The phenomenally wet Autumn of 2000

[A Face like Thunder]

I remember some events vividly from that autumn, my first in South Cheshire. I had to return home early from a christening party on 28th or 29th October as flood water started to lap up against the back door of our new home (we put a drain in soon after). Going to work at Keele was a nightmare in my little Peugeot 106, and the only way I could persuade it to negotiate the floodwaters was to keep the manual choke fixed permanently on. I returned home from a funeral on the evening of 5th December and conditions on the M6 were horrendous. However the rain stopped as I arrived home and, although we didn't know it at the time, that was effectively the end of the flooding in the area.    

[Arch Stanton]

2 hours ago, Weather-history said:

Rainfall totals for England and Wales at the end of October to early November 2000 are eye opening

26th October-7th November 2000: 155.3mm!

 

Let's hope that we experiencing nothing like this again for a very long time

[SqueakheartLW]

The main reason for such a wet autumn 2000 was the active Atlantic coming up against a huge blocking high pressure to our east causing low pressure to get stuck over the UK for long periods of time with slow moving weather fronts but the wet period really started right back in 1998 with that washout summer 1998 which started off a generally wetter than average period with both wetter winters 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 with the close to average summer 1999 and summer 2000 was also wetter than average too.

That blocking high was going to play a part during the winter of 2000/2001 and March 2001 as well with some easterly shots bringing cold air in, particularly to more northern areas. Winter 2000/2001 I feel was a near miss winter like 2005/2006 was too. Both could have been a lot colder than they were if things had lined up just a little bit differently to what they did

[damianslaw]

5 hours ago, Weather-history said:

Rainfall totals for England and Wales at the end of October to early November 2000 are eye opening

26th October-7th November 2000: 155.3mm!

 

Yes a very wet one on the back of a rather wet summer. Remember a short northerly blast end of October. 

Not sure if Autumn 2015 beat it. 

[MP-R]

The insanely wet November and early December 2009 was like the mid September to mid December 2000 period on steroids.

[Weather-history]

There was a 7 day period, 27th October -2nd November 2000, where SW England and south Wales recorded 109.7mm and that's a regional total. 

[4wd]

It was crazily wet here late October 2000 too but no measuring in those days here. 2009 much less so nothing particularly unusual.
Several bridges were overtopped which has not been seen since or recalled before, however a spell in July early 30s was definitely worse with many bridges washed away - some still replaced by 'temporary' structures.
The final morning it became much colder before clearing -  with wet snow settling higher up and river levels rapidly fell.

Edited September 8, 2020 by 4wd

[SummerShower]

I remember this period well, was at university in Northampton at the time and travelled from Portsmouth back to university on Sunday 5th November and never seen so much flooding of both roads and fields.

I bet parts of winter 13/14 also came close in terms of rainfall totals though esp in the south.  Late dec and early feb were severe with groundwater flooding here in the latter month (and we are not near a river!)

Edited September 8, 2020 by SummerShower

[reef]

At the time this felt unbelievably wet even in this area. We had 296.3mm in total in Autumn 2000, which beat the previous wettest Autumn of 1993 by nearly 20mm.

But then came Autumn 2019...   437.4mm! All three Autumn months were substantially wetter than in 2000.

Sep 2000: 82.3mm
Oct 2000: 97.6mm
Nov 2000:  116.4mm

Sep 2019: 110.0mm - wettest since 1993
Oct 2019: 161.8mm - wettest on record
Nov 2019:  165.6mm - wettest on record

Just when you think something will be hard to beat!

Interestingly both Autumns 2000 and 2019 were followed by dry Decembers and Januarys but wet Februaries.

Edited September 8, 2020 by reef

[virtualsphere]

I remember Autumn 2000 as being very wet, I was learning to drive at the time and had to negotiate standing water on several occasions... interestingly I can see this thread was originally created in 2013 and I believe winter 2013/14 and possibly winter 2015/16 were just as wet if not wetter.  Autumn seems to have become drier after 2000 while winter seems to be getting wetter, especially since 2011.  Last Autumn was quite wet here, especially October, but nowhere near 2000 or both those winters.  

[Alexis]

On 09/09/2020 at 21:17, virtualsphere said:

I remember Autumn 2000 as being very wet, I was learning to drive at the time and had to negotiate standing water on several occasions... interestingly I can see this thread was originally created in 2013 and I believe winter 2013/14 and possibly winter 2015/16 were just as wet if not wetter.  Autumn seems to have become drier after 2000 while winter seems to be getting wetter, especially since 2011.  Last Autumn was quite wet here, especially October, but nowhere near 2000 or both those winters.  

Same here! The driving tester sent me up over some moors around here because the roads she usually used for her test route were flooded. Made it nice and easy because there were no other cars! Or junctions for that matter!

[I remember Atlantic 252]

On 08/09/2020 at 06:57, Weather-history said:

There was a 7 day period, 27th October -2nd November 2000, where SW England and south Wales recorded 109.7mm and that's a regional total. 

still remember surprisingly heavy wet snow on Mon 0ct 30th, higher levels like Flash must have had lots