Extreme Rainfall In 1937

By Paul Homewood

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/03/08/met-office-peddle-extreme-rainfall-lies/

According to the Met Office,extreme rainfall is becoming more frequent in the UK because of global warming. An example they give of this occurred in July 2021:

Such storms however are not uncommon. On 13th August 1937, for instance, this one hit London:

https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/167832/

The film mentions a month’s worth of rain in an hour, the sort of thing we are now led to believe used to be unheard of.

And the Met Office Weather Summary for that month notes that 2.14in fell on the 13th at Kew.

https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/IO_1068a685-5054-48e2-a42d-fe07cbd12677/

But as British Rainfall pointed out, all of that rain fell in the space of an hour or two:

https://digital.nmla.metoffice.gov.uk/IO_19fdf911-a0dc-484e-a699-91eea3821938/

And it was not just London, as Liverpool and much of Scotland suffered badly from flooding the following day:

The British Rainfall publication also included this table in 1937:

So 40mm in three hours, as fell at Kew in 2021, might be regarded as “noteworthy”, but not remarkable, never mind very rare.

And this table lists all of the very rare hourly or less events, which had been logged in previous years’ editions:

There are 53 of these going back to 1873, basically one a year on average. The Acton rainfall mentioned above slots in at the very bottom of the list, which is in Rate per Hour order, proving that it was nothing exceptional.

In July 2021, the rainfall at Kew averaged just 0.5 inches an hour.

And that August 1937 storm was not even the worst of the year. That title was reserved for St Swithin’s Day, 15 July: