When Will This Endless Rain Stop In The UK?

What a soggy year it’s been so far. January alone saw three named storms – Gerotti, Ingrid, and Chandra – batter our shores, bringing with them snow, rain, and wind. 

February has certainly not been drier. Reading, for instance, saw the longest continuous rainfall (25 consecutive days) that the town’s university’s Atmospheric Observatory has ever observed. 

Aberdeen, meanwhile, has seen no rainfall for two weeks straight. Multiple yellow rain warnings are in place across the UK today (Friday, 6 February), too.

Which begs the question: why is the rain so relentless, and when oh when will it end? 

Why is the rain so bad in the UK right now?

Recently, the UK (and much of Europe) has been affected by an unusually southerly jet stream. This drives areas of low pressure north-east up to the UK, and is partly caused by a large range of temperatures across the Atlantic Ocean right now.

Low pressure weather fronts are associated with rain, wind, and unsettled conditions.

But there’s also a stubborn area of high pressure which is staying in place across north-east Europe, which helps to keep the jet affecting our weather in its southerly position. It also means areas of low pressure move more slowly.

That, the Met Office said, has resulted in a “conveyor belt of low‑pressure systems bringing frequent rain, strong winds, and, at times, wintry hazards”.

When will the rain end?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like the barrage of rain will stay with us for a while. 

According to the Met Office’s operational meteorologist, Dan Stroud, “Unfortunately, there’s no end in sight... we’ve got a big area of high pressure way out to the far north and east of the country, and that’s stopping areas of low pressure from moving through.

“Until that area of high pressure sort of shifts out of the way, we’re not really going to see much of a change in the forecast.” 

Southwestern regions of the UK are especially likely to face very high rainfall this week.

And while next week (starting 8 Feb) shows “tentative signs of a subtle shift” and northern parts of the UK are expected to become a little drier thanks to shifts in the blocking area of high pressure, that bad weather “conveyor belt” is expected to continue into the month.

This is because the jet stream’s return to its current position is predicted to encourage more soggy southern conditions. 

In fact, the Met Office’s long-range forecast says that even as far away as 6 March, “low pressure systems will probably dominate” the UK.

Fabulous...