Climate
The Lake District's location on the north west coast of England, coupled with its mountainous geography, makes it the dampest part of England. The UK Met Office reports average annual precipitation of more than 2,000 millimetres (80 in), but with very large local variation. Although the entire region receives above average rainfall, there is a wide disparity between the amount of rainfall in the western and eastern lakes. Lake District has relief rainfall. Seathwaite in Borrowdale is the wettest inhabited place in England with an average of 3,300 millimetres (130 in) of rain a year, while nearby Sprinkling Tarn is even wetter, recording over 5,000 millimetres (200 in) per year; by contrast, Keswick, at the end of Borrowdale receives 1,470 millimetres (60 in) per year, and Penrith (just outside the Lake District) only 870 millimetres (30 in). March to June tend to be the driest months, with October to January the wettest, but at low levels there is relatively little difference between months.
Although sheltered valleys experience gales on an average of only five days a year, the Lake District is generally very windy with the coastal areas having 20 days of gales, and the fell tops around 100 days of gales per year. The maritime climate means that the Lake District experiences relatively moderate temperature variations through the year. Mean temperature in the valleys ranges from about 3 °C (37 °F) in January to around 15 °C (59 °F) in July. (By comparison, Moscow, at the same latitude, ranges from −10 °C to 19 °C/14 °F to 66 °F).
The relatively low height of most of the fells means that, while snow is expected during the winter, they can be free of snow at any time of the year. Normally, significant snow fall only occurs between November and April. On average, snow falls on Helvellyn 67 days per year. During the year, valleys typically experience 20 days with snow falling, a further 200 wet days, and 145 dry days. Hill fog is common at any time of year, and the fells average only around 2.5 hours of sunshine per day, increasing to around 4.1 hours per day on the coastal plains.
| Climate data for Newton Rigg, Penrith, Cumbria | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C | 5.7 | 6.2 | 8.3 | 11.1 | 14.9 | 17.2 | 19.4 | 18.9 | 15.8 | 12.3 | 8.4 | 6.5 | 12.1 |
| Average low °C | 0.4 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 5.4 | 8.4 | 10.5 | 10.1 | 8.2 | 5.7 | 2.7 | 1.1 | 4.9 |
| Rainfall mm | 103.1 | 72.6 | 76.9 | 50.4 | 54.9 | 56.0 | 62.1 | 69.6 | 77.0 | 97.1 | 101.0 | 108.5 | 929.2 |
| Average high °F | 42.3 | 43.2 | 46.9 | 52.0 | 58.8 | 63.0 | 66.9 | 66.0 | 60.4 | 54.1 | 47.1 | 43.7 | {{{year high F}}} |
| Average low °F | 32.7 | 33.3 | 35.6 | 37.4 | 41.7 | 47.1 | 50.9 | 50.2 | 46.8 | 42.3 | 36.9 | 34.0 | {{{year low F}}} |
| Rainfall inches | 4.059 | 2.858 | 3.028 | 1.984 | 2.161 | 2.205 | 2.445 | 2.74 | 3.031 | 3.823 | 3.976 | 4.272 | 36.583 |
| Avg. rainy days | 15.0 | 10.9 | 13.9 | 10.3 | 10.2 | 10.6 | 10.7 | 11.4 | 12.4 | 14.1 | 15.1 | 14.8 | 149.4 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 36.3 | 55.4 | 89.9 | 130.8 | 175.2 | 168.0 | 166.2 | 149.7 | 113.7 | 79.4 | 45.6 | 33.2 | 1,243.2 |
| Source: | |||||||||||||
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