By Andy Hirst

Huddersfield is the third rainiest place in the UK, according to new statistics.

We know Huddersfield can be wet but certainly didn’t know it’s this rainy as the survey based on Met Office statistics ranks Huddersfield just below Cardiff and Glasgow as the soggiest place to live.

What makes it even more irritating is that Manchester and Leeds didn’t even make the top 20.

The data has been compiled by shower company Showers To You (https://www.showerstoyou.co.uk/) and this is how they worked it out.

Using Met Office data they took the average amount of annual rainfall for each city or town in the UK that has a population of over 100,000 and divided it by 12 to find the average amount of rainfall each month. Similarly, the annual number of days of rainfall for each city was divided by 12, to find out the monthly average of days of rainfall.

It put Cardiff as the rainiest city with Glasgow second and Huddersfield the top-rated town in third.

Cardiff has an average of 96mm of rainfall each month and its resident can expect an average of 12.4 days of rain each month.

Just behind is Glasgow with an average of 94mm of rain falling monthly on 14.2 days each month – the most of all UK cities.

And here we are with Huddersfield in third with an average of 86mm of rain every month and we have to accept it rains here for at least 12.8 days each month.

The ironic thing is most people in Huddersfield probably think it rains far more than these statistics suggest.

But it may also be why anti-flooding companies such as FloodSax (http://www.floodsax.co.uk/)  alternative sandbags are based in Huddersfield yet sell worldwide.

The only other place in Yorkshire to make the top 20 is Sheffield, in at 12 with an average monthly rainfall of 69.6mm and 11 rainy days a month.

Manchester seems to have swerved the list as Stockport comes in at number 8 with an average monthly rainfall of 72.6mm and rain falling on 12.6 days each month.

Hastings in Sussex is the driest in the top 20 with 63mm or rain a month and 10 rainy days.

Most surprising of all is that Showers To You reckon the south is wetter than the north.

The company states: “Taking the lead as the rainiest UK region is the south west of England with five cities – Plymouth, Cheltenham, Bournemouth, Bristol and Exeter – deemed the wettest areas of the UK and in the top 20. 

“In second place with four cities making up the top 20 is the south east of England. Representing this region from the top 20 are High Wycombe, Eastbourne, Southampton and Hastings.

“With three places and in third place is the north west as Blackpool, Stockport and Liverpool make the top 20.”

So it’s looking more and more likely that this Huddersfield result is somewhat freakish.

The top 20 is:

1. Cardiff

2. Glasgow

3. Huddersfield

4. Plymouth

5. Swansea

6. Belfast

7. Blackpool

8. Stockport

9. Cheltenham

10. Liverpool

11. Sheffield

12. Bournemouth

13. Aberdeen

14. High Wycombe

15. Bristol

16. Coventry

17. Eastbourne

18. Exeter

19. Southampton

20. Hastings 

* Written by former Huddersfield Examiner Head of Content ANDY HIRST who now runs his own Huddersfield-based agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging and copywriting for business in Yorkshire and across the UK.