When did it last rain in London?

How long since it rained in London?

There is no dry spell at the moment: it rained yesterday, and today is not over yet. London had rain on 5 of the last 7 days. The last dry spell of a week or more was 21 – 29 September 2026: 9 days.

Longest dry spells since 1989

A dry day here is one when fewer than two of our five gauges recorded 0.2 mm. Fifteen or more dry days in a row was once called an “absolute drought” in Britain.

London rain records since 1989

Longest dry spell

28 days

28 June – 25 July 2026

Longest run with no wet day

52 days

28 June – 18 August 2026 · no day with 1 mm or more at two gauges

Wettest day

58.0 mm

Friday 15 September 2000 · typical across London; 67.2 mm at Holland Park

Wettest month

156.0 mm

October 2020

Driest month

0.4 mm

July 2026

Wettest year

840 mm

2000

Driest year

410 mm

1996

Most rain days in a row

25 days

17 April – 11 May 2012

Rainfall records give the figure typical across London: the median of the gauges that got rain that day. A dry spell here ends on the first day two gauges catch 0.2 mm: on 26 July 2026 a brief shower at Hornsey and Wanstead (0.6 mm at most) ended a spell that would otherwise have run 50 days, 28 June – 16 August 2026. Our records start in 1989, when these gauges’ digital records begin. Longer records exist at Kew (since 1871); news reports in August 2026 described July 2026 as London’s first month without rain in about 150 years (at Kew); our gauges caught 0.4 mm, in one shower on 26 July.

Does it rain a lot in London?

Less than its reputation. Across 1991–2020 our gauges recorded 1 mm or more on about 116 days a year, roughly one day in 3, and a typical year brings about 604 mm. November is the wettest month and March the driest; 53% of days are dry by our rule.

When it does pour, London is good at indoor days. The big museums are free: the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the V&A (see all galleries and museums and more free things to do). Leadenhall Market and the Burlington Arcade are covered, and a black cab is easy to find in the rain: check the likely cost with our taxi fare calculator.

About this data

• London means five live Environment Agency rain gauges: Holland Park, Hornsey, Wanstead, Mitcham and Norwood. No gauge sits in the very centre.
• A rain day is a London calendar day (midnight to midnight) when at least two gauges recorded 0.2 mm or more. One gauge alone is a trace: it does not end a dry spell.
• Amounts are shown as the range across the gauges that got rain. The single London figure is the median of those gauges on a rain day, and of all reporting gauges on other days, so one storm cell or one faulty gauge cannot swing it.
• A gauge that reports no rain while its neighbours record a downpour, or more than five times theirs, is excluded for that day. A day when fewer than half of the gauges running at the time reported (and never fewer than two) has no data; a dry spell across it reads “at least”. Fewer gauges ran before 2003: Holland Park and Hornsey from 1989, Wanstead from June 1991, Mitcham from March 1995 and Norwood from March 2003. A gauge that catches almost nothing for days while its neighbours fill up is treated as blocked and excluded too.
• The Met Office counts days from 09:00 to 09:00, so an evening shower can fall on a different date in its figures and in the news. Readings reach us 30–60 minutes late, and the Environment Agency may revise the last few days.
• Rain gauges can’t measure snow (it is recorded only when it melts). For snow, see When did it last snow in London?