April was the wettest in Oxford since records began (From Oxford Mail)

April was the wettest in Oxford since records began

7:00am Saturday 5th May 2012 in Oxford

WEATHER researchers at Oxford University said their latest data has revealed Oxford experienced the wettest April on record this year.

According to staff at the Radcliffe Meteorological Station at Green Templeton College in Woodstock Road, the city has experienced the wettest April since rainfall data was first collected in 1767.

Their data showed that 142mm fell in Oxford last month, three times more than usual.

This is higher than the Met Office reading of 128.6mm for the whole county last month, the second wettest April on record for the county. It said the highest rainfall figure for the county was 142.6mm in 2000.

Radcliffe station observer Helen Pearce, a doctoral student at the University’s School of Geography and the Environment, said: “I empty a rain gauge into a measuring tube at exactly the same time each day of the year and read the temperatures off various thermometers recording the maximum and minimum temperatures in the preceding 24 hours.

“Our readings go further back than any other data in the UK, including that reported by the Met Office.”

The Environment Agency has lifted Flood Alerts on the River Ock from Watchfield to Abingdon and on the Letcombe Brook through Wantage, Grove and East Hanney. But alerts remain along the Thames, Evenlode, Thame, Ray and the Cherwell between Lower Heyford and Oxford.

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