The driest summer on record near Birmingham: just 35.8 mm of rain

Updated: 2026-07-31

The point of measurement closest to Birmingham is the Met Office station at Coton-in-the-Elms (Derbyshire) at 85 metres elevation, roughly 32.6 km away. These are its historical records, and while Birmingham's own weather can differ because of local factors – altitude differences, urban heat, valley sheltering – this is the best long-term reference we have for the area.

Think about what 35.8 mm means for a whole British summer. On a typical rainy day during a wetter season, a single downpour can drop several millimetres; in 1995, across three entire months – 92 days – the station recorded less rain than many winter storms bring in a single afternoon. The summer of 1995 is remembered across the Midlands for its long dry spell, and this reading from Coton-in-the-Elms puts it into stark perspective. The previous years had seen wetter conditions, and those that followed would not dip so low again for decades.

The record has not been beaten since 1995. More than thirty summers of data – through 2025 – have passed without a drier June-to-August period at this station. Even the famously warm summers that followed, with their own heatwaves and dry weeks, never matched the total of 35.8 mm across the full three-month meteorological summer.

How we measure a "dry summer"

The Met Office defines summer as the three months of June, July and August. Every day of precipitation recorded at the Coton-in-the-Elms station (Met Office identifier 00542) within those months is summed, giving a single total for each year. This is the standard metric for comparing how dry or wet a summer was. The smallest of those annual totals, over the period from 1991 to 2025, is the answer to the question of the driest summer on record.

A summer total of 35.8 mm is not just below average; it is exceptionally low. For context, a moderately wet month during winter at this station commonly exceeds that figure on its own. When the entire summer – all of June, July and August – produces only that much, it signals prolonged periods without rainfall, often accompanied by high pressure dominating the weather over the British Isles. That is precisely what happened in 1995, a year that remains a benchmark for summer dryness in the central England region.

What the data shows, year by year

The chart below tracks the summer rainfall total for each year in the record. You can see how 1995 stands apart, a clear dip that no other year has matched. The series begins in March 1991 and runs through to December 2025, giving us over three decades of continuous data from this station.

That single row is the complete outcome: one year, one total, the absolute driest. No other summer between 1991 and 2025 produced less than 35.8 mm. The fact that this record stands alone, more than three decades on, tells you how exceptional that summer was.

Why 1995 stands apart

For those who lived through it, summer 1995 is remembered for weeks of settled weather, clear skies and unusually high temperatures. The rainfall total at Coton-in-the-Elms confirms that from a precipitation perspective, it was not just a warm summer but an intensely dry one. The combination of high pressure and stable atmospheric conditions meant that rain-bearing fronts were kept at bay for long stretches.

This is not a borderline record – it is a clear outlier in the data. And because the series continues through 2025, we can state with confidence that no subsequent year has come close enough to take the title. Each passing summer that does not beat 35.8 mm only reinforces 1995's place at the top of the list.

Reading the record with care

The figures presented here come from the Met Office's official national weather station network, archived through the MIDAS system (Integrated Data Archive System) and held at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA), under the Open Government Licence. The station at Coton-in-the-Elms is not located within Birmingham itself; it sits about 32.6 km away in Derbyshire, at an elevation of 85 metres. While it serves as the most reliable measured reference for the city, local conditions in Birmingham – its urban heat island, for instance – can produce slightly different rainfall totals on any given day.

What the data cannot tell you is what fell on Birmingham's own streets in June of 1995. It tells you what was measured at the nearest official station, which is the best available proxy we have. For a truly local reading, you would need a dedicated station in the city centre, but for historical comparisons spanning decades, this series from Coton-in-the-Elms is the authoritative source.

What this means for planning and curiosity

If you are organising an outdoor event, planning a crop irrigation schedule, or simply wondering how today's summers compare with those of the past, the 1995 record offers a benchmark. A summer that dry means reservoirs under pressure, soil cracking, and a need for careful water management. It also means unbroken weeks of outdoor activity for most people.

The fact that the record has held since 1995 does not mean it will never be beaten. Climate series are long, and a single year can always surprise. But as of the end of the 2025 season, the answer to the question – what was the driest summer on record near Birmingham – remains the same: 1995, with 35.8 mm.

Source: Met Office MIDAS data, Coton-in-the-Elms station (Derbyshire), period 1991–2025.

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