The year 2024 in UK was particularly rainy, especially in England. Temperatures remained generally mild, with no cold spells observed. Discover our complete climatological report.

7% surplus rainfall

This is the rainfall record for the year 2024 in the United Kingdom, according to data from the Met Office, the official climatological source. A total of 1242 mm of precipitation was recorded on average, with however large differences from one territory to another. By taking the time to analyze the recorded data and comparing it to the reference values (for the period 1991-2020), it clearly appears that England was very wet. This is much less evident in Scotland or Northern Ireland, where rainfall was deficient.

The annual rainfall record was even close to being broken in several counties, again according to official data: Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Bedfordshire and Wiltshire. In these regions, it is the second wettest year... since records began in 1836!

On several occasions, major floods occurred on our land, we will come back to this at the end of this climatological report. Finally, let us add that the United Kingdom experienced its 8th wettest winter (December 2023 > February 2024) and the 6th wettest spring. On the Sencrop network, several stations recorded more than 1200 mm of rain for the whole year.

Temperatures (still) above normal

9.78°C, this is the official average temperature recorded during the year 2024. Too mild, too warm by +0.6°C when compared to the period 1991-2020. This is once again an alarming observation, with 2024 being the warmest year, just behind 2022, 2023 and 2014. It should be noted that the 10 warmest years since records began have all occurred during the 21st century. These values confirm the acceleration of global warming in our regions.

Frost was very rare and unsurprisingly the nights were too mild. Still on the subject of temperatures, almost all the months of the year were too warm: January was marked by a national record, with a temperature of 19.9°C recorded at the end of January in Scotland. This was followed by February, the second warmest February on record. May made its mark last year by becoming the warmest May ever observed.

Significant weather events in the United Kingdom

Earlier in this article, we mentioned the repeated rains of 2024 and the sometimes severe flooding. From the beginning of January, there were major, sometimes severe floods in England and Wales.

On 22 January, red warnings were issued in Scotland as Storm Isha approached. A month earlier, Darragh had already swept across our lands with violent gusts of wind.

At the end of November, very heavy rainfall caused further flooding. The accumulations were remarkable, reaching 140 to 150 mm in some areas, which had already been swept by very wet weather in previous months.

Kevin Floury