Hello
Some of you are probably depressed with all the bad weather we’ve had in the UK over the summer.
I had a debate with a friend a while back in July about what it actually meant when the weather man say's "We've had 2" of rain in the last few hours" and what it equates to. Therefore, we sent an email to the met office asking the following
To: "enquiries" <enquiries@metoffice.gov.uk>
Subject: Total rainfall in previous 4 weeks.
Hello
Is there any way to work out how much water has fallen onto the UK in the last 4 weeks?
I am trying to get a value I can quantify to small ******** (gallons or bottles etc)
Regards
I received the following response after a while which I thought was equally amusing as it is educational :
From: Jebson, Steve [mailto:steve.jebson@metoffice.gov.uk]
Subject: RE: Total rainfall in previous 4 weeks.
Many thanks for your enquiry with regards to the amount of water that has fallen on the United Kingdom in the last 4 weeks.
Firstly we need to calculated the area of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) in square metres. The area of the United Kingdom is 244,820 square kilometres, that is 244,820,000,000 square metres. Unfortunately, I do not have the values of rainfall for the last 4 weeks, but I do have the values for all of June and the first 2 weeks of July. The average UK rainfall value for June was 134.5 mm and July (1st to 15th) is 69.1 mm. This gives a total for June and the first half of July of 203.6 mm (0.2036 metres).
Therefore the total amount of water to have fallen on the United Kingdom during the period 1st June to 15th July can be calculated thus:
Area of the United Kingdom x Average amount of rainfall
244,820,000,000 square metres x 0.2036 metres = 49,845,352,000 cubic metres.
With the assumption that 1 cubic metre = 1,000 litres and 1 litre = 0.21997 gallons it is possible to calculate how many gallons of water fell on the United Kingdom during June and the first half of July.
49,845,352,000 cubic metres x 1,000 litres = 49,845,352,000,000 litres
49,845,352,000,000 litres x 0.21997 gallons = 10,964,482,079,440 gallons
Therefore during June and the first half of July 10,964,482,079,440 gallons of rainwater fell on the United Kingdom.
The average Olympic sized swimming pool hold 2,500,000 litres of water. Therefore, given the amount of rainfall that has fallen on the United Kingdom in the last 6 weeks or so, you could have filled 19,938,140.8 Olympic sized swimming pools.
I don't think we will have a drought this year.
I hope the above information makes sense and is of assistance.
Regards
Steve
:eek: That's a lot!!!
Some of you are probably depressed with all the bad weather we’ve had in the UK over the summer.
I had a debate with a friend a while back in July about what it actually meant when the weather man say's "We've had 2" of rain in the last few hours" and what it equates to. Therefore, we sent an email to the met office asking the following
To: "enquiries" <enquiries@metoffice.gov.uk>
Subject: Total rainfall in previous 4 weeks.
Hello
Is there any way to work out how much water has fallen onto the UK in the last 4 weeks?
I am trying to get a value I can quantify to small ******** (gallons or bottles etc)
Regards
I received the following response after a while which I thought was equally amusing as it is educational :
From: Jebson, Steve [mailto:steve.jebson@metoffice.gov.uk]
Subject: RE: Total rainfall in previous 4 weeks.
Many thanks for your enquiry with regards to the amount of water that has fallen on the United Kingdom in the last 4 weeks.
Firstly we need to calculated the area of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) in square metres. The area of the United Kingdom is 244,820 square kilometres, that is 244,820,000,000 square metres. Unfortunately, I do not have the values of rainfall for the last 4 weeks, but I do have the values for all of June and the first 2 weeks of July. The average UK rainfall value for June was 134.5 mm and July (1st to 15th) is 69.1 mm. This gives a total for June and the first half of July of 203.6 mm (0.2036 metres).
Therefore the total amount of water to have fallen on the United Kingdom during the period 1st June to 15th July can be calculated thus:
Area of the United Kingdom x Average amount of rainfall
244,820,000,000 square metres x 0.2036 metres = 49,845,352,000 cubic metres.
With the assumption that 1 cubic metre = 1,000 litres and 1 litre = 0.21997 gallons it is possible to calculate how many gallons of water fell on the United Kingdom during June and the first half of July.
49,845,352,000 cubic metres x 1,000 litres = 49,845,352,000,000 litres
49,845,352,000,000 litres x 0.21997 gallons = 10,964,482,079,440 gallons
Therefore during June and the first half of July 10,964,482,079,440 gallons of rainwater fell on the United Kingdom.
The average Olympic sized swimming pool hold 2,500,000 litres of water. Therefore, given the amount of rainfall that has fallen on the United Kingdom in the last 6 weeks or so, you could have filled 19,938,140.8 Olympic sized swimming pools.
I don't think we will have a drought this year.
I hope the above information makes sense and is of assistance.
Regards
Steve
:eek: That's a lot!!!
