The village where it hasn't stopped raining for 82 days

Photo / File

If you have dared to complain that it's too hot, spare a thought for a village in west Wales - where incredibly, it has rained every day since October.

The 700 residents of Eglwyswrw have put up with some form of rainfall - from light showers to more torrential drenchings - for 81 days on the trot.

Although not a British record - that was set in 1923 when the Isle of Islay, in the inner Hebrides, had 89 days of rain - it is the longest spell of consecutive wet weather in the area for more than 92 years.

Yesterday stoic locals in the Pembrokeshire village said they were used to braving poor weather, but some admitted the "biblical" rain had begun to get them down.

Fortunately, today could mark a change in their luck, with forecasters predicting no rain for the first time since October 26. Councillor and farmer John Davies, 52, said villagers will "hold a party" if the rain does actually stop.

He was forced to bring his sheep indoors early after many developed wool rot because their fleeces couldn't dry out between showers.

"We've had rain of biblical proportions," he said.

"It's poured down for 80 days and nights, so by that reckoning we would need two arks."

"We are pretty hardy, spirited people in this part of west Wales, but it is grinding people down both physically and psychologically?...?I've never seen the ground as saturated as it is now."

Brian Llewellyn, who runs the local garage and shop, added: "It's starting to hit people in their pockets, you can't get any work done.

"Farmers, builders and fencing contractors have all been hit. I sell wellington boots and umbrellas but it rains so much here everyone's already got them."

One family only moved to the village on November 15 - and have yet to experience a dry day.
Mother Sarah-Jane Absalom, 44, said: "I hope the locals don't think I'm the wicked witch of the East and have brought this terrible weather with me."

The music teacher, who lives with electrician husband Joe, 50, and children Hugo, five, and Verity, three, added: "The day we moved in it was torrential and persistent, we were literally soaked to the skin. Since then that's the way it has continued."

The only silver lining is that Eglwswrw, about 12 miles from Fishguard, stands 423ft above sea level and so never floods. The Met Office noted that the weather station closest to the village, at Whitechurch, has recorded at least 0.2mm of rain - the level denoting a "rainy day" - for the past 81 days.

But meteorologist Emma Sharples said: "That sequence could be broken today. It looks like it will be the first entirely dry day there since October, although there is still is a risk of a few showers."

She said warm, moist air blowing up from the south was to blame for the village's rainfall, adding: "The direction of the wind has been key - the Pembrokeshire coast is the first point at which the rain-bearing clouds meet the land."

- Daily Mail