Datasets/UK Climate/England and Wales Precipitation

(Last updated by Mike Hulme, 8 December 2003)

The England and Wales Precipitation series was originally constructed by Tom Wigley, Phil Jones and Janice Lough in 1984, and is now routinely updated by the Hadley Centre (in collaboration with the Climatic Research Unit in the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA). The monthly precipitation totals are representative of the land area of England and Wales and are derived from measurements at 35 gauges across the region. The series runs from 1766 to the present and are expressed in tenths of a mm. The series is discussed in the following papers:

Wigley, T.M.L., Lough, J.M. and Jones, P.D. 'Spatial patterns of precipitation in England and Wales and a revised, homogeneous England and Wales precipitation series' J. of Climatology, 1984, vol. 4, pp. 1-25.
Wigley, T.M.L. and Jones, P.D. 'England and Wales precipitation: a discussion of recent changes in variability and an update to 1985' J. of Climatology, 1987, vol. 7, pp. 231-246.
Jones, P.D. and Conway, D. 'Precipitation in the British Isles: an analysis of area-average data updated to 1995', International J. of Climatology, 1997, vol. 17, pp. 427-438.

The series from 1997 onwards is that calculated by the Hadley Centre using a slightly different method to the earlier data - the new series, however, is tuned to produce estimates comparable to the older series and for most purposes the blended series can be regarded as homogenous. Listed below are the monthly EWP values in mms for 1991 to 2003, together with the 1961-90 period normals. The full monthly series from 1766 is available from the Hadley Centre.

	J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D	Annual
1991	97.5	64.3	74.3	70.9	13.6	103.0	70.7	27.8	64.9	72.1	93.4	49.3	801.8
1992	48.7	44.8	82.2	75.9	51.4	38.0	89.7	134.6	96.9	90.5	148.5	78.6	979.7
1993	115.3	13.8	26.6	94.8	89.3	68.6	88.6	54.4	119.6	94.4	75.9	172.0	1013.3
1994	131.0	85.2	94.0	76.3	71.1	36.1	45.0	75.7	106.2	103.5	87.9	138.0	1050.0
1995	162.6	114.8	70.6	28.1	48.5	20.2	37.6	9.1	123.3	52.0	82.8	91.1	840.7
1996	65.9	83.3	43.2	51.0	58.4	29.6	43.6	79.9	34.0	87.8	134.3	55.5	766.4
1997**	16.5	101.6	26.6	23.7	71.2	132.2	53.5	98.9	30.8	74.7	123.4	100.8	854.0
1998 **	120.4	20.4	89.2	130.9	33.9	121.4	54.4	48.7	104.4	152.1	89.3	97.4	1062.6
1999 **	128.6	50.0	70.6	75.8	56.2	90.9	26.3	116.6	124.9	86.5	67.3	142.4	1036.1
2000 **	46.4	95.1	32.7	142.6	98.0	43.0	63.8	65.9	132.6	188.0	182.1	142.2	1232.5
2001 **	84.4	105.3	107.5	100.0	42.1	44.4	73.2	86.3	82.9	135.4	65.0	43.5	970.1
2002 **	86.9	115.1	53.0	47.5	81.1	56.6	93.2	75.8	40.8	144.2	176.2	147.5	1117.8
2003 **	91.2	38.8	36.8	43.0	70.9	75.6	64.7	21.3	34.7	67.7	116.6
1961-90	91.0	65.0	74.0	61.0	65.0	65.0	62.0	77.0	78.0	87.0	92.0	95.0	912.0

[** New series values from the Hadley Centre]

[Data provided courtesy of the Hadley Centre, Lisa Alexander and Phil Jones]