What does the data show?

The data shows monthly averages of rainfall amount (mm) for 1991-2020 from HadUK gridded data. It is provided on a 2km British National Grid (BNG).

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 rainfall amount for March in the period 1991-2020.

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:

HadUK-Grid v1.1.0.0 (downloaded 11/03/2022)

Useful links

Further information on HadUK-Grid Further information on understanding climate data within the Met Office Climate Data Portal

Precipitation in the United Kingdom decreased to 1275.23 mm in 2024 from 1405.56 mm in 2023. This dataset includes a chart with historical data for the United Kingdom Average Precipitation.

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.

Average Rainfall (mm) and average Temperature (centigrade) for the North East England and East England Met Office Climate district, which includes Lincolnshire. This dataset shows the average Rainfall in millimetres and average Temperature in centigrade, by month, meteorological season, and annual calendar year. The data is sourced from the UK Met Office website. See the Source link for more information about the data and the area it covers.

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

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 2023, 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. (2019, see linked documentation).

The changes for v1.3.0.ceda HadUK-Grid datasets are as follows:

• Added data for calendar year 2023

• Added newly digitised data for daily rainfall (62 Scottish stations for 1945-1960)

• Daily rainfall data for Bolton, 1916-1919 have been corrected (previous values were corrupted and needed redigitising)

• Daily rainfall data for Buxton, 1960 have been corrected (conversion from inches to mm had been applied incorrectly)

• Rainfall data from EA and SEPA APIs are included for the last three months of the dataset (Oct-Dec 2023) (for all earlier months the rainfall data from partner agencies is obtained from the Met Office's MIDAS database)

• The number of stations used for groundfrost, sunshine and windspeed have reduced at different points in the historical series when comparing v1.3.0.ceda to the previous version v1.2.0.ceda. These reductions in station numbers have been caused by changes made in the data processing steps upstream of the gridding process.

• For groundfrost this reduction has been caused by an automated quality control process flagging the historical data which have been removed as suspect (mostly affecting data from 1961 to 1970).

• For sunshine the small reduction in the 1960s has been caused by the removal of digitized monthly sunshine data through this period where we wish to reverify the data source.

• For windspeed the reduction from 1969 to 2010 has been caused by changes to rules applied relating to data completeness when compiling daily mean windspeeds, which in turn have followed through to monthly statistics.

• We plan to carry out a review of the data which have been excluded from this version. Some of it may be reintroduced in a future release.

• Net changes to the input station data:

• Total of 126970983 observations

• 125384735 (98.75%) unchanged

• 28487 (0.02%) modified for this version

• 1557761 (1.23%) added in this version

• 188522 (0.15%) 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.

The UK hourly rainfall data contain the rainfall amount (and duration from tilting syphon gauges) during the hour (or hours) ending at the specified time. The data also contains precipitation amounts, however precipitation measured over 24 hours are not stored. Over time a range of rain gauges have been used - see the linked MIDAS User Guide for further details.

This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data.

The data were collected by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within the following message types: NCM, AWSHRLY, DLY3208, SREW and SSER. The data spans from 1915 to 2023.

This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record. A large proportion of the UK raingauge observing network (associated with WAHRAIN, WADRAIN and WAMRAIN for hourly, daily and monthly rainfall measurements respectively) is operated by other agencies beyond the Met Office, and are consequently currently excluded from the Midas-open dataset.

[THIS DATASET HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN]. 5km gridded Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) data for Great Britain, which is a drought index based on the probability of precipitation for a given accumulation period as defined by McKee et al. [1]. SPI is calculated for different accumulation periods: 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 months. Each of these is in turn calculated for each of the twelve calendar months. Note that values in monthly (and for longer accumulation periods also annual) time series of the data therefore are likely to be autocorrelated. The standard period which was used to fit the gamma distribution is 1961-2010. The dataset covers the period from 1862 to 2015. NOTE: the difference between this dataset with the previously published dataset 'Gridded Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) using gamma distribution with standard period 1961-2010 for Great Britain [SPIgamma61-10]" (Tanguy et al., 2015 [2]), apart from the temporal and spatial extent, is the underlying rainfall data from which SPI was calculated. In the previously published dataset, CEH-GEAR (Keller et al., 2015 [3], Tanguy et al., 2014 [4]) was used, whereas in this version, Met Office 5km rainfall grids were used (see supporting information for more details). The methodology to calculate SPI is the same in the two datasets. [1] McKee, T. B., Doesken, N. J., Kleist, J. (1993). The Relationship of Drought Frequency and Duration to Time Scales. Eighth Conference on Applied Climatology, 17-22 January 1993, Anaheim, California. [2] Tanguy, M.; Hannaford, J.; Barker, L.; Svensson, C.; Kral, F.; Fry, M. (2015). Gridded Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) using gamma distribution with standard period 1961-2010 for Great Britain [SPIgamma61-10]. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/94c9eaa3-a178-4de4-8905-dbfab03b69a0 [3] Keller, V. D. J., Tanguy, M., Prosdocimi, I., Terry, J. A., Hitt, O., Cole, S. J., Fry, M., Morris, D. G., and Dixon, H. (2015). CEH-GEAR: 1 km resolution daily and monthly areal rainfall estimates for the UK for hydrological use, Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., 8, 83-112, doi:10.5194/essdd-8-83-2015. [4] Tanguy, M.; Dixon, H.; Prosdocimi, I.; Morris, D. G.; Keller, V. D. J. (2014). Gridded estimates of daily and monthly areal rainfall for the United Kingdom (1890-2012) [CEH-GEAR]. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/5dc179dc-f692-49ba-9326-a6893a503f6e Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/ed7444fc-8c2a-473e-98cd-e68d3cffa2b0

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 2021, 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 v1.1.0.0 HadUK-Grid datasets are as follows: * The addition of data for calendar year 2021 * The addition of 30 year averages for the new reference period 1991-2020 * An update to 30 year averages for 1961-1990 and 1981-2010. This is an order of operation change. In this version 30 year averages have been calculated from the underlying monthly/seasonal/annual grids (grid-then-average) in previous version they were grids of interpolated station average (average-then-grid). This order of operation change results in small differences to the values, but provides improved consistency with the monthly/seasonal/annual series grids. However this order of operation change means that 1961-1990 averages are not included for sfcWind or snowlying variables due to the start date for these variables being 1969 and 1971 respectively. * A substantial new collection of monthly rainfall data have been added for the period before 1960. These data originate from the rainfall rescue project (Hawkins et al. 2022) and this source now accounts for 84% of pre-1960 monthly rainfall data, and the monthly rainfall series has been extended back to 1836. Net changes to the input station data used to generate this dataset: -Total of 122664065 observations -118464870 (96.5%) unchanged -4821 (0.004%) modified for this version -4194374 (3.4%) added in this version -5887 (0.005%) 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.

[THIS DATASET HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN]. 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 2017. 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/ee9ab43d-a4fe-4e73-afd5-cd4fc4c82556

UKCP09: 5 km gridded data - monthly averages for the number of days of rainfall ≥10 mm. 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/climatechange/science/monitoring/ukcp09/gds_form.html.

What does the data show?

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

Limitations of the dataWe 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 each month’s average over the period. They are named 'pr' (precipitation) and the month. E.g. 'pr March' is the rainfall amount for March in the period 1991-2020.

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: 

·
Version: HadUK-Grid v1.1.0.0 (downloaded 26/08/2022)

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

·
Filename: rainfall_hadukgrid_uk_12km_mon-30y_199101-202012.nc

Useful links

·
Further information on HadUK-Grid

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

Monthly averages of precipitation (mm/day) for 2050-2079 from UKCP18 regional projections (12km grid), using the RCP8.5 pathway.This data contains a field for each month’s average over the period. They are named 'pr' (precipitation), the month, and 'upper' 'median' or 'lower' as per the description below. E.g. 'pr July Median'.UKCP: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/approach/collaboration/ukcp/indexWhat is the data?The data is from the UKCP18 regional projections using the RCP8.5 scenario. RCP8.5 is the highest of the plausible future emissions scenarios used by the IPCC, sometimes referred to as 'business as usual'.What do the 'median', 'upper', and 'lower' values mean?This scenario is run as 12 separate ensemble members. To select which ensemble members to use, a single value for the mean UK precipitation for the period 2050-2079 was taken from each ensemble member. They were then ranked in order from lowest precipitation to highest. The 'lower' fields are this data is the second lowest ranked ensemble member. The 'higher' fields are the second highest ranked ensemble member. The 'median' fields are the central (7th) ranked ensemble member.This gives a median value, and a spread of the ensemble members indicating the level of uncertainty in the projections.Recommendations for use of this data:1. We don't recommend using this data at the resolution of a single cell.The higher resolution of this data improves representation of topography, coasts, etc. but at the same time increases some of the uncertainty for individual grid cells. And so it is recommended to work with multiple grid cells, or an average of grid cells around a point to improve certainty.2. Consider whether the lower, median, or upper projections, or a combination, are most suitable for your use case.As described above, the spread of the ensemble members shown by the lower, median, and upper values indicates the level of uncertainty in the projections.Data source:pr_rcp85_land-rcm_uk_12km_12_mon-30y_200912-207911.nc (median)pr_rcp85_land-rcm_uk_12km_05_mon-30y_200912-207911.nc (lower)pr_rcp85_land-rcm_uk_12km_04_mon-30y_200912-207911.nc (upper)UKCP18 v20190731 (downloaded 04/11/2021)This dataset forms part of the Met Office’s Climate Data Portal service. This service is currently in Beta. We would like your help to further develop our service, please send us feedback via the site - https://climate-themetoffice.hub.arcgis.com/

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 2024, 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. (2019, see linked documentation).

The changes for v1.3.1.ceda HadUK-Grid datasets are as follows:

Changes to the dataset * Added data for calendar year 2024 * Extended the daily temperature grids back to 1931

Changes to the input data * Incorporated additional daily rainfall data for 60 sites in Scotland, 1922-45 * Incorporated additional monthly rainfall data for two sites - Westonbirt (1880-1951) & Ackworth School (1852-53) * Fixed a 1-day offset for sunshine duration values for six stations between 1971 and 1993 * Corrected the daily rainfall data for Macclesfield, 1958-60 (the values had been stored in the wrong units) * Improved the quality control of the most recent three months of rainfall data (Oct-Dec 2024) * Removed Corpach from the wind speed grids (the station is poorly modelled - this only affects 14 months) * Reviewed the quality control flags that had been applied automatically to historical air and grass minimum temperature data. In many cases it was possible to remove the flags and this has allowed us to incorporate additional data into the grids for 1961-1997 for these variables. * Improved the business logic relating to data completeness. This affects monthly wind speed and has allowed us to re-introduce some of the data that were excluded in the previous release.

• Net changes to the input station data:
  • Total of 131314637 observations
  • 126821432 (96.6%) unchanged
  • 105327 (0.08%) modified for this version
  • 4387878 (3.34%) added in this version
  • 44224 (0.03%) 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.

UKCP09: Gridded datasets of annual values. Rainfall intensity on days of rain. The day-by-day sum of the mean number of degrees by which the air temperature is more than a value of 22 °C Total precipitation on days with ≥1 mm divided by count of days with ≥1 mm during the year. 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

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 5 km resolution is derived from the associated 1 km x 1 km resolution to allow for comparison to data from UKCP18 climate projections. The dataset spans the period from 1836 to 2024, 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. (2019, see linked documentation).

The changes for v1.3.1.ceda HadUK-Grid datasets are as follows:

Changes to the dataset * Added data for calendar year 2024 * Extended the daily temperature grids back to 1931

Changes to the input data * Incorporated additional daily rainfall data for 60 sites in Scotland, 1922-45 * Incorporated additional monthly rainfall data for two sites - Westonbirt (1880-1951) & Ackworth School (1852-53) * Fixed a 1-day offset for sunshine duration values for six stations between 1971 and 1993 * Corrected the daily rainfall data for Macclesfield, 1958-60 (the values had been stored in the wrong units) * Improved the quality control of the most recent three months of rainfall data (Oct-Dec 2024) * Removed Corpach from the wind speed grids (the station is poorly modelled - this only affects 14 months) * Reviewed the quality control flags that had been applied automatically to historical air and grass minimum temperature data. In many cases it was possible to remove the flags and this has allowed us to incorporate additional data into the grids for 1961-1997 for these variables. * Improved the business logic relating to data completeness. This affects monthly wind speed and has allowed us to re-introduce some of the data that were excluded in the previous release.

• Net changes to the input station data:
  • Total of 131314637 observations
  • 126821432 (96.6%) unchanged
  • 105327 (0.08%) modified for this version
  • 4387878 (3.34%) added in this version
  • 44224 (0.03%) 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.

United Kingdom UK: Average Precipitation in Depth data was reported at 1,220.000 mm/Year in 2014. This stayed constant from the previous number of 1,220.000 mm/Year for 2012. United Kingdom UK: Average Precipitation in Depth data is updated yearly, averaging 1,220.000 mm/Year from Dec 1962 (Median) to 2014, with 12 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,220.000 mm/Year in 2014 and a record low of 1,220.000 mm/Year in 2014. United Kingdom UK: Average Precipitation in Depth data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.World Bank.WDI: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Average precipitation is the long-term average in depth (over space and time) of annual precipitation in the country. Precipitation is defined as any kind of water that falls from clouds as a liquid or a solid.; ; Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.; ;

[update 28/03/24 - This description previously stated that the the field “2001-2020 (recent past) change” was a percentage change. This field is actually the difference, in units of mm/day. The table below has been updated to reflect this.][Updated 28/01/25 to fix an issue in the ‘Lower’ values, which were not fully representing the range of uncertainty. ‘Median’ and ‘Higher’ values remain unchanged. The size of the change varies by grid cell but for the fixed periods which are expressed in mm, the average difference between the 'lower' values before and after this update is 0.04mm. For the fixed periods and global warming levels which are expressed as percentage changes, the average difference between the 'lower' values before and after this update is 4.65%.]What does the data show?

This dataset shows the change in summer precipitation rate for a range of global warming levels, including the recent past (2001-2020), compared to the 1981-2000 baseline period. Here, summer is defined as June-July-August. Note, as the values in this dataset are averaged over a season they do not represent possible extreme conditions.

The dataset uses projections of daily precipitation from UKCP18 which are averaged over the summer period to give values for the 1981-2000 baseline, the recent past (2001-2020) and global warming levels. The warming levels available are 1.5°C, 2.0°C, 2.5°C, 3.0°C and 4.0°C above the pre-industrial (1850-1900) period. The recent past value and global warming level values are stated as a percentage change (%) relative to the 1981-2000 value. This enables users to compare summer precipitation trends for the different periods. In addition to the change values, values for the 1981-2000 baseline (corresponding to 0.51°C warming) and recent past (2001-2020, corresponding to 0.87°C warming) are also provided. This is summarised in the table below.

      Period
      Description


      1981-2000 baseline
      Average value for the period (mm/day)


      2001-2020 (recent past)
      Average value for the period (mm/day)


      2001-2020 (recent past) change
      Change (mm/day) relative to 1981-2000


      1.5°C global warming level change
      Percentage change (%) relative to 1981-2000


      2°C global warming level change
      Percentage change (%) relative to 1981-2000


      2.5°C global warming level change
      Percentage change (%) relative to 1981-2000


      3°C global warming level change
      Percentage change (%) relative to 1981-2000


      4°C global warming level change
      Percentage change (%) relative to 1981-2000

What is a global warming level?

The Summer Precipitation Change is calculated from the UKCP18 regional climate projections using the high emissions scenario (RCP 8.5) where greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow. Instead of considering future climate change during specific time periods (e.g. decades) for this scenario, the dataset is calculated at various levels of global warming relative to the pre-industrial (1850-1900) period. The world has already warmed by around 1.1°C (between 1850–1900 and 2011–2020), whilst this dataset allows for the exploration of greater levels of warming.

The global warming levels available in this dataset are 1.5°C, 2°C, 2.5°C, 3°C and 4°C. The data at each warming level was calculated using a 21 year period. These 21 year periods are calculated by taking 10 years either side of the first year at which the global warming level is reached. This time will be different for different model ensemble members. To calculate the value for the Summer Precipitation Change, an average is taken across the 21 year period.

We cannot provide a precise likelihood for particular emission scenarios being followed in the real world future. However, we do note that RCP8.5 corresponds to emissions considerably above those expected with current international policy agreements. The results are also expressed for several global warming levels because we do not yet know which level will be reached in the real climate as it will depend on future greenhouse emission choices and the sensitivity of the climate system, which is uncertain. Estimates based on the assumption of current international agreements on greenhouse gas emissions suggest a median warming level in the region of 2.4-2.8°C, but it could either be higher or lower than this level.

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

These data contain a field for each warming level and the 1981-2000 baseline. They are named 'pr summer change', the warming level or baseline, and 'upper' 'median' or 'lower' as per the description below. e.g. 'pr summer change 2.0 median' is the median value for summer for the 2.0°C warming level. Decimal points are included in field aliases but not in field names, e.g. 'pr summer change 2.0 median' is named 'pr_summer_change_20_median'.

To understand how to explore the data, refer to the New Users ESRI Storymap.

Please note, if viewing in ArcGIS Map Viewer, the map will default to ‘pr summer change 2.0°C 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 Summer Precipitation Change was 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 ‘higher’ 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 higher fields, the greater the uncertainty.

‘Lower’, ‘median’ and ‘upper’ are also given for the baseline period as these values also come from the model that was used to produce the projections. This allows a fair comparison between the model projections and recent past.

Useful links

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

This dataset comprises data for daily rainfall and mean daily air temperature recorded at OAL-UK with a 1-minute resolution Davis Vantage Pro 2 meteorological station from 2011 to 2018. Data have been aggregated into daily values from minute-based records. Raw data kindly provided by Pieter voor de Porte https://www.pedrox.com/weather/index.html

What does the data show?

Wind-driven rain refers to falling rain blown by a horizontal wind so that it falls diagonally towards the ground and can strike a wall. The annual index of wind-driven rain is the sum of all wind-driven rain spells for a given wall orientation and time period. It’s measured as the volume of rain blown from a given direction in the absence of any obstructions, with the unit litres per square metre per year.

Wind-driven rain is calculated from hourly weather and climate data using an industry-standard formula from ISO 15927–3:2009, which is based on the product of wind speed and rainfall totals. Wind-driven rain is only calculated if the wind would strike a given wall orientation. A wind-driven rain spell is defined as a wet period separated by at least 96 hours with little or no rain (below a threshold of 0.001 litres per m2 per hour).

The annual index of wind-driven rain is calculated for a baseline (historical) period of 1981-2000 (corresponding to 0.61°C warming) and for global warming levels of 2.0°C and 4.0°C above the pre-industrial period (defined as 1850-1900). The warming between the pre-industrial period and baseline is the average value from six datasets of global mean temperatures available on the Met Office Climate Dashboard: https://climate.metoffice.cloud/dashboard.html. Users can compare the magnitudes of future wind-driven rain with the baseline values.

What is a warming level and why are they used?

The annual index of wind-driven rain is calculated from the UKCP18 local climate projections which used a high emissions scenario (RCP 8.5) where greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow. Instead of considering future climate change during specific time periods (e.g., decades) for this scenario, the dataset is calculated at various levels of global warming relative to the pre-industrial (1850-1900) period. The world has already warmed by around 1.1°C (between 1850–1900 and 2011–2020), so this dataset allows for the exploration of greater levels of warming.

The global warming levels available in this dataset are 2°C and 4°C in line with recommendations in the third UK Climate Risk Assessment. The data at each warming level were calculated using 20 year periods over which the average warming was equal to 2°C and 4°C. The exact time period will be different for different model ensemble members. To calculate the value for the annual wind-driven rain index, an average is taken across the 20 year period. Therefore, the annual wind-driven rain index provides an estimate of the total wind-driven rain that could occur in each year, for a given level of warming.

We cannot provide a precise likelihood for particular emission scenarios being followed in the real world in the future. However, we do note that RCP8.5 corresponds to emissions considerably above those expected under current international policy agreements. The results are also expressed for several global warming levels because we do not yet know which level will be reached in the real climate; the warming level reached will depend on future greenhouse emission choices and the sensitivity of the climate system, which is uncertain. Estimates based on the assumption of current international agreements on greenhouse gas emissions suggest a median warming level in the region of 2.4-2.8°C, but it could either be higher or lower than this level.

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

Each row in the data corresponds to one of eight wall orientations – 0, 45, 90, 135, 180, 225, 270, 315 compass degrees. This can be viewed and filtered by the field ‘Wall orientation’.

The columns (fields) correspond to each global warming level and two baselines. They are named 'WDR' (Wind-Driven Rain), the warming level or baseline, and ‘upper’ ‘median’ or ‘lower’ as per the description below. For example, ‘WDR 2.0 median’ is the median value for the 2°C projection. Decimal points are included in field aliases but not field names; e.g., ‘WDR 2.0 median’ is ‘WDR_20_median’.

Please note that this data MUST be filtered with the ‘Wall orientation’ field before styling it by warming level. Otherwise it will not show the data you expect to see on the map. This is because there are several overlapping polygons at each location, for each different wall orientation.

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

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, annual wind-driven rain indices 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.

‘Lower’, ‘median’ and ‘upper’ are also given for the baseline periods as these values also come from the model that was used to produce the projections. This allows a fair comparison between the model projections and recent past.

Data source

The annual wind-driven rain index was calculated from hourly values of rainfall, wind speed and wind direction generated from the UKCP Local climate projections. These projections were created with a 2.2km convection-permitting climate model. To aid comparison with other models and UK-based datasets, the UKCP Local model data were aggregated to a 5km grid on the British National Grid; the 5 km data were processed to generate the wind-driven rain data.

Useful links

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