Why Does It Rain So Much In The UK?

So I’ve lived in the UK all my life and I’ve always asked myself the question “Why is it always so rainy?”

Now in my head, this was sort of a rhetorical question. It’s rainy because it’s the UK and the UK is rainy.

But is the UK actually that rainy?

Firstly, yes... Yes, it is. But secondly when I looked into it, according to the World Bank there are 73 other countries that have higher Average precipitation in mm depth per year. Some of these countries include: Bangladesh, Jamaica, New Zealand, Japan, Switzerland, Norway and Peru.

These statistics however don’t actually take into account how often it rains, however. For example, if it rains heavily in one country for a week out of the year and only rains lightly in another for 16 weeks out of the year it’s possible that the one with heavy rains might have a higher Average precipitation depth in mm.

But why does it rain so much in the UK? It turns out this is because of something known as the Gulf Stream.

The Gulf Stream is a warm and swift Atlantic Ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and stretches to the tip of Florida and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States.

This warm current carries on through the Atlantic until it reaches the west coast of Europe. In the summer this is a pretty good thing actually because it brings with it some warmer weather. In the winter, however… Warm water evaporates faster than cool water and considering that the UK is surrounded by seas it becomes evident why there is so much rain.

So next time it’s raining and you’ve forgotten your umbrella. You can thank the Mexican gulf for getting you all cold and wet. Well actually no it's completely our fault that we’re cold but you can definitely blame it for being wet.

Thanks to George Morina for a lot of the footage used:

[KCKFC]

Thailand in the monsoon season is somehow not on a list, there are like 100km diameter huge lightning storms that last for like 4 hours every day

[theflyinghamster]

I returned home back to the UK in November 2023, and moved into the house I bought in January 2024, since iv arrived here it’s never stopped raining !!! I’m done, I’m putting the house back on the market and returning back Iv lived and worked in many countries, but this has been the most miserable depressing weather iv ever experienced!!!!

[frankd]

i would guess it has to do with water temperature and air currents and being an island stuck between arctic / european and the carribean water currents
warm waters come from caribbean and hit arctic air temperatures. along with variables of plumes from russia, africa/m east and arctic.
then there is volcanic dust from iceland also
uk is much milder than any other region at the same latitude
gulf strean and the atlantic conveyor

[MmmHuggles]

I absolutely love long cool rainy days. I would love the English weather for sure. Too bad I'm over in the USA in an area where long cool rainy days are super rare.

[Monaco-oo]

I live in the UK. Every fucking single day it rains. When I am wet, i always blame myself for staying here.

[dustinpoirier]

move to bali, perfect weather, beautiful island

[danhutchinsonbackup]

I live in England. I hate it because it's soo rainy and cold and I just wanna move to a warmer part of the world. I can't wait for my next holiday because then I'll be out of the uk again

[neilhallberg]

If this is the expaination, can someone tell me why the UK's weather is profoundly more wet than i remember growing up, yes we had snow it winter? I haven't seen anything much of it for 20 yrs maybe more and the rain, more frequent and heavy, again profoundly different than the 70s. Lets have the real reason. Global warming ? Maybe ... Seeding?, Scalar weather modification? Radar.

[jamesmatheson]

The reason why it rains in the UK is because of its elevation and if you put a 6 km ball in the water the clouds would attract to the highest point and it would pull all the clouds towards the 6 km ball and it would rain on top of the 6 km ball. It doesn't have to be 6 km the reason why I say 6 km is because that is the highest point generally speaking that is required in order for the clouds to turn into snow and for the snow to make freshwater but if you made it 3 km the rain would go towards the highest point and it would rain on top of the inflated ball. Clouds attract to the highest point which is Mountains and the reason why it doesn't rain a lot in Hawaii is because they have more Mountains

[amielraguero]

Same here in the Philippines, Philippine Weather is like UK too, unpredictable weather and frequent rains, but the difference is UK is way colder than Philippines.

[ricardo-lqbqppl]

I live in Norfolk, England. It certainly doesn't rain here very much. Maybe in the Northwest but not in the Southeast. We get about 25 inches of rain per year.

[GWAYGWAY]

It doesn’t help that they are aerial spraying various chemicals that seed the clouds and have done for many years now.

[Wxlfee]

Quality upload, could do with some light background music.

[redliv]

I love it when it rains. It’s a blessing, this land is blessed 😌

[Jasmine]

This applies to the Summer of 2024: Maybe God is crying due to the senseless murders of innocent people!

[nigelash]

Yes it does rain a lot there. when My Friend was there it rained about half the time he was there. by the time he was about to leave back to usa the sun came out a litttle bid. I did not see the sun that much when I was there

[gourmand]

What major cities would you say has the most amount of rainy days throughout the year? Is London in the top 10?

[abusalehthecameraman]

Ah yes blame Mexico, how can we build that wall ?

[edwardjames]

rain fall has increased dramatically in the last ten years

[stuartrobertson]

Some person said it's the windmills pulling the air in the atmosphere that's why Texas is in a drought the windmill are disturbing the atmosphere shut them all down plant trees back up on the hills and hillsides where they belong if you know your geography as they act as filters not digging up new ground