Although using the 'areal' series that the Met Office have produced,
this summer is a 'record-breaker' for England as a whole (at least
since 1914), as often happens when looking at individual regions &
stations, then a different picture emerges.

Using the Hurn (Bournemouth airport) data since 1957, updated for this
year's figures from the WeatherOnline site, the summer total (JJA)
this year will be ~260mm.

The wettest two summers in the Hurn record are (1) 1960 with 291 mm,
and (2) 1963 with 278 mm.

Summer 1960 was part of the wettest year in the Hurn record (since
1957), and was followed by a wet autumn (October being the wettest
such-named month in the past 50 years) and a wet winter.

Summer 1963 was again followed by a wet autumn, though not as extreme
as that for 1960.

The 10 year average summer rainfall 1957-1966 was 190 mm, compared to
the 1971-2000 average of 145 mm. Those ten years contained 5 summers
when Hurn exceeded (by a comfortable margin) 200 mm: 1958, 1960, 1963,
1965 & 1966.

Martin.


--
Martin Rowley
E:
W: booty.org.uk