Dry year for Guernsey

Sunday 07 April 2019

The past year has been the driest on record for Guernsey over the last ten years.

Guernsey Water's most recent Water Supply Report shows 575.4mm of rain fell in Guernsey during the 12 month period ending in March 2019 - 31.4% lower than the climatic mean.

57.9mm fell over 18 days in March, which is 5% lower than the monthly seasonal average of the past decade and 14% lower than the longer term climatic mean of 67mm. We saw the most rain for the month on or around Sunday 3 March, which accounted for 18.8% of the monthly total.

The total rainfall for 2019 so far is 40% lower than the average that has been recorded over the past decade and is the second lowest total over the last ten years.

Pictured: Guernsey's rainfall in the 12 months up to the end of March 2019 was 31.4% lower than the climatic mean.

Although the volume of stored water is slightly below average at the moment, Guernsey Water said it is in a "healthy position". It has increased by 1.3% since the end of February and now stands at 98.86%, with more water collected from streams.

There were no reported incidents of flooding throughout March and the utility has said land drainage is "not a serious issue" at this time.