The data
We asked the Open-Meteo historical forecast service for hourly precipitation from the Met Office UKV model, which runs on a grid of about 2 km over the UK, for every hour from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2025 in UK local time. That is 731 days and 17,544 hours per town, 1,754,400 readings across 100 towns. Each value is the rain that fell in the hour ending at its timestamp, to the nearest 0.1 mm.
We chose the UKV model over the coarser global reanalyses because heavy rain is short and local; a 30 km grid smears a sharp shower into a long drizzle. As a check we pulled 2024 for London Heathrow from both: the UKV model gave 759 mm and 110 days with 1 mm or more, while the 31 km reanalysis gave 852 mm spread over 146 such days. The finer model keeps showers short and sharp, which is what a count of dry working days and heavy hours needs.
The towns
The 100 towns sit in 10 groups of counties, from Cornwall to Northumberland. Each was placed at its town centre by the Open-Meteo geocoder and checked by hand; a few names with namesakes elsewhere were set by hand. None of them overlaps with towns covered on our sister sites. Rain at a town centre is a fair guide to its suburbs, but hills and coasts can change things within a few kilometres.
How each hour is counted
| Measure | Rule | Where the threshold comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Dry working day | Under 0.2 mm of rain in total between 8am and 4pm | Met Office rain day threshold (0.2 mm), applied to working hours |
| Noise night | At least one hour of 0.5 mm or more between 11pm and 7am | Met Office moderate rain band; night as in the EU noise directive |
| Downpour night | At least one hour over 4 mm between 11pm and 7am | Met Office heavy rain band |
| Heavy rain hour | An hour with more than 4 mm | Met Office: heavy rain is over 4 mm an hour |
| Moderate rain hour | 0.5 to 4 mm in the hour | Met Office: moderate rain is 0.5 to 4 mm an hour |
| Light rain hour | 0.1 to under 0.5 mm in the hour | Met Office: slight rain is under 0.5 mm an hour |
| Wet day | 1 mm or more in the day | The Met Office climate average convention |
Yearly figures are the average of 2024 and 2025. Month figures average the two Januarys, the two Februarys and so on. The night that begins on 31 December 2025 runs into 2026, which we do not have, so that one night is left out.
The sound figures
Rain noise numbers come from published laboratory tests, not from our weather data. BRE measured 25 mm polycarbonate at 64.6 dB and double glazed laminated roof glass at 52.0 dB under artificial heavy rain of 40 mm an hour (Information Paper IP 2/06). A 2026 Forum Acusticum study measured a laminated roof window at 52.5 dB. A University of Liverpool study (Hopkins and Yu) gives the offsets we use to estimate natural rain: about 2.7 dB below the lab for natural heavy rain and 18.9 dB below for moderate rain.
- ETFE pillow roof, lab heavy rainBRE68.7 dB
- 25 mm polycarbonate, lab heavy rainBRE64.6 dB
- Polycarbonate, natural heavy rain (estimate)BRE, Liverpool61.9 dB
- Roof window, laminated double glazing, lab heavy rainForum Acusticum52.5 dB
- Double glazed roof glass, lab heavy rainBRE52.0 dB
- Polycarbonate, natural moderate rain (estimate)BRE, Liverpool45.7 dB
- Glass, natural moderate rain (estimate)BRE, Liverpool33.1 dB
- 75 mm aluminium panel roofNo published testNo published figuren/a
- Vacuum cleanerNIDCD70 dB
- Normal conversationNIDCD50 to 65 dB
- Fridge hummingNIDCD40 dB
- WhisperNIDCD30 dB
- WHO: single noises in a bedroom at night, not aboveWHO45 dB
- WHO: bedroom average through the night, not aboveWHO30 dB
Roof figures are A-weighted sound intensity levels from laboratory rain at 40 mm an hour (BRE IP 2/06 and a 2026 Forum Acusticum study). Natural rain estimates apply the University of Liverpool offsets (natural heavy rain 2.7 dB lower, moderate 18.9 dB lower). Everyday sounds and WHO guidance are sound pressure levels, shown for scale, not as a like for like comparison. Nobody has published a rain test for 75 mm aluminium skinned conservatory panels, and we have not measured ours.
We have found no published rain noise test for 75 mm aluminium skinned foam conservatory panels and we have not tested ours, so the panel roof has no figure anywhere on this site. An acoustic consultant's published estimate for industrial steel skinned insulated panels is 70 to 78 dB in lab heavy rain; that is a different product on a different building and we quote it only so the gap is visible.
What the numbers cannot tell you
- Model rain is not a gauge in your garden. The UKV model is good at timing and placing rain, less exact on the peak minute of a thunderstorm.
- Two years is a snapshot. 2024 was wet across much of England. The ranking between towns is sturdier than the totals.
- Hail, wind driven rain and drips from trees or a higher roof are not counted, and all of them change what you hear.
- Lab noise levels are sound intensity levels from a test rig, not the decibels at your ear. They compare roofs fairly; they do not predict your room.
Reuse and credit
The data is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Credit "One Dry Day rain ledger, from Open-Meteo / Met Office UKV data". Open-Meteo's own data is CC BY 4.0 too. The full table is noise-nights.csv, and every town's figures are on its own page via the town list.