Wettest Day
Saturday 3 October 2020 is now the wettest day on record since 1891 for UK-wide rainfall. It received the greatest rainfall in any single day averaged out across the UK, beating the previous record on the 25 August 1986.
Dr Mark McCarthy is the head of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre. He said: “In climate statistics, 2019 will be remembered for possessing the UK’s hottest day, whereas 2020 will be associated with rainfall records. Saturday 3 October – the day which followed Storm Alex – currently holds the record for the UK’s wettest day in a daily series stretching back to 1891 – that’s over 47,000 days. The rainfall was very widespread resulting in average rainfall across the entire UK of 31.7mm, or to put it another way, if expressed as the volume of rain that is more than the capacity of Loch Ness – the largest lake in the UK by volume at 7.4 cubic kilometres of water. It is exceptional to have 30 to 50mm or more of rain falling so extensively across the UK – from the south coast of England to the north coast of Scotland – in a single day”. The previous record was 29.8mm on 25 August 1986.
September was the warmest on record globally, according to the weather service Copernicus.
Scientists say it’s a clear indication of temperatures being driven up by emissions from human society.
Copernicus, which is the European Union’s Earth observation programme, said warmth in the Siberian Arctic continues way above average. And it confirmed that Arctic sea ice is at its second lowest extent since satellite records began.