March 1981: Very Wet

[Weather-history]

March 1981 is a forgotten month despite being the 2nd wettest March ever recorded for England and Wales with 160.4mm. Only 1947 was wetter in the record books going back to 1766.

It was a cyclonic month with frequent depressions.

The 9th and the 21st were especially wet days with a number of stations in England and Wales recording the wettest day of the month on these dates.

% of March rainfall average for these stations.

Heathrow: 233%

Lowestoft: 208%

Rhoose: 274%

Plymouth: 231%

Valley: 298%

Manchester: 290%

Finningley: 286%

Abbotsinch: 223%

Dyce: 182%

Aldegrove: 202%

For Scotland and Northern Ireland, it is lower down in the ranking for wetness but nevertheless it was a really wet March.

An exceptional month south of the Border but has faded into oblivion unlike other notably wet months

[Gavin P]

Thanks Kevin.

March is frequently one of the driest months of the year, so this must have been quite surprising.

[Terminal Moraine]

Yes, this was also the wettest March I've recorded with 176.4 mm here and 37.7mm on the 21st being the wettest March day on my records back to 1964.

March 1988 was also very wet with 164.6 mm, in fact with the exception of three dryish Marches from 1983-85 every March from 1979 to 1989 was wet.

[Summer8906]

I guess it's a good time to bump this one; I've mentioned March 1981 a couple of times but are we likely to equal or even exceed that month this year?

[Terminal Moraine]

135.0 mm here up to 0900 today so it would have to a wet final week to exceed 1981 which still holds the record as the wettest March. 2018 and 2019 came reasonably close with 166.1 mm and 155.2 mm respectively.

[Weather-history]

 

    

[reef]

March 1981 was the wettest here at 125.8mm. The second placed March was 1999 but over 30mm lower with 94.3mm.

2023 is currently 4th at 81.2mm, just behind 2018 which had 83.2mm.

As TM mentioned above (12 years ago!), March 1980 to 1989 were all wetter than average months, five of which were >150%.

[cheeky_monkey]

i don't even remember March 1981...April 1981 i remember very well which is odd

[Summer8906]

19 hours ago, cheeky_monkey said:

i don't even remember March 1981...April 1981 i remember very well which is odd

Strangely I don't remember the weather much either, but perhaps my expectations of March weather were very low at the time. Just two memories, one of Pancake Day, and one of the final Sunday (when the clocks changed), and both were dull and wet.

In addition to most of the 80s (though March 1983 and 1986 were both dry in the South East/Central South region according to the Monthly Weather Report), it looks like the Marches of 1978, 1979 and 1980 were all varying degrees of dull and wet, so when March 1981 came along, it didn't stand out so much. Really a very long streak of poor Marches, in that case, and a sharp contrast to the period from 1990-2014 which featured several warm, sunny examples.

I do remember quite a few Sundays in either March or April which were cloudy, dry and slightly warm but looking at the charts these must have been in April.

I also have many memories of the preceding, very sunny winter.

Edited March 31, 2023 by Summer8906