Story · Environment map · about 3 min
The wettest, sunniest, coldest: Britain's weather extremes in 2024
Every 1 km square of Great Britain has a year of weather. These are the squares that came out on top, and what sets them apart from the rest.
Wet and dry: 5,554 mm against 490 mm
The wettest square of 2024 sat by Green Gable in the Lake District, with 5,554 mm of rain. The driest, by Cupid's Corner on the Essex coast, had 490 mm; the wettest had 11.3 times as much. Hills squeeze the rain out of Atlantic air as it is pushed upwards and cools, so the western uplands get the most, and the east is left in their rain shadow.
Sun: 1,939 hours against 669
The sunniest square got 1,939 hours of sunshine, at Southwell on the Isle of Portland, on the Dorset coast. The dullest, on Ben Nevis, got only 669. Ben Nevis is Britain's highest mountain, and cloud clings to its top for much of the year; the south coast, in the sun and the sea air, comes out well ahead.
Warm and cold: 12.9 °C against 1.9 °C
The warmest square, by The Borough in central London, averaged 12.9 °C across 2024; the coldest, by Stob Coire Sputan Dearg high in the Cairngorms, averaged 1.9 °C. That is a gap of 11.0 °C on one island. Air cools by roughly 6 °C for every kilometre you climb, and a city's buildings and traffic hold heat, so height and towns stretch the range from both ends.
Frost and snow: 144 days and 42 days
Ground frost struck 144 days of 2024 at the frostiest square, by Gorton Hill in the north-east Highlands. Snow lay on the ground for 42 days at the snowiest, by Beinn Bhrotain in the Cairngorms. Both layers are on: frost is a night-time event that follows cold hollows, and snow lying follows height.
Wind: 16.2 m/s against 1.2 m/s
The windiest square averaged 16.2 m/s over the year, on Carnedd Llewelyn in Snowdonia; the calmest, by Creag Dhubh in the Scottish Highlands, just 1.2 m/s. A word of care about all ten records: they are estimates interpolated from weather stations onto a 1 km grid, and there are few stations on summits, so the true peaks could be a little different.
For classrooms and curious minds
Questions to talk about, alone or in a group.
- Why do the wettest and driest squares sit so far apart, when the weather moves across the whole country?
- Which of these extremes would you expect to change most if the climate keeps warming?
Try it on the map: Switch on the rainfall layer and look for the pale squares just east of the wettest hills. What is happening to the rain there?
The figures above are calculated from the datasets listed on Data & sources and are approximate: many map layers are modelled or interpolated. Read each layer’s caveats on the map.