UMBRELLAS were a much-needed commodity in November with an Old Storridge weather station logging record-breaking rain fall.

In fact, it rained every single day in November, except the last, making 119.1mm of rainfall in total.

Garth Lowe, who runs an official Met Office rainfall station, measures rainfall levels at 9am every morning.

He said: “With two days rain at the end of October it made it a run of 31 consecutive days with measurable precipitation.

“This is a very rare occurrence in this part of the country. From the records similar wet months were May 1983 with four dry days, January 1988 with three and November 1997 with five. All these three months had over four inches of rain but not consecutive days.”

Mr Lowe said it was fortunate the rain fell steadily throughout the month, meaning rivers were able to cope without flooding.

Regular weather watcher for the Gazette, Frank Hill, said: “November was a wet and mild month. Of particular note was that rain fell on every day but one, which has not occurred in any month for at least 30 years.”