Amateur raises mystery of the week's wettest day

AN AMATEUR weatherman who says he has discovered that Thursdays are significantly wetter than any other day has foxed professional meteorologists, who can neither discount his findings nor find any sensible explanation for them, writes Steve Connor.

The Meteorological Office in Bracknell, Berkshire, says it does not break down rainfall patterns into days of the week and so is in no position to comment on the theory.

George Nicholson, 63, an office worker who has been gathering rainfall data for the past 40 years from his home in Teddington, south-west London, wrote to the Independent with data on rainfall for each day of the week since 1953. A total of 143.16 inches of rain fell on the Thursdays, compared with 125.17in on the Sundays - the driest day - and between 132.57in and 136.43in on other days of the week. 'Not surprisingly really, because Thursday is the God of Thunar (thunder),' he wrote.

Mr Nicholson said it was in 1963 that he first noticed how rainy Thursdays were and subsequent years had merely confirmed this. The Met Office, he said, 'think it's a quirk in the figures'.

A spokesman at Bracknell said that Mr Nicholson was well known to staff there - they had been answering his letters for 20 years.