November wet spell

The first half of November was relatively dry, but the final week made up for it with 100.4mm between the 24th and 29th.
The month's total at 29th November stands at 148mm which is well above the average 105mm but well behind 2009 which clocked up 181mm.

So a wet month but locally the Esk flow,  though very high at times in the last week was not exceptional indeed it was probably similar to during the wet spell in September (when we had about 70mm over two days).

Further afield the Ouse through York also seems to have peaked at similar concerning but not record breaking levels, while at Malton the Derwent has been higher than any time since new defences were completed. Flooding there was mainly the result of surface water accumulating faster than it could be pumped (up) into the flooded river and on balance the new works must be declared a success although a few property owners may dispute this.

The cause was a classic for serious rain events over the NE of England, with a slow-moving Low Pressure system in the southern North Sea throwing almost continuous rain towards the east coast.
With 'Orographic Enhancement' any high ground such as the moors can expect to receive a great deal of rain in this situation.
If it had been later in the winter there could have been a major snow event from this, so we have perhaps been rather lucky and should hope that future systems do not follow a similar track as sometimes happens if high altitude winds are persistent.

First Hill Snow

Wet snow falling in the valley and a slushy covering today.

Forecast does suggest more heavy showers this evening which could give a cover lower down too.

12th October - rain event

About 22mm of rain overnight mostly between midnight and 4am.

Sun and wind today and fields don't seem as wet as you might expect.

Late September storm

We seem to have got off reasonably lightly compared to low-lying areas but the tropical storm remnnants gave  64.8mm over roughly 48 hours.
Up till then September had been relatively dry!
The Esk was very high and most fords were impassable during yesterday (25th).
As usual it soon went down here, once the rain stopped.

Since the prolonged rain event covered both the Moors and Pennines a great deal of water is now heading down the Ouse and trying to squeeze through York.
These autumn storms are not unusual but what makes them worse is times like this one when they become almost stationary in one place.
A good comparable event occurred in 1976. when Stokesley was badly flooded by the Leven.
That event resulted in the flood relief channel being built, which once again proved its worth yesterday.
http://www.nowandthenmag.co.uk/may1998/floods.htm

Just two years ago there was a similar amount of rain but with a brief respite on day two of three.

Stats upate

I think the weather site has reached something of a plateau for now, although as usual interesting events will push the daily visits up at least for a while. A constant feature is the tendency for some visitors to sit on a page for hours at a time. I'm still uncertain if this is deliberate with occasional monitoring, or they left a window open by accident. It does seem that often it's the same user(s) returning over many days so I guess they would have to be very careless to leave it open so often!

August thunder

It seemed to be rumbling in the distance on and off all afternoon today, then about 8pm we had a brief storm which gave about 2mm
.

Waterlogging

The continued rain events mean the ground is once again waterlogged worse than at any time through last winter.
Water is standing on the surface even in fields which are usually free draining.

 Bizarrely July last year was actually wetter but following a long dry period the rain was generally welcome and not disruptive.
 A good example is what happened at the Yorkshire Show yesterday.
 On day one it seemed just possible that if with luck, it remained mostly dry, the event could manage to stay open - but a sudden heavy shower about 4pm meant that the trafficed areas of car parking fields literally turned to running streams in minutes.

 Lots of grass is still to cut for silage and hay, it is deteriorating rapidly now so we do need to see a major change very soon or the coming winter will be very difficult indeed.
Luckily there are increasing signs of an improvement next week.
Not all plain sailing as Friday could see more rain, then there is a chance of some rain mid-week but this may be downgraded near the time.
The last week of July does currently show signs the Azores High may move our way, bringing much more settled conditions for several days.
All is not lost!