The wettest places in the UK revealed … and why these cities are so soggy (2024)

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The wettest places in the UK revealed … and why these cities are so soggy? ›

Cardiff is Britain's wettest city with 1,152m m falling on it each year. Manchester comes in at 15 behind Belfast and Leeds. London is one of the driest at number 63 with a mere 557mm of rain.

Where gets the most rain? As can be seen in the map below, the wettest parts of the UK are concentrated in mountainous regions with observation sites in Snowdonia, the Lake District and the Scottish Highlands all receiving more than 4 metres of rainfall in a year.

Why is the UK so rainy? Because the prevailing wind is from the west, which means it has travelled across a large amount of ocean before it reaches the UK. The ocean is wet, and the air absorbs this water.

Since 2011, rainfall in Scotland has typically been the highest out of the countries that comprise the United Kingdom.

Glasgow. One of the wettest cities on the list, Glasgow is one of the rainiest cities in the UK with 1,207.42 mm of rain per year. Glasgow tends to get 167 days of rain per year.

Northern areas are generally cooler and wetter and have slightly larger temperature ranges than southern areas, which are generally warmer and drier. The UK is mostly under the influence of the maritime polar air mass from the north-west.

In comparison, the UK's average annual rainfall is 1,154 mm which is around half as tall as the average Christmas tree. The reason for its torrential downpours comes down to its geography as Mawsynram is near to the Bay of Bengal and high up in the Garo Hills, to the south of the Himalayas.

The World Weather Attribution group of scientists assessed how rising temperatures affected the storms and heavy rain. They found the total rainfall in that period was made 10 times more likely and 20% wetter due to climate change.

England's geographical location plays a significant role. Positioned on the northeastern edge of the Atlantic Ocean, England experiences a collision of air masses from different directions. This collision creates a recipe for ever-changing weather patterns, with clouds dominating the sky more often than not.

West of Britain, over the Atlantic, the jet stream has picked up another low pressure system to send across the country. These systems have rising air currents, and these can generate beefy rain clouds capable of producing heavy downpours.

Does it rain more in the UK or US? ›

Even New York is wetter, with over DOUBLE the amount of rainfall per year in inches! London has 259 dry days a year. That's 259 days with no rain at all! And only 10 of these days are summer rainy days.

Instead the first half of summer 2024 has seen the jet stream sitting across and even to the south of the UK, and that has meant spells of wind and rain interspersed with some brighter interludes. But even then it hasn't felt like “summer” because we've been in quite a chilly airmass with cool northerly winds.

Hilo, Hawaii

It's also known as the wettest place in the United States, averaging about 12 in. of rain per month.

Although the UK doesn't get as much sunshine as Spain, some areas of the UK get plenty of sunshine. Eastbourne, Cornwall, Tiree, Central London, Aberdeen, and Bognor Regis are some of the sunniest places to live in the UK. Eastbourne, a seaside town in East Sussex, is one of the sunniest places in the UK.

Overall, the wettest areas are in the western half of the country. There are two reasons for this: • They are nearest to the normal track of rain-bearing depressions. The most mountainous parts of the UK are in the west and, when the moist westerly winds are forced to rise over the mountains, rain is produced.

Most of the wind in Scotland come from the west, known as westerly winds or westerlies. Westerlies bring warm moist air from over the North Atlantic Ocean. Warm wet air is perfect for forming clouds - meaning more rain! That's why the west coast of Scotland is often rainier than the east coast.

The prevailing Atlantic winds bring moisture and the mountainous terrain of Wales is where vapour condenses and dumps plenty of the wet stuff. But with rain comes Wales' second 'extreme' weather scenario - wind.