1
$\begingroup$

On 22 June 2023 in my village in LE8, south Leicester, UK, there was a large deluge of rain and my house got lightly flooded - the only time ever in 30 years. I'm trying to make a claim now; the insurers have gone on the internet and looked at the weather for that date for Leicester via timeanddate.com, worldweatheronline, etc. They say there wasn't enough rain on that date to have caused flooding in a structurally sound building - which they do, only 2.2mm max I've seen.

Why is this? Looking at meteo centre, we're kind of in the middle of an empty spot for professional weather stations. Could this be why? Are professional weather stations the only places to record weather? So when I look up our postcode in south Leicester historical weather on timeanddate or similar, is it just interpolating between adjacent weather stations?

Will a city like Leicester have a weather recording device, or is it only in these fairly infrequent weather stations that it is officially recorded?

Also, the met office seems to have data for the past 48 hrs, but for no longer than this (excepting special weather events) - why do they only show 48hrs worth?

Improve this question
$\endgroup$

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2
$\begingroup$

To begin with, rainfall is not always uniform. Within any rainfall event there can be localized anomalies with lesser or greater amounts of rainfall, including deluge type events. In addition to looking at recorded rainfall data you should look for rain radar data. Such data is usually presented as a video with color coded moving images of rainfall intensity for a particular region during a given time period.

The location of weather stations in the UK will be determined by the Met Office.

Given the size of Leicester, it seems unusual that the UK Met Office does not have at least one rain gauge or weather observation station in Leicester.

Regarding the Met Office apparently only having data of 48 hours. It might only display such data online for 48 hours but it maintains all weather observation data within its database. You might have to pay to obtain the data for the date in question.

Aviation can be greatly affected by weather, it is not unusual for weather stations to be located at airports. There may be a weather station at Leicester Airport, for which you could obtain data. The caveat that I'll apply to this is as I stated in my first paragraph, weather can be highly variable and the rainfall event you claimed occurred at your house may not have occurred at the airport, or elsewhere.

I would advise getting the rain radar data for that day, prior to and just after the time of the rainfall event in question.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ To follow up Fred's comment, a very useful source for gauged rainfall data from in England is provided by the Environment Agency at environment.data.gov.uk/hydrology/landing. A gauge on their network in the area recorded 48mm on the 22nd June, which is about 80% of the normal monthly rainfall. $\endgroup$
    – Andy M
    Jul 13 at 13:44
  • $\begingroup$ @AndyM Good catch, and many of the neighboring gauges also show notable totals on that day. You should add this as an answer. (The EA data I looked at earlier didn't show much for some reason.) $\endgroup$
    – Deditos
    Jul 13 at 15:46

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.