However research is beginning to show that days of particularly heavy rainfall have become more common in Britain since the early 1960s. The analysis is still in the preliminary stages but the apparent trend in Britain mirrors increases in extreme rain seen in other parts of the world.

 

The study on extreme rain is based on statistics from the National Climate Information Centre, the UK’s official climate record.

 

But what is extreme rain? It’s defined as the sort of downpour you would expect to see once every 100 days.

 

There are big swings in rainfall from year to year, but the overall trend is upwards since 1960. Last year, for example, extreme rain fell once every 70 days.

 

So could be a good time to invest in some new waterproof trousers as we could be heading for an overall wetter climate! But as the increase is only a warming of 0.7C and the atmosphere can hold an additional 4% of moisture, maybe not time yet to start building that Ark