‘No end in sight’ after parts of UK record rain every day this year
One city has seen no sunshine for two weeks – the longest period for the area since records began in 1957
Forecasters say there’s “no end in sight” after announcing rain has fallen every day of 2026 in south-west England and South Wales.
The Met Office has said rain will still be falling daily in those areas by Sunday, which has already experienced a far wetter than average January, with 50 per cent more rainfall than usual.
A yellow rain warning runs from 5am on Thursday to 9pm Friday for parts of Wales, south-west and south-east England and the West Midlands.
Some surface water flooding is likely because of the widely saturated ground, and a few homes and businesses could flood, it said.
Meanwhile, Aberdeen has seen no sunshine for two weeks – the longest period for the area since records began in 1957, with the gloom set to continue.
Another yellow warning is in place for Northern Ireland from midday Thursday to midnight on Friday, and a snow warning is active from 3pm Thursday to 3am Friday across parts of the East Midlands, north-east and north-west England and Yorkshire.
Met Office operational meteorologist Dan Stroud said: “Unfortunately, there’s no end in sight.”
The rain in January in the south-west region was the 12th highest on record.
Another band of rain in the south west will travel northwards on Friday with heavy bursts, he said.
Heavy showers will continue in the south on Saturday morning before they gradually push up into Wales and the Midlands.
At the same time, persistent cloud and rain will continue to beleaguer eastern Scotland including Aberdeen.
Some brightness will break through on Saturday for parts of East Anglia, the south-east and possible west Scotland.
Sunday should be a slightly drier day for those that are not in the southern and western parts of the UK, who will see yet another band of rain arrive.
Mr Stroud said: “Very little in the way of change, and the reason for it really is that we’ve got a big area of high pressure way out to the far north and east of the country and that’s stopping areas of low pressure from moving through.
“Until that area of high pressure sort of shifts out of the way, we’re not really going to see much of a change in the forecast.
“At the same time, we’ve got the jet stream way to the south, bringing exceptional wet weather to Spain and Portugal.”
The yellow warning in parts of England and Wales predicts 20-30mm of rain with some higher ground areas seeing more than 50mm.
Journey times and transport services will likely be affected and power supplies may also briefly be interrupted.
Bookmark popover
Removed from bookmarks