10 hours ago
The record-breaking day when 'two week's worth of rain' fell in five minutes
The conditions this summer so far have been a bit mixed.
We had an absolutely blazing hot May, but June has failed to live up to the previous month's heat; instead providing some much-needed rain.
With many Lancastrians planning UK-based getaways this summer, whether we'll get a warm or a wet season is the key question which could make or break their holiday.
But, during one day, many summers ago, a new meaning of rainy was etched into the minds of locals in one of our towns.
August 10, 1893, is nearly 133 years ago.
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Queen Victoria was on the throne, the average life expectancy was around 46 years old, and Wolverhampton Wanderers had just won the FA Cup at Manchester's Fallowfield Stadium in front of 60,000 fans.
On that day in Preston, though, you'd have been foolish to be out in the open.
The Lancashire Daily Post reported at the time, that at around 4pm, a storm so heavy that it made it impossible to see the other end of the street hit the county.
All traffic was suspended for as long as 20 minutes, when, in a burst of rain, thunder, and lightning, a record-breaking five minutes occurred.
That afternoon, over the rainiest five minutes in British history, approximately 32 millimetres - 1.3 inches - of rainfall descended from the clouds.
To put that into context, 40mm of rain in 24 hours would be considered a significant amount of rain.
For further context, the Met Office's recent data from its station in the Ribble Valley states only 65.44mm in total falls throughout the whole of April on average.
Unsurprisingly, it's not the only rain-related record our county has; over 90 minutes, 4.6 inches - 117mm - of rain fell in Dunsop Valley on August 8, 1967.
So this summer, if we get the odd rainy day and you're standing looking out your window while water droplets scurry down, it could be worse.
At least you weren't caught out in the open on that day in 1893.
