Highest ever rainfall recorded in UK was in December 2015 at Honister Pass in Lake District with 341.4mm falling in 24 hours

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

An appraisal of the winter floods of 2015-2016, published on the first anniversary of Storm Desmond, reveals it ranks alongside the devastating flooding of March 1947 as the largest event of at least the last century.



November 2015 to January 2016 was the wettest three-month period in records dating back to 1910, while December was both the wettest and, on average, the warmest on record for the UK.

The great floods of 1947 Read more

The highest ever rainfall recorded in the UK was seen at Honister Pass in the Lake District with 341.4mm (13.4 inches) falling in the 24 hours leading up to 6pm on December 5 2015, as Storm Desmond hit.

The storm, which caused an estimated insurance bill of more than £1.3bn, was part of a persistent pattern of weather that also included the major storms of Abigail, Frank and Gertrude.

Rainfall anomaly map (% of 1971-2000 average) for the November 2015-January 2016 period. Photograph: CEH

Many rivers across northern England and Scotland saw record peak flows, as did the Mourne in Northern Ireland, the study by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in collaboration with the British Hydrological Society found.

The rivers Eden, Tyne and Lune in England saw record peaks of around 1,700 cubic metres per second – a volume of water that could fill London’s Royal Albert Hall in less than a minute, the experts said.

Some 16,000 homes and businesses were flooded in December alone, with more flooding in January, although a further 20,000 homes were protected by defences.

Storm Desmond - in pictures Read more

The study’s lead author, Terry Marsh, from CEH said: “At a national scale the winter floods of 2015-16 were the most extreme on record. The November to January period was the wettest three-month sequence in the UK rainfall series – which begins in 1910.

“The associated flooding was both extensive and repetitive, and total river outflows from Great Britain following the passage of Storm Desmond in December exceeded the previous maximum by a substantial margin.”

Dr Ed Henderson, a co-author of the review from the British Hydrological Society and Cumbrian resident, said the effects of the flooding were personal.

“Thousands of Cumbrians, like people in other flood-affected parts of the country, have seen their lives upturned. Many have experienced life-changing financial losses and incredible stress. Speaking with flood victims, the words that come out are despair, fear and anxiety – fear of flooding again and the anxiety of an approaching winter.

“Floods don’t just take your home, the place where you should feel safe, they often take your future as well.”

The storms and flooding last winter follow the 2013-2014 flooding in southern England and other severe events including the 2005 and 2009 floods in Cumbria.

Natural variability from year to year makes it hard to attribute the trend towards higher river flows in the last five decades to climate change, but recent studies do point towards manmade global warming playing a role in recent floods, said the report’s co-author Jamie Hannaford from CEH.

Along with March 1947, which saw heavy rain and snow thaw after a freezing winter, causing flooding, the 2015-2016 floods are the largest such event of the last 100 years, the study said.

Last winter’s floods were more extreme in scale, but the 1947 events had a greater impact in terms of homes flooded and crops destroyed, in a country recovering from war and with only rudimentary flood defences.