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:
The fact that Kew was the best example the Met Office could come up with rather says it all!
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
There is also the famous Derby Day storm of 31st May 1911 with 91mm of rain in three hours at Banstead. 3 people were killed by lightning and 14 injured in this storm and 4 horses also killed. If you look back at the volumes of the publication known as ‘British Rainfall’ back to 1861, you’ll find plenty of days with ‘more than a month’s rain in a day’
There is an entry for this under Epsom, Ashley Road. If you know the location, Ashley Road leads downhill from the grandstand all the way into Epsom Town centre. It would have been quite a river flowing down then but I guess in 1911 it would not have been tarmaced or kerbed.
Never let the truth get in the way of a climate evangelist
At what point does this become an offence in public office, assume that offence was not also abolished by Blair back in the day, like so many others.
It surely cannot be acceptable or legal for public institutuons, and the employees and Boards working there, to continue to spew out misinformation.
Lying was brought in by Tony Blair – and his liar-in-chief Campbell – and has continued to be embraced even to the point where we had a PM – the lying oaf Johnson – who could be called a liar on the front page with immunity from prosecution since the courts had already ruled that he was a proven liar. No wonder this country is up shitcreek.
Paul,
Many thanks for a detailed and very helpful analysis. The Met Office and also the BBC have form regarding this sort of thing, as I discussed here (in the context of claims about flooding in Wales in that case):
After the BBC insisting on impartiality do we now expect full balance in reporting the weather and if is changing and possible causes if it is?
No of course we don’t.
The BBC is a disgrace. The Dutch authorities are preparing to use military trucks to try and stop Dutch farmers protesting in The Hague re proposals to wreck Dutch agriculture.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/11/tractor-protest-hague-eu-green-laws-threaten-shut-farms/
The BBC news leads with football commentators / presenters / pundits going on strike. Sack them all and dismantle the BBC.
Good luck Dutch farmers. Bring chains to tow the trucks out of the way.
For the benefit of those (like me) who gave up their subscription to the DT years ago, here is a FREE link to the above article…
https://web.archive.org/web/20230311165139/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/11/tractor-protest-hague-eu-green-laws-threaten-shut-farms/
Great thing is wayback machine!
As an aside, the DT reporting really is quite pathetic. Apparently we now have to worry ourselves about quote “Nitrogen emissions”.
And there was me thinking almost 80% of the atmosphere was Nitrogen. This “Nitrogen” must be really scary if we are “forced” to breathe it in every single day of our lives!
A bit like “Carbon” emissions – I want to meet these people just lobbing graphite and diamonds and Fullerenes etc away just for the fun of it.
” For the benefit of those (like me) who gave up their subscription to the DT years ago,”
There are several well-publicised methods to avoid the paywall.
I saw the item about Dutch farmers on the news and I could not believe it, as I thought most of the atmosphere was made up of nitrogen. I had to check as I thought I was going mad.
How do they have the affrontery to claim this is research when they have not even looked at the history?
How anyone of integrity can work for the Met Office is beyond me.
I don’t think anyone with imtegrity has worked for the Met Office for a very long time, or in the science/climate offices at the BBC for that matter
Wray 1967. “117 mm of rain in 90 minutes”, “2 to 4 inches of rain in half an hour”. https://riverroeburn.weebly.com/wray-flood-1967.html
Surely among any readers of this and other similar articles pointing out gross failures of public office there must be some legal brains who can advise on how we, the peasants, can get and hold those responsible to physical account, in a court of law preferably. Other examples of such behaviour abound, almost on a daily basis.
I saw the item about Dutch farmers on the news and I could not believe it, as I thought most of the atmosphere was made up of nitrogen. I had to check as I thought I was going mad.
Round about 1970 we had a thunderstorm in July, possibly August that last all one afternoon. The rain was the heaviest I’ve ever seen. The result was a flood in several places that again were like of which nobody had seen before. That was because nobody had lived long enough to see this and the previous one. But because all of this happened in a virtually unihabited area, what few houses there were well above the flood level and they didn’t get flooded it barely made the local paper.
Ever since I’ve never believed any of the worst ever claims for weather events.
That was 2 months after Quing China ordered the East India Company opium traders to leave Canton. Huge liquidations followed as capital left the USA to bulk up the British fleet for the Opium War. Much news is elided…