England Had Wettest Year on Record in 2012, Met Office Says

England had its wettest year on record in 2012, the Met Office said, citing provisional figures.

About 1,096 millimeters (43 inches) of rain fell in England from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26, the most for any calendar year since records began in 1910, the national weather forecaster said on its website yesterday. Records were broken in northern and eastern England, the Midlands and east Anglia.

The U.K. had 1,291.2 millimeters of rain on average this year through Dec. 26, just 46 millimeters below the record set in 2000, the Met Office said. Temperatures and sunshine hours across the country were near normal in 2012, according to the report.

To contact the reporter on this story: Whitney McFerron in Chicago at wmcferron1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net