Why this winter could be DRIER than the summer
We’ve had a year when rain, rain just didn’t go away.
And now comes a forecast that shows just how bad things have been . . . this winter will actually be drier than the summer just gone.
With mild conditions predicted throughout the coming months, the estimated rainfall is set to dip under the summer’s total of 327mm - which was one and a half times the average.
Last night, the Met Office raised the prospect of the first seasonal reverse since 1992, when 279.7mm of rain fell in the summer compared to 245.7 the following winter.
However, despite the promise of a mild and dry winter, there is a flip side.
Forecasters have warned that it could be cold and we should have our scarves at the ready as an icy chill begins to bite at the start of next week.
They added that the settled weather of the last few weeks, while lasting into the weekend, will give way to more unsettled periods - threatening storms and showers and plummeting temperatures.
Met Office spokesman Barry Gromett said: ‘It’s possible that we could see less rain this winter than we did in the summer.
‘But what the forecasts suggest is that it is likely to be near average. So I don’t think it is likely, but I wouldn’t rule it out.
The average rainfall in the winter for the UK is 332mm and the rainfall that we received during the summer was 327mm recorded this year.
‘But to try and pin rainfall down is very difficult, so we should probably concentrate on the temperature and that is for another mild winter, although not as mild as the last one.
‘Temperatures will be a little bit above average.’ He added: ‘We have had a couple of relatively cool and wet summers and that skews perspective on what is perhaps a natural variability.
‘In some respects, based on the last two summers, there is a sense of the seasons merging, but I don’t think it will be a long-term trend.
‘We have had a spell over the last three weeks of very dry and settled weather and some warm days, but that seems to be on the wane.
‘The suggestion for October is that the type of conditions we can expect are reverting to much more normal for much of the country.
‘There will be rain at times and we will see the temperatures going down a few degrees over the next few days.
‘At the moment they are in the high teens, but we need to get used to the mid-teens from here on in.
