IT will come as no surprise that this November was the wettest month of any in my 18 years of records here at Carlton, near Stokesley.

The accumulation represents getting on for three times the mean and marginally beats the 169mm (6.65in) measured in the previous soggiest month, which happened as recently as last April.

This, of course, follows my wettest October. These two months together made it not only the dampest autumn I've recorded, but the most sodden of any season, before adding the wet September's total on top. Over England and Wales as a whole, it was the wettest autumn for as long as reliable rainfall figures have been kept, since 1766.

Thursday, November 2, will be remembered by many for a long time. It was by far my wettest November day, with twice as much as the former record-holder, also the 2nd, in 1984, with 29mm (1.15in). A good month's rainfall fell in barely nine hours.

The ground was already completely saturated following the many sopping weeks prior to this, particularly the final four days of October, which themselves produced a month's ration of rain, including my wettest October day.

No wonder then, when such an intense, prolonged rainstorm followed, there was widespread flooding. The larger rivers were already at their topmost levels for 25 or even 40 years. With this latest deluge, it was inevitable that they would rise further.

Early on Saturday the 4th, the Ouse in York reached its highest for 400 years.

This inundation on the 2nd was truly remarkable. I've measured only three other greater falls in a day: 61.5mm (2.4in) descended on June 7, 1999, and 64mm (2.5in) fell on the June 25-26, 1986 (this was evenly split between two "official" meteorological days, which extends from 9am to 9am GMT, so does not rank in my list of "wettest days"). On both these occasions, the rain continued for the whole 24-hour period, so came down at a modest rate of about 2.5mm (0.1in) per hour.

In August 1993, 85mm (3.35in) tumbled down in just 18 hours on the 4th-5th, again spread over two official days, but with 62mm (2.45in) on the 4th, which is my wettest day. This downpour averaged almost 5mm (0.2in) per hour overall, still well short of the 6.5mm (0.25in) per hour intensity of the recent event.

All the three incidents mentioned took place in the summer when the ground was drier and could soak up much of the rain, releasing it slowly into the watercourses and limiting flooding.

Much higher rainfall intensities do arise in showers, especially in summer thunderstorms, when rates can exceed 50mm (2in) per hour. These rarely last longer than several minutes: the largest total in my data at Carlton in these circumstances is 49mm (almost 2in) in about three hours during the evening of the June 30, 1998.

In contrast, a whole day of slight drizzle can produce a mere couple of millimetres or so (about 0.1in).

Apart from the thundery instance, all of these were caused by active depressions. In August 1993 and this November, they passed straight over us. It is rare for these situations to give large falls as the clouds are on the move and the associated rain does not last more than several hours.

In the former, the heaviness of the deluge was due to the remnants of Hurricane Charlie being mixed in with the system; this time, the remains of a tropical storm were probably wrapped up in the low.

More often, as in the other two cases, and in what I call the "classic, wet-weather situation" for our region, prolonged heavy rain arises when the depression concerned becomes slow-moving in the southern North Sea. Positioned here, its rain-belts are enhanced by moisture from the sea and these are funnelled across us on the resulting north-easterly winds on the northern flank of the low.

This latter scenario was to arise a few days later, starting on Bonfire Night and lasting three days. It ensured rivers would remain extremely high for another week.

It also caused, early on the 7th, scarcely one week into the month, the rainfall tally to pass the 126mm (5.0in) of my previous wettest November, in 1984. However, after this spell, the weather returned to a more "normal" regime, still with depressions racing towards us across the Atlantic, but now mostly turning north to the west of the British Isles.

They were never very far away, resulting in another striking statistic for this month, in that the barometer never once rose above the norm. Even in such changeable periods there are generally a few ridges of high pressure between the fronts and depressions where the pressure does rise sufficiently to do this, albeit briefly.

Fronts continued to cross us regularly bringing spells of rain but in smaller quantities than earlier, except once or twice over the Pennines.

Nevertheless, records kept on falling: by the 19th, the month became my second wettest of any, and on the 29th, the wettest. The year's accumulation also became the greatest in my logs, exceeding the 812mm (32in) attained in 1993. This is not that amazing considering it now contains my two wettest months.

With south-westerlies dominating, temperatures were near normal. The warmest days and nights occurred during the last week as winds backed more southerly. Daytime temperatures tended to be lower in the first week, with some of that rain falling as snow on the hills.

One redeeming feature of November was that there were several pleasant days between the rain-belts, including the first weekend. So, as in October, it was quite sunny.

NOVEMBER TEMPERATURES

& RAINFALL at

CARLTON in CLEVELAND

Mean maximum: 8.8C, 48F, (+0.2C, +0.4F)

Mean minimum: 4.1C, 39.5F, (+0.4C, +0.7F)

Highest: 14.2C, 57.5F, 28th

Lowest: 0.3C, 32.5F, 15th

Total rainfall: 173mm, 6.8in, (+108mm, +4.3in)

Wettest day: 59mm, (2.3 in), 2nd

No of rain days, with 0.2mm (0.01in) or more: 20 (+3.5).

(Figures in brackets show the difference from the 17-year mean, 1983-99