decrease of 5.8 percent in comparison to the previous year. While 2024 saw substantial rainfall, it did not surpass the thus-far peak of the century, with 1,373 millimeters of rain recorded in 2000. Regional variations and seasonal patterns Rainfall distribution across the UK is far from uniform, with Scotland and Wales consistently receiving the highest annual precipitation. In 2024, they recorded an average of 1,571.7 millimeters and 1,600.8 millimeters, respectively, significantly above the UK’s average. This disparity is largely due to both countries’ mountainous terrain, which is more susceptible to Atlantic weather systems. Seasonally, the wettest months in the UK typically occur in the winter, with the highest precipitation levels seen between November and February. Climate change impact on UK weather Climate change is influencing UK weather patterns, leading to warmer and wetter conditions overall. While annual rainfall fluctuates, there is a trend towards more extreme weather events. For example, 2020 and 2022 saw rain deviations from the long-term mean in the UK of more than 100 millimeters in February. As weather patterns continue to evolve, monitoring rainfall trends remains crucial for understanding and adapting to a changing climate.

The wettest months in the United Kingdom tend to be at the start and end of the year. In the period of consideration, the greatest measurement of rainfall was nearly 217 millimeters, recorded in December 2015. The lowest level of rainfall was recorded in April 2021, at 20.6 millimeters. Rainy days The British Isles are known for their wet weather, and in 2024 there were approximately 164 rain days in the United Kingdom. A rainday is when more than one millimeter of rain falls within a day. Over the past 30 years, the greatest number of rain days was recorded in the year 2000. In that year, the average annual rainfall in the UK amounted to 1,242.1 millimeters. Climate change According to the Met Office, climate change in the United Kingdom has resulted in the weather getting warmer and wetter. In 2022, the annual average temperature in the country reached a new record high, surpassing 10 degrees Celsius for the first time. This represented an increase of nearly two degrees Celsius when compared to the annual average temperature recorded in 1910. In a recent survey conducted amongst UK residents, almost 80 percent of respondents had concerns about climate change.

Average rainfall in the United Kingdom has generally been higher during the fourth quarter of every year. In the period of consideration, the highest rainfall average was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2011, at 738.6 millimeters.

What does the data show?

This data shows annual averages of precipitation (mm/day) for 2050-2079 from the UKCP18 regional climate projections. The data is for the high emissions scenario (RCP8.5).

Limitations of the data

We recommend the use of multiple grid cells or an average of grid cells around a point of interest to help users get a sense of the variability in the area. This will provide a more robust set of values for informing decisions based on the data.

What are the naming conventions and how do I explore the data?

This data contains a field for the average over the period. They are named 'pr' (precipitation), the month, and 'upper' 'median' or 'lower'. E.g. 'pr Median' is the median value.

To understand how to explore the data, see this page: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/457e7a2bc73e40b089fac0e47c63a578

Please note, if viewing in ArcGIS Map Viewer, the map will default to ‘pr January Median’ values.

What do the ‘median’, ‘upper’, and ‘lower’ values mean?

Climate models are numerical representations of the climate system. To capture uncertainty in projections for the future, an ensemble, or group, of climate models are run. Each ensemble member has slightly different starting conditions or model set-ups. Considering all of the model outcomes gives users a range of plausible conditions which could occur in the future.

For this dataset, the model projections consist of 12 separate ensemble members. To select which ensemble members to use, the annual averages of precipitation for 2050-2079 were calculated for each ensemble member and they were then ranked in order from lowest to highest for each location.

The ‘lower’ fields are the second lowest ranked ensemble member. The ‘upper’ fields are the second highest ranked ensemble member. The ‘median’ field is the central value of the ensemble.

This gives a median value, and a spread of the ensemble members indicating the range of possible outcomes in the projections. This spread of outputs can be used to infer the uncertainty in the projections. The larger the difference between the lower and upper fields, the greater the uncertainty.

Data source

pr_rcp85_land-rcm_uk_12km_12_ann-30y_200912-207911.nc (median)

pr_rcp85_land-rcm_uk_12km_05_ann-30y_200912-207911.nc (lower)

pr_rcp85_land-rcm_uk_12km_04_ann-30y_200912-207911.nc (upper)

UKCP18 v20190731 (downloaded 04/11/2021)

Useful links

Further information on the UK Climate Projections (UKCP). Further information on understanding climate data within the Met Office Climate Data Portal

The United Kingdom saw an average rainfall of 1,319 millimeters in 2023. Between 2014 and 2023, precipitation in the UK was approximately nine percent higher than in the period between 1961 and 1990. In addition to an increase in rainfall, average annual temperatures have also risen during the same period. Altogether, the weather in the United Kingdom is getting hotter and wetter.

HadUK-Grid is a collection of gridded climate variables derived from the network of UK land surface observations. The data have been interpolated from meteorological station data onto a uniform grid to provide complete and consistent coverage across the UK. The dataset at 12 km resolution is derived from the associated 1 km x 1 km resolution to allow for comparison to data from climate projections. The dataset spans the period from 1836 to 2022, but the start time is dependent on climate variable and temporal resolution.

The gridded data are produced for daily, monthly, seasonal and annual timescales, as well as long term averages for a set of climatological reference periods. Variables include air temperature (maximum, minimum and mean), precipitation, sunshine, mean sea level pressure, wind speed, relative humidity, vapour pressure, days of snow lying, and days of ground frost.

This data set supersedes the previous versions of this dataset which also superseded UKCP09 gridded observations. Subsequent versions may be released in due course and will follow the version numbering as outlined by Hollis et al. (2018, see linked documentation).

The changes for v1.2.0.ceda HadUK-Grid datasets are as follows:

• Added data for calendar year 2022

• Added newly digitised data for monthly sunshine 1910-1918

  • Added Rainfall Rescue version 2 doi:10.5281/zenodo.7554242

  • Updated shapefiles used for production of area average statistics https://github.com/ukcp-data/ukcp- spatial-files

  • Updated controlled vocabulary for metadata assignment https://github.com/ukcp-data/UKCP18_CVs

  • Updated assignment of timepoint for some periods so that the datetime is the middle of the period (e.g. season) rather than a fixed offset from the period start.

  • Updated ordering of regions within regional values files. Alphabetical ordering.

  • Files use netcdf level 4 compression using gzip https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/developer/entry/netcdf_compression

• Net changes to the input station data used to generate this dataset:

• Total of 125601744 observations

• 122621050 (97.6%) unchanged

• 26700 (0.02%) modified for this version

• 2953994 (2.35%) added in this version

• 16315 (0.01%) deleted from this version

• Changes to monthly rainfall 1836-1960

• Total of 4823973 observations

• 3315657 (68.7%) unchanged

• 21029 (0.4%) modified for this version

• 1487287 (30.8%) added in this version

• 11155 (0.2%) deleted from this version

The primary purpose of these data are to facilitate monitoring of UK climate and research into climate change, impacts and adaptation. The datasets have been created by the Met Office with financial support from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in order to support the Public Weather Service Customer Group (PWSCG), the Hadley Centre Climate Programme, and the UK Climate Projections (UKCP18) project. The output from a number of data recovery activities relating to 19th and early 20th Century data have been used in the creation of this dataset, these activities were supported by: the Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme; the Natural Environment Research Council project "Analysis of historic drought and water scarcity in the UK"; the UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Strategic Priorities Fund UK Climate Resilience programme; The UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Public Engagement programme; the National Centre for Atmospheric Science; National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the NERC GloSAT project; and the contribution of many thousands of public volunteers. The dataset is provided under Open Government Licence.

HadUK-Grid is a collection of gridded climate variables derived from the network of UK land surface observations. The data have been interpolated from meteorological station data onto a uniform grid to provide complete and consistent coverage across the UK. The dataset at 12 km resolution is derived from the associated 1 km x 1 km resolution to allow for comparison to data from climate projections. The dataset spans the period from 1862 to 2019, but the start time is dependent on climate variable and temporal resolution. The gridded data are produced for daily, monthly, seasonal and annual timescales, as well as long term averages for a set of climatological reference periods. Variables include air temperature (maximum, minimum and mean), precipitation, sunshine, mean sea level pressure, wind speed, relative humidity, vapour pressure, days of snow lying, and days of ground frost. This data set supersedes the previous versions of this dataset which also superseded UKCP09 gridded observations. Subsequent versions may be released in due course and will follow the version numbering as outlined by Hollis et al. (2018, see linked documentation). For this version of note is that historical data recovery has improved monthly rainfall 1862-1910, daily rainfall 1883-1910, monthly temperature 1900-1909, and additional sunshine grids for 1919-1928 have been added. Additionally, this version has corrected the grid definition used for the 12 km grid product to match UKCP18 climate model products. The primary purpose of these data are to facilitate monitoring of UK climate and research into climate change, impacts and adaptation. The datasets have been created by the Met Office with financial support from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in order to support the Public Weather Service Customer Group (PWSCG), the Hadley Centre Climate Programme, and the UK Climate Projections (UKCP18) project. The data recovery activity to supplement 19th and early 20th Century data availability has also been funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC grant ref: NE/L01016X/1) project "Analysis of historic drought and water scarcity in the UK". The dataset is provided under Open Government Licence.

UKCP09: 5 km gridded data - Annual averages of the rainfall intensity on days of rain ≥1 mm (mm/day). The data set contains 12 files (one for each month for the 1961-1990 average period). The individual grids are named according to the following convention: variablename_mmm_Average_Actual.txt where mmm is the month name (e.g. Jan).

The datasets have been created with financial support from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and they are being promoted by the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) as part of the UK Climate Projections (UKCP09). http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/content/view/12/689/.

To view this data you will have to register on the Met Office website, here: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/climate-monitoring/UKCP09/register

1 km gridded estimates of daily and monthly rainfall for Great-Britain and Northern Ireland (together with approximately 3000 km2 of catchment in the Republic of Ireland) from 1890 to 2019. The rainfall estimates are derived from the Met Office national database of observed precipitation. To derive the estimates, monthly and daily (when complete month available) precipitation totals from the UK rain gauge network are used. The natural neighbour interpolation methodology, including a normalisation step based on average annual rainfall, was used to generate the daily and monthly estimates. The estimated rainfall on a given day refers to the rainfall amount precipitated in 24 hours between 9am on that day until 9am on the following day. The CEH-GEAR dataset has been developed according to the guidance provided in BS 7843-4:2012. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/dbf13dd5-90cd-457a-a986-f2f9dd97e93c

HadUK-Grid is a collection of gridded climate variables derived from the network of UK land surface observations. The data have been interpolated from meteorological station data onto a uniform grid to provide complete and consistent coverage across the UK. These data at 1 km resolution have been averaged across a set of discrete geographies defining UK river basins consistent with data from UKCP18 climate projections. The dataset spans the period from 1836 to 2022, but the start time is dependent on climate variable and temporal resolution.

The gridded data are produced for daily, monthly, seasonal and annual timescales, as well as long term averages for a set of climatological reference periods. Variables include air temperature (maximum, minimum and mean), precipitation, sunshine, mean sea level pressure, wind speed, relative humidity, vapour pressure, days of snow lying, and days of ground frost.

This data set supersedes the previous versions of this dataset which also superseded UKCP09 gridded observations. Subsequent versions may be released in due course and will follow the version numbering as outlined by Hollis et al. (2018, see linked documentation).

The changes for v1.2.0.ceda HadUK-Grid datasets are as follows:

• Added data for calendar year 2022

• Added newly digitised data for monthly sunshine 1910-1918

  • Added Rainfall Rescue version 2 doi:10.5281/zenodo.7554242

  • Updated shapefiles used for production of area average statistics https://github.com/ukcp-data/ukcp-spatial-files

  • Updated controlled vocabulary for metadata assignment https://github.com/ukcp-data/UKCP18_CVs

  • Updated assignment of timepoint for some periods so that the datetime is the middle of the period (e.g. season) rather than a fixed offset from the period start.

  • Updated ordering of regions within regional values files. Alphabetical ordering.

  • Files use netcdf level 4 compression using gzip https://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/developer/entry/netcdf_compression

• Net changes to the input station data used to generate this dataset:

• Total of 125601744 observations

• 122621050 (97.6%) unchanged

• 26700 (0.02%) modified for this version

• 2953994 (2.35%) added in this version

• 16315 (0.01%) deleted from this version

• Changes to monthly rainfall 1836-1960

• Total of 4823973 observations

• 3315657 (68.7%) unchanged

• 21029 (0.4%) modified for this version

• 1487287 (30.8%) added in this version

• 11155 (0.2%) deleted from this version

The primary purpose of these data are to facilitate monitoring of UK climate and research into climate change, impacts and adaptation. The datasets have been created by the Met Office with financial support from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in order to support the Public Weather Service Customer Group (PWSCG), the Hadley Centre Climate Programme, and the UK Climate Projections (UKCP18) project. The output from a number of data recovery activities relating to 19th and early 20th Century data have been used in the creation of this dataset, these activities were supported by: the Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme; the Natural Environment Research Council project "Analysis of historic drought and water scarcity in the UK"; the UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) Strategic Priorities Fund UK Climate Resilience programme; The UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Public Engagement programme; the National Centre for Atmospheric Science; National Centre for Atmospheric Science and the NERC GloSAT project; and the contribution of many thousands of public volunteers. The dataset is provided under Open Government Licence.

Since 2015, the greatest monthly rainfall deviation in the United Kingdom occurred in February 2020. This month saw a considerable increase of 139 millimeters from the long-term mean. In comparison, the same month in 2023 saw a decrease of almost 40 millimeters compared to the mean from 2002 to 2021.

What does the data show?

This data shows the monthly averages of rainfall amount (mm) for 1981-2010 from CRU TS (v. 4.06) dataset. It is provided on the WGS84 grid which measures approximately 60km x 60km (latitude x longitude) at the equator. This is the same as the 60km grid used by UKCP18 global datasets.

What are the naming conventions and how do I explore the data?

This data contains a field for each month’s average over the period. They are named 'pr' (precipitation) and the month. E.g. ‘pr March’ is the average of the monthly total rainfall in March throughout 1981-2010.

To understand how to explore the data, see this page: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/457e7a2bc73e40b089fac0e47c63a578

Please note, if viewing in ArcGIS Map Viewer, the map will default to ‘pr January’ values.

Data source

CRU TS v. 4.06 - (downloaded 12/07/22)

Useful links

Further information on CRU TS Further information on understanding climate data within the Met Office Climate Data Portal

What does the data show?

The data shows the annual average of precipitation amount (mm) for the 1991-2020 period from HadUK gridded data. It is provided on a 12km British National Grid (BNG).

Limitations of the data

We recommend the use of multiple grid cells or an average of grid cells around a point of interest to help users get a sense of the variability in the area. This will provide a more robust set of values for informing decisions based on the data.

What are the naming conventions and how do I explore the data?

This data contains a field for the average over the 1991-2020 period. It is named 'pr' (precipitation).

To understand how to explore the data, see this page: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/457e7a2bc73e40b089fac0e47c63a578

Data source:

·
Version: HadUK-Grid v1.1.0.0 (downloaded 21/06/2022)

·
Source: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/652cea3b8b4446f7bff73be0ce99ba0f

·
Filename: rainfall_hadukgrid_uk_12km_ann-30y_199101-202012.nc

Useful links

·
Further information on HadUK-Grid

·
Further information on understanding climate data within the Met Office Climate Data Portal

Environment & Business - Land and Water.

The Rainfall Long-term Average dataset contains data for average rainfall usually over the period 1961-1990. This is a spatial dataset.

UKCP09 25 km gridded data for precipitation Monthly long-term averages for the 1961-1990 climate baseline are also available for the 25 x 25 km grid boxes of the HadRM3 regional climate model. Each 25 x 25 km grid box value is an average of the 5 x 5 km grid cell values that fall within it.

The datasets have been created with financial support from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and they are being promoted by the UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) as part of the UK Climate Projections (UKCP09). http://ukclimateprojections.defra.gov.uk/content/view/12/689/.

Zip file contains 17 text files (one for each month, season and the year as a whole). The individual grids are named according to the following convention: vvvvvv_1961-1990_LTA_25km_ppp.txt where 'vvvvvv' is the variable name and 'ppp' is the averaging period, i.e. jan, feb, mar, etc. (for individual months), djf (winter), mam (spring), jja (summer), son (autumn) or ann (for the annual average).

Single netCDF file that contains the data for all months, seasons and the year as a whole.

To view this data you will have to register on the Met Office website, here: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/climate-monitoring/UKCP09/register

HadUK-Grid is a collection of gridded climate variables derived from the network of UK land surface observations. The data have been interpolated from meteorological station data onto a uniform grid to provide complete and consistent coverage across the UK. The datasets cover the UK at 1 km x 1 km resolution. These 1 km x 1 km data have been used to provide a range of other resolutions and across countries, administrative regions and river basins to allow for comparison to data from UKCP18 climate projections. The dataset spans the period from 1862 to 2019, but the start time is dependent on climate variable and temporal resolution. The gridded data are produced for daily, monthly, seasonal and annual timescales, as well as long term averages for a set of climatological reference periods. Variables include air temperature (maximum, minimum and mean), precipitation, sunshine, mean sea level pressure, wind speed, relative humidity, vapour pressure, days of snow lying, and days of ground frost. This data set supersedes the previous versions of this dataset which also superseded UKCP09 gridded observations. Subsequent versions may be released in due course and will follow the version numbering as outlined by Hollis et al. (2018, see linked documentation). For this version of note is that historical data recovery has improved monthly rainfall 1862-1910, daily rainfall 1883-1910, monthly temperature 1900-1909, and additional sunshine grids for 1919-1928 have been added. The primary purpose of these data are to facilitate monitoring of UK climate and research into climate change, impacts and adaptation. The datasets have been created by the Met Office with financial support from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in order to support the Public Weather Service Customer Group (PWSCG), the Hadley Centre Climate Programme, and the UK Climate Projections (UKCP18) project. The data recovery activity to supplement 19th and early 20th Century data availability has also been funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC grant ref: NE/L01016X/1) project "Analysis of historic drought and water scarcity in the UK". The dataset is provided under Open Government Licence.

Average temperature and total rainfall in England and Wales : 1845 to 2012. Annual and seasonal outflow and rainfall estimates for the United Kingdom and its component countries since 1961.

Rainfall figures are available from the National River Flow Archive - monthly hydrological updates.

The Environment Agency also publish monthly water situation reports for England.

Discontinued - superceded by http://www.ceh.ac.uk/data/nrfa/ & https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/water-situation-reports-for-england

Site specific (293 individual stations) monthly average (1981 - 2010)

        The data consists of:
        Max Temp (degrees C) 
        Min Temp (degrees C) 
        Sunshine (hours) 
        Rainfall (mm) 
        Raindays >=1.0mm (days) 
        Days of Air Frost (days) 
        Monthly mean wind speeds at 10m (knots)

        District and Region monthly average (1961-1990, 1971-2000, 1981-2010)

        The data consists of:
        Max Temp (degrees C) 
        Min Temp (degrees C) 
        Sunshine (hours) 
        Rainfall (mm) 
        Raindays >=1.0mm (days) 
        Days of Air Frost (days)

        UK monthly average (1961-1990, 1971-2000, 1981-2010)

        The data consists of:
        Max Temp (degrees C) 
        Min Temp (degrees C) 
        Sunshine (hours) 
        Rainfall (mm) 
        Raindays >=1.0mm (days) 
        Days of Air Frost (days)