Oxford recorded its wettest October in 145 years last month, according to data collected at the Radcliffe Observatory. 185.3mm of rain was recorded, making October the wettest month since 1875, and the fourth wettest month on record since 1767.
Data on Oxford’s rain is collected by a rain gauge next to the observatory in the gardens of Green Templeton College. The gauge is read by eye every morning and is the longest, continuous, single-site precipitation data-set in the UK.
Currently, Keble College doctoral student David Crowhurst is responsible for taking readings from the gauge. In a comment to the BBC he said: “We had an intense start to the month which was driven by Storm Alex, which saw 60mm falling on one day, the 3rd. That was quite something…but we also had 27 rainy days in the month. A rainy day is when rainfall is equal to or greater than 0.2mm per day, and those 27 rainy days are a record for an October.”
With the measurements for rain so high, the levels of sunshine recorded in Oxford were well below average. Last month the Radcliffe station recorded only 70.7 hours of sunshine, which is over 30 hours below the monthly average for this time of year.
