Weather Facts

[StuartDH]

Our weather facts page is missing a few details and so I wondered if anyone here might be able to fill in some of the blanks. For example, does anyone know the dryest places in the UK or the wettest places in Wales and Scotland?

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/wildlife/node/94

Also, if you know of any other weather facts (they must be about the UK or not related to any other particular country - i.e. the temperature of lightning), please post them here so that we can include them in the page.

Thanks

Stuart

[Boddie]

I've just been looking on the net this morning for lightning facts and
I've put together a short list of info that you may find useful for your
weather facts pages. All my own words, so don't worry about copyright etc.

Most lightning strikes are 2 to 3 miles long, but they can reach up 10
miles in length

A strike will usually carry a current of about 10000 Amps at 100 million
to 1 billion volts.

Even with good, quiet, outdoor conditions, thunder can only be heard
about 12 miles away

At night, lightning can be seen over 100 miles away

At approximately 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, the average lightning bolt
is hotter than the sun

In any one second of the day, there are about 50 to 100 cloud-to-ground
lightning strikes on earth

Most lightning strikes happen at the beginning or the end of a storm

Lightning is the primary cause of storm-related deaths

When I lived in Italy in a place called Bassano del Grappa, which is on the edge of the alps, I never, in 3 months, had rain. Most evenings however you could see the most horrendous lightening over the alps. It used to light the night up as if someone had just tuned a light on. One night I took an american colleague for a drive up into the alps and the weather was probably the most extreme I have ever witnessed. It had been in the forties (centigrade) in the day but up in the alps the weather was atrocious - the rain bouncing back up a metre and driving was very difficult. My co-pilot, Dave fell ill with car sickness so it took us ages to get back. After a few hours we got back to Bassano - Bone dry. Literally 3 miles and such a difference.

[StuartDH]

That's excellent, cheers.

I'll add them to the weather pages this afternoon.

Stuart

[Boddie]

I would imagine the wettest place in Britain has to be Manchester, its always raining there and scuppered our chances of beating the Ozzies in the last test. Dryest maybe St Ives in Cornwall. It seems to be nice there even when the rest of Cornwall isn't so good.

Nice to see the pictures of Boscastle this week on the news after the horrific flooding they had there last year. Seems that many of the places that were devastated look to be up and running again.