Six weeks of rain in a single day in the Anglia region

It has been the wettest day in the Anglia region since June 2017. Credit: Joanne Joyce

It has been the wettest day in the Anglia region for nearly two years with some places seeing the same amount of rain as normally falls in six weeks.

The relentless driving rain has sparked a number of flood alerts on East Anglian rivers that had previously been flowing at extremely low levels after months of dry weather.

Holbeach in Lincolnshire, close to the coast of The Wash, had 83 mm (3.3 inches) of rain in the 36 hours until 2pm on Tuesday 11 June. That location usually has 53 mm (2.1 inches) of rain during the whole of an average month of June.

It was more than then fell in Holbeach than during the whole of April and May together.

Holbeach in Lincolnshire was one of the wettest places in Britain with 83 mm of rain in the 36 hours to 2pm on Tuesday. Credit: Chris Mitchell

Across the Anglia region, there was an average of 28 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours to 10am on Tuesday, making it the wettest day since 27 June 2019 when there was 29 mm.

In the past 13 years there have been only three days wetter than yesterday.

The heavy and persistent rain meant river levels were topped up and the Environment Agency issued several flood alerts.

The deluge follows a very dry spell of weather in East Anglia.

The Environment Agency issued a number of flood alerts in the Anglia region sparked by the heavy rainfall. Credit: Chris Mitchell

The first five months of 2019 have seen only just over two-thirds of the normal rainfall in the Anglia region with 159 mm of rain. It is the driest such period only since 2011 with 139 mm.

The region is 75 mm short of rain from January to May - which is six weeks worth

According to Met Office data, the 12 months to May 2019 has been the fifth driest on records dating to 1910 in East Anglia.

With 450 mm of rain (72% of average), it has been the driest such period since 1995-96.

The appropriately named Ford Lane in Clacton on the wettest day of the year. Credit: Craig Williams

Rainfall totals in the Anglia region in the 24 hours to 10am on Tuesday 11 June 2019

  • 73 mm in Holbeach, Lincolnshire

  • 58 mm at Houghton Hall in Norfolk

  • 41 mm in Wittering, Cambridgeshire

  • 40 mm in Monks Wood near Sawtry, Cambridgeshire

  • 31 mm in Weybourne, Norfolk

  • 29 mm in Marham, Norfolk

  • 29 mm in Stowe, Buckinghamshire

  • 28 mm in Woburn, Bedfordshire

  • 28 mm in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

  • 27 mm in Cambridge

  • 24 mm in Cromer, Norfolk

  • 22 mm in Santon Downham, Suffolk

  • 21 mm in Harpenden, Hertfordshire

  • 19 mm in Wattisham, Suffolk

  • 18 mm in Charsfield, Suffolk

  • 17 mm in Cavendish, Suffolk

  • 8 mm in Andrewsfield near Braintree, Essex

  • 6 mm in Thurleigh, Bedfordshire

  • 5 mm in Shoeburyness, Essex